Strategy as a perspective

Strategy as a perspective defines the governing set of beliefs, values, and a sense of purpose shared by the entire organization. It sets the overall direction in which the service provider moves to fulfil its purpose and construct its performance anatomy. Some pithy real-world examples:

• ‘Focus on the user and all else will follow.’
• ‘It’s all about growth, innovation and the dependency of technology, led by the greatest people anywhere.’
• ‘Consumer connectivity first – any time, anywhere.’
• ‘[Our] purpose is to improve the quality of life of the communities we serve.’
• ‘We will be a best-in-class service provider in [our] industry.’

Despite its high-level abstraction, do not make the mistake of casually ignoring or trivializing perspective. Unlike plans or patterns, perspectives are not easily changed. Take the perspective of Swiss watchmakers, for example, when confronted with the emergence of quartz technology – a Swiss invention. Dismissing the technology as a novelty incompatible with the perspective of skill-intensive craftsmanship, the Swiss watch industry was nearly decimated by the Japanese. That is, until it adopted the technology for major market niches and reclaimed market share through a perspective centred on fashion rather than workmanship.

Or take the real-world service providers who held a perspective of:

• ‘... highly efficient back-office operations’ during the emergence of service outsourcing
• ‘... low cost service provider’ during the emergence of off-shore skilled labour
• ‘... technology-specific expertise’ with the emergence of open system s and software.

Perspective is attained with the help of clarifying questions asked within the context of the service provider’s stakeholders, which includes primarily its owners, its customers, and its employees. Conversely, well-defined perspective serves as a reference for subsequent positions, plan s, or patterns of action the service provider may adopt and enact. Public assertions made by a service provider are usually based on strategy as a perspective and reflected in its value proposition to customers. The value proposition may be implicit in the customers it serves, the services it offers, and the particular perspective of service quality it adopts. A clear perspective helps make this value proposition explicit. This strategy is defined at the highest level of abstraction and maintains the organization ’s farthest planning horizon. It drives other control views of strategy (the other ‘Ps’) and is modified based on feedback from those views.

Once a perspective has been attained, here is a test:

• Does it capture what you intend to do for only the next three to five years, or does it capture a more timeless essence of your organization’s distinctiveness?
• Is it clear and memorable?
• Does it have the ability to promote and guide action?
• Does it set boundaries within which people are free to experiment?

The distillation of an organization’s strategy into a memorable and prescriptive phrase is important. A sound strategy is of little use unless people understand it well enough to apply it during unforeseen or ambiguous opportunities.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14