Terry's Blog

#Strategy Choices

Does your organization have a disciplined system in place to direct and guide your hard choices?

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#Strategy Focus

Sharpen the focus of your strategy and you will make your strategy more executable.

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Strategy

The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.  Therefore, the essence of execution is truly not doing it.

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Differentiate or Die

If there is no significant difference between you and your competitors, you are essentially in a stalemate, until one of you finds a way to differentiate yourself.

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#Data

Take advantage of patterns in the data.  That's where the opportunities reside.

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A Tale of Two Strategies

Small investment in employees leads to poor operational performance, which leads to lower financial performance, which leads to even lower investment in employees.  Healthy investment in employees contributes to operational excellence.  This results in higher sales and profits, which allows for greater investment in employees.

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Assumptions

What would be the effect on your business if your assumptions changed?  Which of these assumptions could you change that would radically alter your position in the industry? 

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#CompetitiveAdvantage

You can't beat your much bigger competitor at their own game - you have to outsmart them with a different approach.  So, ask yourself, "What is the exact opposite that the market leader would expect us to do?"

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#DecisionMaking

Paul Nutt, of the Ohio State University, analyzed 137 key decisions in as many North American companies and found that when only one course of action had been considered, 52% of the decisions resulted in failure.  By contrast, when just one alternative had been considered, the failure rate dropped to 32%.

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#Strategic Thinking

A simple reframing of options can significantly shift people's decisions.  Framing strategic questions to included the possibility of alternatives is an effective way to avoid an escalation of commitment to one course of action.

          * For advice you can quickly read and apply, go to: www.terrymckennabooks.com