Be Your Own Strategy Consultant

So how can this be achieved? The first step is to become clearer about what strategies are, then we need to understand more fully why strategy is important.

We then examine how you can actually approach strategic thinking through a Do-It-Yourself approach.

So what is strategy?

Strategy has been defined as: "How you move from where you are now - and with competitive advantage." But this is somewhat dry. To be taken on board by practising managers, a more useful definition is perhaps (following the popular Blackadder TV programme): "Strategy is the cunning plan."

To illustrate how practical this idea of a "cunning plan" is, let us look at the example of Mr Deke Primo, who was travelling from Scotland to London. He queued for forty minutes for some food - which ran out. Instead of accepting this situation, as a natural strategist, he looked at what the environment could offer - in terms of opportunities and constraints, what his options were, how attractive these were, and how he might implement them. These features are the essence of strategy.

He came up with the idea of ordering a take-away Indian meal to be delivered en route to London at Peterborough. After a number of unsuccessful telephone calls to Indian restaurants in that area one agreed to supply this meal at £25 to arrive on schedule with the train.

Deke was successful in not only getting his take-away but received bids from other passengers for the food - for as much as £50.

When this story came up in my "Breakthrough Strategic Thinking" course, this gave me even more creative thinking; from "The Cunning Plan" to the "Stunning Plan". Stimulated by these discussions I wrote to the Chief Executive - developing these ideas into and suggesting possible businesses including:

• Take away orders at major station stops
  
• On-board curries - either by the train company or by a franchise.

Not only would this be a business in its own right but it might generate additional custom and help the brand appear innovative.

Not only was this issue strategic from Deke Primos point of view but also from the train company’s point of view of "what business we are in?"

If Deke can do strategic thinking why then can’t many managers? This might be for a number of reasons:

• Managers believe it to be complex: Strategic thinking can often be done without an elaborate or bureaucratic process - indeed too much bureaucratic process of the wrong kind can inhibit the creativity which is at its very core.

• Organisations often omit to think strategically even when the need to do so is staring them in the face.

• Managers do not know its potential value: getting the value out of strategic thinking sometimes doesn’t require deploying vast resources and effort.

• It also requires imagination, along with the willingness to tell stories about the future, which may or may not happen - scenarios which are a guide to further thought.

What is strategic thinking?

Strategic thinking can now be defined as being: "The stream of ideas and reflections which help managers to grasp the bigger picture and preventing them from getting lost in the wrong kind of detail. It is a fluid process which generates the insights, options, and breakthroughs to move the organisation forward in an uncertain and changing environment."

Strategic thinking differs from operational thinking, therefore, because it requires a fundamental shift of perspective, as follows:

Operational Thinking	Strategic Thinking
Single solution Linear Simple Deductive Pre-programmed Boundaries clear Safe Reasonably certain	Many options Iterative and unpredictable Complex Inductive and intuitive Creative Ambiguous and fuzzy Anxiety provoking Highly uncertain

Strategic thinking has often been likened to the experience of flying a helicopter (or ‘Helicopter Thinking’). A helicopter can bring a number of capabilities, and not merely that of flying:

• Being able to lift up from the ground to see the bigger picture of what is going on.
  
• Also being able to land on, or just hover above, an important feature or detail.
  
• Agility - in being able to navigate forwards, backwards, sideways, upwards and downwards.
  
• Speed.
  
• Surprise and concealment - being able to conceal oneself behind a hill or other obstacle, and attack when the enemy is least expecting it.
  
• Power - being able to attack with a variety of arms.
  
• Flexibility - performing a multitude of roles including attack, reconnaissance, etc.

The helicopter analogy illustrates big strategic thinking and also embodies examining key strategic details, agility, speed, surprise, power and flexibility - alongside seeing the bigger picture.

In order to harness the power of strategic thinking in order to Be Your Own Strategy Consultant let us now look at the need for robust but not bureaucratic process.

What is a good strategic thinking process?

There is almost invariably a lack of process applied to strategic thinking. A robust strategic process might have, for example:

• The process broken down stage-by-stage
  
• Clear outputs at the end, and at each individual stage
  
• Clear inputs (of data) at the beginning
  
• Key strategic questions to guide discussion within each stage

There may well be a lack of analytical techniques - other than rudimentary SWOT analysis - in use. At Cranfield we find that an array of "Breakthrough Strategic Thinking" techniques are needed.

Strategy is also often thought about at too high or abstract a level. A business strategy in its entirety is made up of many sub-strategies or ‘mini strategies’, which are then often a better unit of analysis. Besides creativity, process and tools, a number of other final ingredients are needed to deliver value which include:

• Key questions - to focus and to channel the strategic discussion process.
  
• Coping with the politics - for example by establishing the undesirable ‘P’ behaviours (e.g. political, picky, protective, personal, pedantic).
  
• Behaviours - aligning team behaviours in order to avoid more unhelpful interactions occurring.

Figure 1

Our final six factors for generating the value out of strategic thinking are set out above in Figure 1.

Conclusion

There is no fundamental reason why your managers should not be very effective strategic thinkers and generate considerable value from this. This means not merely Directors but all managers at senior and at middle levels. By mastering the six factors of strategic thinking internal managers can not merely equal the best of strategy consultants, but even be superior, especially in implementation strategy.

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