Outra excelente metáfora acerca da estratégia

"When you look at strategy as a frame of mind to be cultivated, rather than as a plan to be executed, you are far more likely to succeed over the long run. (Moi ici: Um ponto fundamental! O plano é importante porque acreditamos que nos ajudará a cumprir a estratégia, mas o plano é sempre instrumental. Recordo a EKS e a blitzkrieg com a sua liberdade táctica. Por isso, antes de avançar para o mapa da estratégia, gosto de assentar num texto que descreva sucintamente a estratégia e, volto constantemente a ele durante o projecto. Acredito mais na transformação estratégica como um acto de amor e conquista do futuro, do que como um acto analítico e asséptico)
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To Montgomery, a business strategist is not primarily an analyst of position, or of resources; nor is the strategist purely adaptive, responding reactively to the vagaries of fate. He or she is someone who engages in a conversation about the purpose of a company. (Moi ici: Outra excelente metáfora, uma conversa acerca da razão de ser da empresa) The company rises or falls on the quality of that conversation and the way it is used to make decisions about the ongoing work of the enterprise.
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a fundamental question that any company’s leader must ultimately answer: What will this firm be, and why will it matter? This is not a soft, philosophical question. It is a hard-nosed, economic one.
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And a leader can’t consider the question just once and be done with it. That question needs a compelling answer every day of a firm’s existence, an answer that’s relevant as the business evolves, and as markets and customers evolve. To enable that kind of continuous evolution, strategy should never be thought of as a problem that’s been solved and settled. There are occasional dramatic changes, but mostly it’s an evolutionary process, with the CEO at the center. (Moi ici: Daí pensar que quando uma empresa precisa de uma grande transformação estratégica é porque não foi capaz de fazer pequenas mudanças encadeadas ao longo do tempo. Assim, chega um dia em que a des-harmonia entre a empresa e o mercado é tão grande que só com uma profunda transformação estratégica se consegue dar a volta... e ás vezes já é tarde de mais)
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A strategy shouldn’t be only a document, or an occasional exercise. It should be a way of looking at the world, interpreting experience, and thinking about what a company is and why it matters. The formal strategic planning process is only part of it; the deeper responsibility is ongoing and continuous.
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But over time, the economics began to distract people from the leadership aspect of strategy. Before long, strategy at many top business schools was taught by economists focused on theory and analytics. If you do this, how will your competitors respond? How do the structural characteristics of an industry shape competitive behavior? All important issues, to be sure, but gradually strategy became an exercise in getting the analysis right, providing the answer, and letting someone else implement it. That reinforced the idea that strategists were a group with specialized training.
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In working with leaders, I also realized how vitally important creativity is in strategy. It takes the whole brain—intuition and analytic skills—to do it well. But creativity isn’t considered very important in the culture that has grown up around strategy. That has to change.
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A really good strategy doesn’t happen on the margin; it doesn’t simply perpetuate an industry game that is mature and may be decaying.
A really good strategy revitalizes the company, and to do that, you need to assemble a group of people who have the courage to confront business at its roots. You need people who can say, in effect, “Strategy is dead. But long live strategy.” 

Trechos retirados de "The Thought Leader Interview: Cynthia Montgomery"

Rebranding strategy

Dedicado aos elementos da tríade que desconhecem o poder da paixão e das relações amorosas com clientes, fornecedores e produtos.

São as decisões dos humanos que ajudam a fazer a diferença (parte II)

Parte I.
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Se são as decisões dos humanos que ajudam a fazer a diferença, quem são os humanos, dentro de uma empresa, que mais podem afectar o futuro da organização?
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Os teóricos e os académicos, os Spocks, propõem soluções analíticas, não têm relações amorosas com clientes, produtos e fornecedores, não entendem de "arte industrial".
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E, no entanto, apesar das suas soluções, há empresas que conseguem ter sucesso onde eles só viam desastre e ocaso garantido.

"“Eu te bendigo, Pai, Senhor do céu e da terra, porque escondeste estas coisas aos sábios e entendidos e as revelaste aos pequenos." (Mt, 11, 25)

Ás vezes pedem-me, arranje-me um exemplo de BSC para restaurantes ou, arranje-me um exemplo de BSC para escolas.
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Tenho de, com paciência, tentar explicar: Não há um BSC para restaurantes!
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Cada BSC deve ser adaptado à realidade competitiva de cada empresa, cada BSC decorre, deve decorrer, da estratégia formulada pela organização. Só depois de definida uma estratégia é que faz sentido pensar no BSC.
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E não peçam aos teóricos e académicos para definirem as estratégias das empresas, nem deixem os consultores definirem as estratégias.

"“We’ve lost sight of where strategies come from and the distinctive role leaders play in the process,”
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According to Montgomery, the divorce of strategy and leadership was an inadvertent result of academic research that started to take hold in the 1980s and ’90s. The work brought much-needed economic thinking to strategy’s underpinnings. It armed legions of MBAs and strategy consultants with frameworks and techniques to help managers analyze their industries and position their firms for competitive advantage. It also made it very easy for leaders to think of strategy solely as an analytical exercise.
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Montgomery maintains that strategy has been narrowed to a competitive game plan, separate from a firm’s larger sense of purpose. This has led to the eclipse of the leader’s unique role as arbiter and steward of strategy. The exaggerated emphasis on sustainable competitive advantage has drawn attention away from the fact that strategy must be a dynamic tool for guiding the development of a company over time.
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For a leader, becoming a strategist starts with getting clear on why, whether, and to whom your company matters.
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Strategists also must lead the charge in creating organizations that can deliver on their intentions. That means building business models with mutually reinforcing parts. Rich in organizational detail, and anchored on purpose, such systems of value creation “make strategy the animating force in a company,” says Montgomery. “They’re the crucial link between lofty ideas and action.”
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Although a company may change what it makes, the services it provides, the markets it serves, and even its core competencies, its continued existence depends on finding and continuing to find a compelling reason for it to exist."

São as decisões dos humanos que ajudam a fazer a diferença, que podem criar um espaço novo onde os Spocks só viam espaços confinados e espaços condenados.

Trechos retirados de "Why Leaders Stopped Caring About Strategy -- and How They Can Reclaim It"

A estratégia é a história (parte IV)

"Even as you strive for a big-picture view of your business, you need to become intimate with it at the ground level. After all, you’re leading a group effort. You need to connect with people throughout the business so that you can both inspire them and learn from them. If you don’t fill them in on your thinking, they’re not likely to make strategy part of their agenda. And if you don’t enlist their knowledge in creating plans, you are wasting an invaluable resource: As the people who talk with the customers and do a lion’s share of the work, they possess information you can’t do without.
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everyone in an organization has a right to understand strategy and a right to be involved in it. “Good communication is not simply sending and receiving. Nor is good communication simply an exchange of data,” he wrote. “The best communication forces you to listen.” Throughout, however, De Pree recognized that leaders have an obligation to provide and maintain momentum: “It is the feeling among a group of people that their lives and their work are intertwined and moving toward a recognizable and legitimate goal.” Such momentum comes from a “clear vision of what the corporation ought to be, from a well-thought out strategy to achieve that vision, and from carefully conceived and communicated directions and plans that enable everyone to participate and be publicly accountable in achieving those plans.” Napoleon put it this way: “Define reality, give hope.”
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As a strategist, that means your ability to communicate - and to connect with others in the organization - is as vital to your success as anything else you do."
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Os seus trabalhadores... a sua equipa de gestão, conhecem a estratégia da empresa? Já lhes contou essa história? Já lhes definiu a realidade e deu esperança? Como é que eles sabem o que devem fazer, que opções devem tomar para estarem alinhados com essa história?
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Trecho retirado de "The Strategist" de Cynthia Montgomery

Um trabalho sempre a recomeçar

Por que o mundo muda, o tal meio abiótico, e faz com que os vales se transformem em atraentes picos e os antigos picos se afundem em vales venenosos e, por isso, as estratégias que resultavam no passado ficam obsoletas - ou lentamente, como uma suave erosão que se traduz numa enganadora estabilidade, ou com estrondosa e súbita rapidez. E, por que uma estratégia pode sempre ser aperfeiçoada, novas interligações no mosaico podem ser criadas...

 "they say, they thought about strategy as a set of problems to be solved - the way it is so often approached in both practice and in school. Now, however, they’re thinking about strategy as a way of life for themselves as a leader, a set of questions to be lived."

Pensar a estratégia de uma empresa nunca é um assunto fechado, nunca está terminada, há sempre algo a fazer, algo a melhorar, algo a mudar...
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A sua empresa tem uma estratégia?
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Continua actualizada e ajustada à realidade?
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Há quanto tempo não a revê? Não precisa de ser afinada?
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Há quanto tempo não a discute com os seus colegas? E eles conhecem-na? Estão na mesma onda?
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Trecho retirado de "The Strategist" de Cynthia Montgomery

Decidir por um rumo

Costumo dizer:
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"Uma empresa é como uma casca de noz no meio do oceano… uma casca de noz não pode ter a veleidade de mudar o mar, mas se conhecer as correntes, se perceber as marés e se percepcionar os ventos, pode posicionar-se e procurar aproveitar activamente em seu benefício as circunstâncias do meio envolvente, em vez de esperar passivamente que lhe caia a sorte grande em cima… por acaso."
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Só depois de perceber o terreno é que faz sentido, reflectir e fazer o balanço interno, aproveitar a análise TOWS, para depoisw decidir um rumo de actuação.
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Cynthia A. Montgomery em "The Strategist" escreve de uma outra forma:
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"you must accept the things you cannot change, have the courage to change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference. It’s a lesson great strategists understand well, but it’s not an easy lesson to accept and master. The myth of the super-manager is hard to let go.
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The fundamental lessons here are simple but of paramount importance for the strategist.
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First, you must understand the competitive forces in your industry. How you respond to them is your strategy. That means if you don’t understand them, your strategy is based on luck and hope.

Second, even if you understand your industry’s competitive forces, you must find a way to deal with them that is up to the challenge. That may mean skillful positioning, deliberate efforts to counter negative forces or exploit favorable ones, or even a timely exit. But don’t be trapped by the myth into believing that your superior management skills will carry you to success. (Moi ici: Antes disto é importante, IMHO, a partir das oportunidades e ameaças e dos factores recolhidos numa análise PESTEL, desenhar alguns cenários que a empresa pode apanhar pela frente. Depois sim, como os sobreviventes descritos por Laurence Gonzales, fazer o soul-searching que permitirá escolher um rumo que potencie forças e minimize fraquezas para aproveitar as oportunidades e deter as ameaças)
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Third, whatever you do, don’t underestimate the power of these forces. Their impact on the destiny of your business may well be as great as your own."