Did You Revisit Your Strategy?

The rupee is tumbling. Trade deficits are widening. There is a greater call for local protection through trade barriers and other softer controls. Cash flow remains a concern. Raising money (quality money) is getting tougher. Long term research and development, organization development and strategic initiatives are all being shelved and postponed.  While many of these responses have been tactical efforts to handle the short term pressure and medium term impact on surviving the turbulence, most enterprises atleast the emerging ones and small businesses don’t seem to have revisited their strategies. Strategy is a tool that helps a company aspire correctly, reassess the context, align resources and enables the company thrive.  While strategy is not making documents, it is definitely not dreaming either. It is about making choices within the context in which the business operates. As the context changes the strategy needs revisit.

During the last few months, most of my speaking requests from corporate as well as industry associations have been on the topic of growth and strategy. But the number of people who turn up for strategy related talk with interest and belief are very few.  However with those who turn up, I have been having very interesting discussions and thought share. A handful of CEOs and entrepreneurs of emerging businesses are slowly beginning to understand what strategy is and how to utilize it to make their organizations healthier and perform better. This is a slow but a welcome change!

As I head out today to one more institution to kick start their strategy process, I am excited at the possibility  of moving one more organization beyond their self imposed boundaries. After all turbulence creates an equal number of opportunities for entrepreneurs to leverage.