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Your Strategic Plans Probably Aren't Strategic, or Even Plans (hbr.org)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Unfortunately, while C-suite executives talk "strategy," they're often confused about what it means. Why this confusion? The problem starts with the word itself -- a scarily misunderstood concept in management and board circles. The most basic mix-up is between "objective," "strategy," and "action." (I see this frequently in published strategic plans as well.) Grasp this, I tell my audience, and your day will be well spent.

An "objective" is something you're trying to achieve -- a marker of the success of the organization. At the other end of the spectrum is "action." This occurs at the individual level -- a level that managers are presented with day after day. So naturally when they think "strategy" they focus on what they do. But this isn't strategy either. "Strategy" takes place between these two at the organization level and managers can't "feel" that in the same way. It's abstract. CEOs have an advantage here because only they have a total view of the organization.

The key to strategy is that it's the positioning of one business against others -- such GM against Ford and Toyota, for example. What exactly is positioning? It's placement on the strategic factors relevant to each key stakeholder group.

2 of 120 comments (clear)

  1. Re:popcorn: ready by wonderboss · · Score: 5, Informative

    Fluffer
    A fluffer is a person employed to keep a male porn performer's penis erect on the set. These duties, which do not necessarily involve touching the actors, are considered part of the makeup department. Wikipedia

    LMAO

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    more cowbell
  2. Re:These are all military terms by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 4, Informative

    So why is it that Military terms are used for business?

    What, didn't you read The Art of the Deal by Sun Tzu?

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    Ezekiel 23:20