What Makes a Good Strategy?

What makes a strategy successful vs. unsuccessful?

That is not an easy question to answer because things can go wrong in many places. Ultimately, how can we predict the future before it happens?

I am probably going to oversimplify things here but bear with me for a moment.

I have seen numerous occasions where the strategy did not have flexibility built into it to allow local needs to be included that would render it even more powerful.

I have heard too many times the mantra of Think Global, Act Local. Far too often I have seen the integration of the local perspective minimized in organizations.

There have also been many times where a strategy makes sense, but the local implementation and the tactics that support it are not properly defined, designed and most importantly executed - and often without metrics. I also understand that proper metrics can be more costly to obtain than the execution itself.

So what I am getting at is that we sometimes blame the strategy but in fact tactics can contribute to its failure or not meeting expectations.

I want to explore setting up the strategy a little bit more before moving on to the topic of tactics. Many companies have moved to global organizations that typically set the strategy and push that down to countries and regions to implement and execute.

There may be factors that result in a need for modification of the strategy. And if the organization is not willing to make those changes, we end up in a situation where the commercial outcome is below expectations.

Sometimes the country or the region gets blamed for not adapting the strategy. But in reality, it could be because the strategy itself did not have the inherent flexibility needed to make the changes that were required.

Let's quickly look at tactics for a moment. If the region or country receives guidance to spend a certain percentage by strategic pillar with no flexibility, this can lead to poor outcomes. However if there is no global direction on how to allocate the spend per pillar then do we even have a strategy at that point?

So I now come back to my earlier question of what makes a strategy successful vs. unsuccessful? From the above it is clear that there are many places that things can go sideways or even downhill rather quickly. Here are the three things to focus on:

1) Focus on what matters: You can't be everything to everyone. Define your focus areas clearly.

2) Embrace feedback: Involve teams and regions in strategy discussions for better buy-in. Feedback integration is crucial.

3) Align strategy and tactics: Ensure proper funding and alignment between strategy and execution. Tactics bring strategies to life for success.

This is a complex topic and in no way do I feel this covers everything.

It is more of an appetizer before the main course to get the conversation flowing.

#strategy #tactics #global #maketherightchoices

I look forward to getting your thoughts on this topic!

Jovan is the Managing Director of STRAT2TACT Consulting, a healthcare commercialization partner for biopharma, biotech, medical device and medical technology and comes with 25+ years’ experience in the U.S., Canada and Europe. STRAT2TACT Consulting provides fractional support for commercialization, start-up operations and working with Venture Capital / Private Equity firms to ensure they make the best possible decisions.

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