Latest "Organizational Strategy" Posts
Chief Executive Magazine (chiefexecutive.net) suggested that to become more strategic, you should do three things.
1. Understand what strategic means in your industry. “Executives need to study and understand the economics, psychology and laws of their industry and let that context guide their thinking. Notice I said “guide” not “limit”.
2. Tailored executive education courses can be beneficial. We took an indepth look at 20 different trends that would shape the industry in the next decade, discussing both the trend itself and the impact on supply of and demand for the organizations products and services.
3. Become expert at identifying potential disrupters. Examples include technological or manufacturing techniques. Cross cutting trends can upend value chains, transform industries and shift profit pools and competitive advantage.
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Posted in Organizational Strategy by Dr. Sarah Layton on August 27, 2012.
McKinsey Quarterly has an interesting article on the hidden flaws of corporate strategy. Here are the best reasons I have seen for why good executives support bad strategies. There are seven basic reasons. The authors relate these to a function of how our brains are wired. To read the complete article you can find it at the link below.
Flaw #1: Overconfidence. In our abilities; in our ability to make accurate estimates and other areas. To counter this overconfidence, test strategies under wider range of scenarios; add 20 – 25% to the most pessimistic scenario; and build more flexibility and options in to the corporate strategy.
Posted in Organizational Strategy, Strategic Planning by Dr. Sarah Layton on August 8, 2012.
Just finished reading the biography of Steve Jobs and the Zen of Steve Jobs. An interesting man who seemed tortured at times trying to find the meaning of life. Not known for his acts of kindness, yet he was driven to create products his market loved. A quick read with some lessons learned.
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Posted in Governance, Organizational Strategy by Dr. Sarah Layton on July 26, 2012.
Recently I was asked to comment on the question: Who is or should be responsible for Strategic Planning? Several people responded. Here is my response:
Of course I agree that the CEO is the ultimate decider of the final strategic plan. Strategy is the CEOs primary job and also one of the key areas of attention for the Board. While I agree with the philosophy of the other respondents, I don’t believe the responses take the issue of “who” to a deep enough level.
Posted in Governance, Organizational Strategy, Strategic Planning by Dr. Sarah Layton on November 11, 2011.
For me, 9-11 started like many other mornings. There was the usual mad dash to the airport to catch my flight to New York. I had been working a lot in New York and I knew the routine. I had a very busy day planned so I was anxious to get to LaGuardia and get started.
Posted in Governance, Organizational Strategy by Dr. Sarah Layton on September 11, 2011.
One of the questions I was asked recently is: “How can you be so sure that the tools of Blue Ocean Strategy® will result in lower cost and increased revenue?”
The short answer is that clients find and capitalize on a large hidden market opportunity that will grow their business when they know how to look for the opportunities. Remember, a consultant (at least this consultant) doesn’t come up with all the brilliant ideas. The client (YOU!) does when you know how and where to look for them.
Posted in Governance, Organizational Strategy by Dr. Sarah Layton on September 8, 2011.
In preparation for the opening keynote at the 2010 Confab meeting of professional management consultants, we asked about a thousand global business leaders to respond to an online survey about their use of and experience with management consultants. When over a hundred executives responded within a few hours, I knew I had hit a nerve.
Eighty three respondents out of 107 replied that they hire management consultants. They represent a broad range of industries from healthcare/pharma and financial services to manufacturing, retail and agriculture. Here are some of their comments, minus specific identifiers. They range in size from start-ups to about USD $120 Billion
Posted in Organizational Strategy by Dr. Sarah Layton on March 2, 2011.
Over the years, Corporate Strategy Institute has conducted regular CEO research to help us keep abreast of the major issues affecting our clients. It has never ceased to amaze us how many CEOs and Boards of Directors keep doing the same thing and expect different results.
Many CEOs and Boards do not know when to create a new strategy. Maybe asking yourself some critical questions will help. Answer the following questions True or False:
1. Is the growth on the top line insufficient with no reversal in sight?
2. Are your costs greater than the return on the investment?
Posted in Growth, Organizational Strategy, Strategic Planning by Dr. Sarah Layton on October 13, 2008.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and a reminder that we need to stop, take a breath, and at least once a year, count our blessings instead of whining about all the perceived imperfections in our lives.
As a poor kid growing up in Miami, I was always taught to be thankful, and to show gratitude for anything anyone did for me or gave to me. We take for granted so much in our lives. It is only when we lose something, like our health, that we realize how blessed we were when we had good health.
Posted in Governance, Growth, Organizational Strategy, Strategic Planning by Dr. Sarah Layton on November 21, 2007.
It takes creative thinking today and new strategy tools to move away from the competitive fray and into a blue ocean of value innovation where the revenue and profits are higher, the markets are unserved and the competition is nowhere in sight.
But what if you are a CEO raring to go with, say the Blue Ocean Strategy tools, ready to see if there is a Blue Ocean out there, or at least to make your bloody red ocean less competitive, and your team seems resistant, either actively or passively, to a move toward a new strategy that might advance the company past its current state of bloody competitive moves? Under those conditions, a CEO might be inclined to give up on innovation, feeling that maybe s/he is just too “out there” for his/her business/industry.
Posted in Governance, Growth, Organizational Strategy, Strategic Planning by Dr. Sarah Layton on November 5, 2007.
