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DARPA’s strategy is based on a clear-sighted recognition of the nature of the challenge.
Parts of this challenge are extremely difficult because: (1) some military problems have no easy or obvious technical solutions; and (2) some emerging technologies may have far-reaching military consequences that are still unclear.
DARPA’s strategy is more than a general direction. It includes specific policies that guide its everyday actions.
It follows from a careful definition of the challenge. It anticipates the real-world difficulties to be overcome. It eschews fluff. It creates policies that concentrate resources and actions on surmounting those difficulties.
The job of the leader is also to create the conditions that will make that push effective, to have a strategy worthy of the effort called upon.
work to discover the very most promising opportunities for the business.
To do this, you should probably pull together a small team of people and take a month to do a review of who your buyers are, who you compete with, and what opportunities exist.
look very closely at what is changing in your business, where you might get a jump on the competition.
The end result will be a strategy that is aimed at channeling energy into what seem to be one or two of the most attractive opportunities,
There is nothing wrong with planning. It is an essential part of management.
Helps things flow and manage operations day to day
You can call these annual exercises “strategic planning” if you like, but they are not strategy.
Strategy tackles hard problems and challenges to growth and success by identifying opprotunities for action, and taking action to leverage an advantage or insight.
identify the critical obstacles to forward progress and then develop a coherent approach to overcoming them.
Importantly, opportunities, challenges, and changes don’t come along in nice annual packages.
Be vigilant of opportunity and changes, as strategy needs constant revision as new informaton arises.
it is natural to think of strategies as actions designed to accomplish specific goals. However, taking this way of thinking into a top-level position is a mistake.
One of the challenges of being a leader is mastering this shift from having others define your goals to being the architect of the organization’s purposes and objectives.
To help clarify this distinction it is helpful to use the word “goal” to express overall values and desires and to use the word “objective” to denote specific operational targets.
A leader’s most important job is creating and
constantly adjusting this strategic bridge between goals and objectives.
Chen Brothers did not fall into the trap of believing that strategy is a grand vision or a set of financial goals.
Adjusted strategy in real time as thr landscape changed. New target customer emerged as a threat to first target market, instead turned threat into customer by rebranding and becoming an organic prodct dustributor to whole foods. Outcome still in line with goals.
Good strategy works by focusing energy and resources on one, or a very few, pivotal objectives whose accomplishment will lead to a cascade of favorable
outcomes.
A long list of “things to do,” often mislabeled as “strategies” or “objectives,” is not a strategy.
A good strategy defines a critical challenge. What is more, it builds a bridge between that challenge and action, between desire and immediate objectives that lie within grasp. Thus, the objectives a good strategy sets should stand a good chance of being accomplished, given existing resources and competence. (See the discussion of proximate objectives in chapter 7.)
By contrast, a blue-sky objective is usually a simple restatement of the desired state of affairs or of the challenge. It skips over the annoying fact that no one has a clue as to how to get there.
When a leader characterizes the challenge as underperformance, it sets the stage for bad strategy. Underperformance is a result. The true challenges are the reasons for the underperformance.
All analysis starts with the consideration of what may happen, including unwelcome events.
the doctrine that one can impose one’s visions and desires on the world by the force of thought alone retains a powerful appeal to many people. Its acceptance displaces critical thinking and good strategy.
Wishful thinking and failure to consider second and greater order outcomes lead to bad strategy
Good strategy is coherent action backed up by an argument,
The kernel
A diagnosis that defines or explains the nature of the challenge.
A guiding policy for dealing with the challenge.
set of coherent actions that are designed to carry out the guiding policy. These are steps that are coordinated with one another to work together in accomplishing the guiding policy.
diagnosing the specific structure of the challenge
an overall guiding policy for dealing with the situation that builds on or creates some type of leverage or advantage.
actions and resource allocations that implement the chos...
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The core content of a strategy is a diagnosis of the situation at hand, the creation or identification of a guiding policy for dealing with the critical difficulties, and a set of coherent actions.
A great deal of strategy work is trying to figure out what is going on. Not just deciding what to do, but the more fundamental problem of comprehending the situation.
good strategy tends to be based on the diagnosis promising leverage over outcomes.
A diagnosis is generally denoted by metaphor, analogy, or reference to a diagnosis or framework that has already gained acceptance.
most deep strategic changes are brought about by a change in diagnosis—a change
in the definition of the company’s situation.
The guiding policy outlines an overall approach for overcoming the obstacles highlighted by the diagnosis.
it channels action in certain directions without defining exactly what shall be
d...
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the guiding policy directs and constrains action without fully defining its content.
they define a method of grappling with the situation and ruling out a vast array of possible actions.
Without a diagnosis, one cannot evaluate alternative guiding policies. Without working through to at least the first round of action one cannot be sure that the guiding policy can be implemented.
“why” and “how” you are doing it.
good strategy creates advantage by magnifying the effects of resources and actions.
A guiding policy creates advantage by anticipating the actions and reactions of others, by reducing the complexity and ambiguity in the situation, by exploiting the leverage inherent in concentrating effort on a pivotal or decisive aspect of the situation, and by creating policies and actions that are coherent, each building on the other rather than canceling one another out.
