Who is the Mexican Strategist?

If you have been involved in the strategy process of any company in Mexico, at some time you could probably have wondered how other companies do that, who leads and coordinates it, and what tools they use.

Unfortunately, the information and reports about this topic that you could find were mainly focused on other geographies (mainly USA, Europe, and Asia), but none focused on what is going on in Mexico.

So, last year, after reading a similar Report for Brazil, we ventured in partnership with Strategy Tools to learn who is the Mexican strategist, how they arrived at that position, how they feel, their style, the tools they use, and how their structure and strategy process looks, among other topics.

"There was no previous Report focused on Mexico to understand who is the Mexican Strategist"

Are CSOs set to fail?

Living in a world that is changing so fast and drastically, and where statistics show that most companies fail to execute their strategy, is it worth to continue developing a strategy?

Moreover, few companies have a dedicated area for strategy, and when they have it, the executors of the strategy are spread around the organization, and they don't report to the Chief Strategy Officer (CSO). In these circumstances, if CSOs don't have the proper support from the C-level, then there's no chance to be able to succeed.

And don't take it wrong, even if there's no dedicated strategy area, companies develop and execute their strategy.

So, how can CSOs navigate all this to make strategy happen? How do they deal with this? Because it would look like, that the odds are against them.

Would CSOs be open to sharing their stories and perspectives?

This was one of the key questions when we began this adventure, so we invited some organizations to join to help us get in contact with some companies. Three sponsors were key in this process: the Ministry of Economic Development of Mexico City, the Cluster of Herramentales (Tooling Cluster), and the CSOFTMTY (Cluster of ITC, Monterrey).

Soon, we found some enthusiasts (willing to share, and happy to have a channel so their voices could be heard and learn from others), others more cautious (intrigued but wanted to be sure if they could participate due to internal policies), a few who couldn't (due to internal policies), and of course some doubters.

After a couple of months, we finally were able to have this ready. So, we hope you enjoy the findings.

The Mexican strategist

The Mexican strategist is a natural NEGOTIATOR to make things happen (which is better understood due to the fact that few organizations have this role with direct access to the CEO), they are hands-on and resourceful understanding what needs to happen to mobilize the organization. They tend to be data-driven to back up or make decisions and are flexible enough to be able to adapt their approach or mindset to influence the different stakeholders.

My journey

In big companies, they previously worked in other Strategy areas of other companies, in consulting firms, or were previously in charge of corporate projects.

In SMEs and startups, the job came as part of the position (either as CEO / C-level, or founding team).

Structure

When there's a strategy area, the area usually reports to someone at the C-level (but not the CEO), and some report directly to the CEO. When there's no formal strategy area, the role falls to the CFO, CHRO, CEO, or sometimes to the CTO, or there's a committee that is in charge of the strategy.

Small strategy teams: When there's a strategy area and strategy team, the team is usually 4 or fewer people.

Function

The closer to the CEO, the more interaction with other stakeholders and the more impact CSOs have. We identified three scenarios:

• No direct report to the CEO. Here CSO's main activities are to support the strategic planning and the periodic strategy reviews, interacting with middle management.
• Direct report to the CEO. Here they have a more active role, interacting with the C-level, and heads of business units. Besides typical strategy functions, they act as a balancing power among different actors to not just focus on the present, but also on the future.
• Direct report to the CEO, and interactions with the Board. Here, they also help board members to discuss industry shifts, question how well prepared is the company to compete for the future, and how they could actually fund what is needed.

"The biggest value of the area is to make strategy happen"

Style

The Mexican strategist style is communicative to foster the social aspect of strategy, data-driven to contrast the hypothesis and evaluate progress, and also shows a reflective attitude to bring a more holistic view of the organization that incorporates a look at the future.

The role they tend to assume is the Influencer, with a tendency to move towards Big Systems Thinker. In the Influencer role, they focus on driving discussions, asking tough questions, acting as a power balance, and engaging the organization around the strategy.

In order to communicate the strategy, they prefer to focus on Numbers (hard facts about strategy and performance) and People (the impact of the strategy on their daily jobs and culture).

Good communicator, collaborator, and negotiator are the main leadership characteristics of CSOs. Just remember that plenty CSOs don't report directly to the CEO, they might have a small dedicated team, and that the strategy is executed throughout the organization (in areas that don't report to them).

Process

We discovered that there’s not always a formal process to develop and execute the strategy, which might explain why sometimes we don’t find the required engagement and buy-in to mobilize the organization

A close one, but strategy as analysis still dominates (planning mindset, perceiving sporadic disruptions, and the main task of strategy is to defend our current business). This view and the CEO mandate, have a huge impact on the strategy process.

The major pain points in the strategy process are culture, strategy execution, and engagement. Here leadership from the top combined with the Mexican CSO leadership style could be a great combo to face all these pain points.

FODA, establishing objectives, KPIs, and projects are the main tools used to develop the strategy. In general, we found out that the tools and frameworks used are extremely broad, and the most used ones have been with us for more than two decades, and only a few mentioned tools and frameworks come from the new voices in the field of strategy.

Finally, there's not always a clear connection between strategy and other areas such as HR, Innovation, and Finance.

Context

Company size, industry maturity, and CEO's mandate influence the available resources, and where the CSO and the strategy team need to focus.

Almost all dedicated strategy areas are integrated by small teams (less than 4 members), and not all big companies have a dedicated team.

In general, participants feel that their industry is either competitive or consolidated. Some participants that viewed their industry as consolidated, also mentioned that this might change due to the entrance of new, outside the industry, competitors.

A sound balance between Growth and Performance is the most common mandate from the CEO (where the company should really focus on, the expectations, where resources should be placed). Heads of Strategy need to make sure that the CEO’s mandate and the strategy are coherent

Demands

In order to have a better picture of the role, we also tried to identify what are the needs of the Chief Strategy Officer:

• If you had a magic wound what would you change? More resources and culture. No surprise here, the more adverse the circumstances, the greater the need for good strategists that know how to work under these circumstances.
• I wish my team had more abstraction power, better communication, and analytical skills.
• Do you feel alone leading the strategy process? A high percentage tend to feel lonely coordinating the process, and mobilizing the organization.

What is next?

I hope this is the first step to having a better understanding of who is the Mexican Strategist, and what are their circumstances. We were gratefully surprised that this Report was perceived as a channel to hear the voice of the people in charge of coordinating the strategy process of the companies in Mexico.

One of the questions that surfaced in the different interviews is whether we could build a better strategists ecosystem in Mexico, and as a result of that, we're launching an initiative pointing toward that... We're launching the Strategy Club, where the strategy teams of some leading companies will be exchanging practices and experiences, learning from great keynote speakers, and discussing some strategic dilemmas of industries and companies that are being disrupted.

And please, if you find these findings interesting, please share the Report: Chief Strategy Officer Mexico, and let's create a better ecosystem for the Mexican Strategists.

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About Javier Sevilla

Javier Sevilla is the founder and director of NováreQ. He’s been involved in consulting, tech and management, for almost 20 years in projects in the USA, Argentina, and Mexico in the private and public sectors. He collaborates with management teams to promote the growth of their organizations, repositioning their current business while creating their future growth engine in parallel.

Adjunct professor at Northeastern, campus San Francisco, Cal., and partner of Strategy Tools. Additionally, he promotes the transformation of innovation clusters and the growth of the entrepreneurship ecosystem in Mexico.

Engineer, wine enthusiast, salsa lover, and entrepreneur. Always eager to question, help, and learn.