Posted on August 01, 2012
Nick Binedell, Dean of the Gordon Institute of Business Science, told the audience at a GIBS Forum in Johannesburg last night that the current business environment is like “a fireworks display in slow motion”. In the current context, he said strategy is important for enabling businesses to make decisions and build a competitive advantage.
Tony Manning, an independent strategy design and execution consultant, said that as we are living in an extremely unpredictable, complex and ambiguous age, the most important skill of a good strategist is to be in tune with the context of the times.
“Strategists must be able to cut through the tidal wave of information we are confronted with on a daily basis in order to find insights. It is crucial to be in touch with the spirit of the times, or zeitgeist, and how people frame their realities, so as to be able to offer them new ways to do this.
“Quite simply, for business, strategy is the question of where and how you are going to compete. It is the smallest set of choices and decisions which enable you to make all the others,” he said.
Manning said many businesses had the misconception that if they simply have a strategy in place, they will be able to deal with changes in the market or business environment. However, he pointed out that when the financial crisis hit, many companies were faced with a totally different reality than what they had planned for on paper, which they then had to adjust to.
“Up to 60% to 90% of strategies don’t get implemented: Well-meaning executives cook up strategies with expensive consultants that don’t come true. Very few companies spend any time reviewing their strategies – they invent their way into the future, march forward, not doing quite what they intended, but without looking back. Strategy should be durable and it is important to constantly ask what has been learned.”
Capturing the learning, or knowledge gained in a situation as soon as possible and on a continuing basis is key for a company wanting to remain relevant, Manning explained: “You can try and plan for perfection, but perfection doesn’t exist. You need learning capability so that you can plan as you go”.
Manning said that in today’s complex world, companies must take stock of their basics or core competencies, plan how these can be used to their best advantage and be clear about their purpose.
Binedell explained that “good leaders are constantly destabilising their own companies all the time by asking the tough questions”. Successful businesses that become complacent in their success, stop asking difficult questions and stop adapting to external circumstances are destined for failure.
“No two battles are the same,” Binedell concluded, “you have to constantly reinvent how you fight.”
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