Research reports, June 2009
Strategy Evolution: adapting to a new world
To help you find a better way to make strategy work – faster, with less risk of derailing and greater resilience – this timely report of leaders’ shared intelligence gives valuable insights into what you can do right now in your own organisation to make your strategy, as one leader put it, ‘safe for the short term and strong for the long term’.
From listening to 45 of today’s leaders at the front line of developing and executing strategy, against the backdrop of deepening economic crisis and market uncertainty, Stanton Marris has uncovered the critical, often hidden, risks that threaten even the best strategies. From these insights, we make recommendations on what you can do to manage these organisational risks.
The leaders we spoke to came from a wide range of market sectors, from organisations that were by no means in meltdown situations; yet all felt jolted by the scale, speed and depth of change and were re-assessing what really mattered to them.
As we listened to these leaders at the front line, we tested what we heard against our knowledge and experience of working with threats to strategy execution over the past ten years. We were surprised to find little evidence of a stronger urge to reduce exposure to risk. Rather, we found a growing awareness of the need to be open to new ideas and the risks that go with them, and to identify and manage the human risks by staying closer to the heart of the business and the people who make it work.
Why should you read this?
These two factors are feeding a process that continues to move away from the purely rational, sequential and cerebral towards the personal, inclusive and iterative, with a much clearer and more explicit focus on the human, adaptive – even emotional – capabilities of the business. This doesn’t mean throwing out the traditional models – they’re right for some businesses, and some times. But we suggest that no-one should start to develop or implement strategy – whether ‘strategy’ refers to a new direction, a corporate plan, a change programme or essential business planning – without taking a long, hard look at what these leaders are saying and doing.
If you still want to know why you should read this, remember the popular belief that 50% of strategies fail.
There is a better way.
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