Week 5

Learnt – Understanding Strategy

• The purpose of business strategy is a set of beliefs about “how to win”.
• Every strategy has a clear objective and a clear plan.
• “The Art of War is simple; Everything is a matter of Execution”…Napoleon Bonaparte
• Strategy Equation : ST, O, C, P & F à If S, then R & SF @ Risk
• With the current situation and set objective, knowing the constraint, learnt from the past and belief in future, then if to implement this strategy, I would expect a result in future situation with a calculated risk.
• School of thoughts in strategy industry:
  1. “Design” school (John Kay and Kenneth Andrew) – design a fit between external and internal environment
  2. “Position” school (Michael Porter) – attractive industries and positions to shape and influence the industry
  3. “Intent” school (Gary Hamel & CK Prahalad) – use foresight to create intent, execute and meet objective
  4. “Execution/Excellence” School (Tom Peters and Jim Collins) – pick what need to be good at and do it
  5. “Futurology” school (Peter Schwartz) – anticipate and influence future changes
  6. “Structured Chaos” school (Kathleen Eisenhardt) – dynamically react to and shape opportunities
• Two fundalmental beliefs to solving problem:
  1. Belief of Predictability – How well can I predict future?
  2. Belief of Agency – How big a difference do I make?
  No clear model, important that we develop our own “mental model” on what works

Unlearn

• Implement a strategy without a clear objective and plan.
• When planned for a strategy, I did not think of the possible implications learnt from the industry school of thought. Best reflected business reality and most useful to me is “positioning”, “intent” and “futurology”.

Relearn

• As committed, I studied Chapter 1 & 2 on Understanding Strategy & Recognizing a Winning Business Strategy during weekend by using mind-map to enhance my knowledge.
• I applied and teach back my E-card project working team on solving problem using:
  1. Consider all factors
  2. Issue Tree Analysis
  3. Create Options/Alternatives
  4. Set criteria which can influence options
  5. Option selection matrix
• As for the coming next week meeting, I will commit to share on:
  6. Take a Decision – Choose option
  7. PMI – to improve decision
  8. Communicate Decision – Inductive or Deductive Reasoning