By John A. Warden III, CEO, Venturist Inc.
I entitled this blog “Strategic Thinking….” when we inaugurated this blog several weeks ago, but I never really clarified what I meant by Strategic Thinking. It is also clear that many think Strategic Thinking is an overused buzzword as this particular blog post discusses: Strategic Thinking: Don’t Buzzword-Phrase It!
I am not quite sure who Britney is in this context, but the discussion of the meaning of Strategic Thinking is interesting. Buzzword or not, here’s my framework for Strategic Thinking.
The Essence of Strategy—A Framework for Strategic Thinking
The idea that strategy can be boiled down to a simple four part framework seems too easy–strategy is hard isn’t it. Not really, at their core, sound strategies have four components and strategic thinking flourishes within this framework:
WHERE: Where do you want to be at some future point in time? That future state, when expressed in clear, compelling, desirable, measurable and agreed on statements is a beacon for success. Couple that future picture with a religiously applied: “Work back from the Future” approach to the development and application of tactics and you have a solid foundation for Strategic Thinking.
WHAT: What are you going to apply your resources against? We live and work in a world of complex systems with literally 1000’s of nodes and leverage points for change and no one has unlimited resources. Every enterprise must contend with both internal and external systems when formulating and executing their strategy. What are those internal and external leverage points, sometimes called Centers of Gravity, that will allow an organization or individual to apply limited resources to realize their future? A systems approach is essential for the Strategic Thinker to identify what to apply resources against.
HOW: How will you execute your strategy? This is not a catalog of individual tactical actions, but how the organization or yourself will position, manage, measure and orchestrate actions against the WHAT to achieve the WHERE. How will you leverage the “Time Value of Action” precept to improve your overall probability of success within your resource constraints? The Strategic Thinker understands that Strategy without a well thought-out, measured and integrated time component is not really a strategy at all.
EXIT: How will you deal with strategic mistakes, failure and successes? Not every strategic endeavor will go as planned, and historically everything ends, sometimes sooner than we hope. When fortunes, investments, livelihoods, reputations, survival, etc. are at stake, things get emotional. Emotion leads to less than rationale strategic actions. The Strategic Thinker knows this and good strategies leverage this by planning for these potential strategic mistakes, failures or successes at the beginning, not when they occur. When the WHERE, WHAT and HOW fail you, EXIT.
Although there is obviously much more detail behind this basic Strategic Thinking framework, it is my belief that strategy and strategic thinking can be boiled down to these four words: Where, What, How and Exit. In future posts, you will often hear me refer to these framework components in a variety of contemporary and historical contexts. My intent is to instill in my readers a sense of what real Strategic Thinking means.
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I always recommend a few books to people who approach me with questions about strategy. My essential list is:
The Art of War – Sun Tzu
The Prince – Niccolò Machiavelli
The Will to Power – Friedrich Nietzsche
On Strategy – BJ Liddell Hart