Hello,
I teach strategy at Emory. It's great fun to engage with 400+ students each year. We learn a tough and nuanced concept, then spend our time applying and debating it out with real-life business examples.
In 2019, I was asked to put together a 1 hour webcast on the topic of strategy. Namely, what is strategy and what do we need to be more strategic in what we (and our companies) do here.
To anchor the discussion, used 6 icons to tell the story:
Virtuous cycle: a set of activities, not just one thing, that gives a sustainable competitive advantage
Choice: it requires trade-offs; you cannot be all things to all people; strategy = what you decide NOT to do
Diminishing returns from best practices; yes, you need to be efficient (like everyone else), but that’s not enough
Economic moats (preferably wide, and deep) which keeps others away from your profits (treasure)
Strategy without implementation = just an idea; it requires commitment, execution, flexibility, process
Corporate strategy = where to compete (e.g., geographically, value chain)
Video here.
Of course, all these points apply to our professional lives:
What gives you a sustainable competitive advantage?
What trade-offs are you making? What are you saying "no" too?
How are you using best practices? Are you being strategic, or just being efficient?
What is your economic moat? What makes it hard for others to copy you?
What are you doing to implement your strategies? Are you aggressively putting them to work?
Where are you competing? B2B? B2C? Are you spreading yourself out too thin?
Yes, these are all questions I need to ask myself again this summer too.
John
jkstrategy@consultantsmind.com