Mihai Ionescu’s Post

Mihai, great post, and I agree with the logic of it all. Whenever I help a CEO implement strategy management, there always is some conflict because some execs struggle on implementation because operational management is one year, FY to FY, while strategic management is 3 years, with the first year always being the operational year and years 2-3 being the strategic years. That often prompts weak CEOs to discard strategy management because of the 3 year planning complexity, and remain with FY operational management with an adjunct strategy. I've never seen that nearly as effective long term if the strategy management process is pragmatic, where strategic year 2 becomes the operational management next year, because a 3 year strategic plan is like being on a clothes line, always having 3 years of plans. I always lead with the comment that "if your competitor is planning operationally for FY 2024, and you're strategically planning for 2026, who has the advantage?" gw

The activities you highlight in (4) as ‘strategy layer’, others call transformation. In particular Business Arch/OD and Organizational Culture. Strategy Management and Transformation are conflated and/or misunderstood in most orgs. Strategy depts don’t have the skills for ‘transformation’ and HR/change depts don’t have the skills for ‘strategy mgt’…

About 30 years ago I recall a very enthusiastic group of highly motivated and enthusiastic management consultants banging the drum about "corporate transformation". It made my flesh crawl. Everybody I speak with agrees that there is little worse than being on the receiving end of some glitzy pitch which is no more than "old wine in new bottles", yet these pitches keep rolling along using some fresh language to communicate old ideas to solve hairy old chestnuts. Change is not anywhere as difficult or as complex as many consultants would have you believe if you get the story telling formula right. In my work I never cease to be amazed how "cutting through the crap" with a simple, powerful short story that perfectly illustrates how we got here, why its not sustainable, and where we are going (now), and the individual's role in making it happen and ... how that individual links to his /her team, function /dept, links to the organisation and ultimately to the customer. Keep it simple and bite sized I say and always relate it to the customer. As somebody much wiser than many once said ... "if you are not serving the customer you better be serving somebody who does". (Sam Walton). Change is simple if you stay customer focussed.

Oh, so well said, Mihai Ionescu, and informative. I see something similar among people wanting to buy a business who continue to fail at it because they stop doing what works, assuming they ever did anything that worked, and then they jump onto the bandwagon touted by the horde of unqualified self-declared experts on the topic of buying a business. btw, picking apart your diagram or your logic can be done but if people look at the big picture, and get your point, they can save a lot of time, money, and aggravation. The same holds true for any model of business, doesn't it? 😎

Congratulations for clarity of grasp thus far. Beyond it are kickbacks, and the opportunity of removal of dead wood that you don't want by pink slips or by shifting that unwanted material on downward ladder on the "mokshapat" (what you know as snakes and ladders, it was invented by Saint Dnyaneswar to explain karma theory, Moksha and Rebirth in Hinduism) game. The latter two being the most profoundly common reasons that drive frequent Business transformations.

Thank you Mihai Yes. There is a great confusion over what is the next transformation benchmark that we want to strive for. There is a huge gap in what technology companies and consultants promise and what is delivered after so called transformation. All transformations must be rooted on the strategy and business models changes and take into account human factor and not solely on technology changes. As AI is in vogue all tech companies are jumping to market their products with AI.

I enjoyed this post, thanks for it. The ops / strategy distinctions are very well described, nicely done. While the notion is an old one, the confusion between strategy and operational continuous improvement carries on. Go ask for a list of strategic initiatives, and count the number of operational continuous improvement efforts on it.

Thanks for sharing

So beautifully elucidated ,so easy to understand .