……Still on Business Strategy and Achieving Competitive Advantage.

Gary Hamel (one of the world’s thought leaders on the Strategy theme) clearly stated that ‘Strategic Planning is different from Business Strategising’. ‘To plan is not to create something new’ (how true!). Try to read the next sentence carefully and think about it. The objective of the revolutionary is to free the process from the tyranny of the past.
This basically is in sync with the Excellence Man, Tom Peter’s top-notch consulting advice in one of his recent presentations (in Johannesburg, SA) where he declared that Managers ought to hire crazies and unconventional people. You know what guys? I’ll just replicate the content of one of his slides below:

1. Ready. Fire! Aim.
2. If it ain’t broke ... Break it!
3. Hire crazies.
4. Ask dumb questions.
5. Pursue failure.
6. Lead, follow ... or get out of the way!
7. Spread confusion.
8. Ditch your office.
9. Read odd stuff. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY…..

10. Avoid moderation!

Now, don't you take this out of context but if you are the nice, orderly gentleman (or lady) who loves to maintain order and do stuff the normal good way (with respect to business and pressing constructive change through), you might just as well ignore this piece cause this ain’t for the faint at heart!
See what these legends and thought leaders have to say:
Do one thing every day that scares you. – Eleanor Roosevelt
Incrementalism is innovation’s worst enemy. – Nicholas Negroponte

Creative strategising in the global capital marketplace requires revolutionary thinking.
You’ve got to realise that the corporations and businesses in our world today are definitely one of these:

• Rule makers (General Electric, IBM, General Motors, Intel….): They tend to get comfortable and gradually experience creativity drought. Their perceived success eventually becomes their greatest undoing.
  
• Rule breakers (Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Toyota, Apple…..): They come from no-where and rewrite the rules. They could be referred to as disruptive innovators and are usually architects of industry transformation. You’d better be here if you intend to lead a meaningful and impacting life.
  
• Rule takers (me don’t want no trouble! you can figure examples out yourselves!) They accept whatever is being offered. They are content like sheep.
  
  The primary agenda for a business that means business is to be the architect of industry transformation, not just corporate-level transformation.
  Incrementalism, what most of us find comfortable is not innovation.
  Gary Hamel clarifies that Re engineering the Corporation (Classic business improvement manual by James Champy and Michael Hammer) is more about incremental changes than paradigm breaking. (BPR, 6 Sigma, Value Chain Analysis……e.t.c certainly do result in improvements and costs savings, sometimes quite significant but seems like the bar has been raised in the current highly deregulated and technology driven international markets)
  

Companies, organizations and entities that view change as being an internal matter are liable to be left behind as the pace of external change in our world has, and is still catching many unprepared, forcing them into oblivion and irrelevance. The forward thinking individual or business wouldn’t aim to meet up with the pace, but rather dictate the pace. Now, you would agree with me that it takes foresight, cutting-edge business strategy and most importantly, spirited execution and impact assessment to do that today.
In short, you’ve got one option, and that is to re-invent your industry!

These are other critical elements that have a direct impact on your organization’s overall effectiveness:

• Values & Ethics: These are the communal foundation and basis for all socio-economic activity. i.e… the cohesive bonds that hold social order. When they aren’t sacred, assertive and shared, you tend to experience inconsistencies that check quality and organic growth.
  
• An Articulated Cause: You must be able to conceptualize and crystallize ideas. Your Cause is what underpins your existence. It reflects what you believe in and determines your relevance to society. It explains how you fit into the bigger dream of regional economic prosperity and development. Normally, it should leverage on your position, uniqueness and inherent design and capabilities.
  
• Research, Collaboration and Strategic Partnerships: which of you embarks on a project without counting the costs first? The mind ought to be engaged vigorously (ATP: Analytical Productive Thinking. We are what we think, not what we eat – Walter Anderson. We must have foresight, and the ability to chart a course indented by specific actions and executions that lead us to the projected future-state. High selectivity in collaboration and partnerships is also paramount. How many emerging companies and great ideas have gone under just because they got in the wrong train!
  
• Mentoring, Coaching and Succession Planning: We are way past the era of the superstars and untouchables. If you get so good that no one else could attempt taking on your responsibilities, and you become aware of this and do nothing about it, you are practically what I call a shooting star and in the process, set up your organization for extinction. Organizations are set-up with persistence in mind (let’s ignore SPVs – Special Purpose Vehicles) meaning that they are designed to live and continue to grow. This is compromised when superstars litter and thrive in your organization. Their exit becomes the organization’s exit.
  
• Control and leverage: Would you volunteer to drive a car without controls, or perhaps fly in an airplane with the slightest control faults? When an organization lacks effective controls that are in sync with its strategy, such organization is inadvertently bracing up itself to join the greats viz: Enron, WorldCom, Cadbury…the list goes on.

Excerpts from Leadership the Goran Eriksson way, a book about the contemporary leadership style of the ex-England manager provides us with some insight into the cornerstones of effective business leadership in our world today. Here are the main points and distinctions from what previously obtained.

Features of the Old: charismatic, action oriented, idealistic, top-down structure, motivate thru fear and intimidation, task focussed, IQ, self confident (examples are Jack Welch – General Electric & Rupert Murdoch – Newscorp )

New leaders: understated, reflective, pragmatic, bottom-up, motivate thru reason and inspiration, relationship focussed, EQ, self awareness (examples are Richard Branson, Goran-Eriksson)

That does it for now folks! I hope we all continue to learn and APPLY these truths in our daily business and personal engagements. We’ve all still got ground to cover on our mission to becoming highly effective people, but the journey of a sextillion miles starts with a step. That leads me to the concept of doing, acting, executing….whatever name you choose o call it! Without this, we could all just have remained within the walls of those classrooms and training centres.