· 9 min read · Jun 12, 2019
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I used to believe that strategy was a necessary component for success in business. We’ve been taught this in 50,000 books about strategy. We’ve looked to the military, been inspired by Sun Tzu, ogled the luminous foresight of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. We’ve been sold the desirability of disruptive innovation and the lustre of expensive consulting firms. Some of us have attended expensive business schools, and waded through the countless hours of intelligent insight that has been poured into business strategy.
If strategy is worthy of this pedestal, allow me to confront you with a simple question:
If strategy is crucial to the existence of a business, how come so many successful companies are awful at it?
I regularly interview leaders in the businesses that I work with to uncover the good and bad in their organisations. When I ask about their strategy and strategic management processes, the answers are strikingly similar;
“We don’t have a strategy”
“We have a strategy but we never follow it”
“We [the exec team] know what the strategy is, but no-one else in the company does”
“We spend months preparing for a strategic review, yet nothing ever comes of it”
How is it possible that so many companies that claim an absence of strategic leadership can not only survive, but be successful and respected businesses?
The answer that I have arrived at conflicts with everything that I havelearnedaboutbusiness. I present the simple and disturbing truth for your consideration; It is possible, and perhaps likely, for companies to succeed in the absence of strategy.
My long-standing belief has been that the ultimate goal for strategic management is the creation of a clear strategic plan that everyone in the business understands, and that plan drives the prioritisation of effort across the company.
I still believe this is true, and that great strategy will meaningfully differentiate those companies that possess it. I defer to the wisdom of those who…
