Leadership Blog

One of Roger Martin’s (Harvard) rules for avoiding common mistakes in strategy making, in fact his first rule, is “keep the strategy statement simple.”  Rather than a long, often vague document, the company’s strategy should summarise the chosen target customers and the value proposition in one page.

We would like to take the idea even further by asking you to summarise your strategy in no more than 140 characters. This statement must identify the target customer, the value proposition, and how the latter fits two requirements:

We have previously blogged on Alex Ferguson and his phenomenal success as a leader and the manger of Manchester United.  He has great leadership qualities but as we have said before, every leader has their own style – some exemplary, some not to be recommended to others.  . 

Tesco faces pressure from leading shareholders to start “shock and awe” price cuts after Wm Morrison sent tremors through the industry by promising to plough £1bn into discounting.  It will be interesting to see if the Board follows.  Strategy is at the heart of effective leadership and this is a serious issue for Tesco’s board to address.

So your manager has recently told you about a major change initiative agreed at the last board meeting.  You’ve now got the task of breaking the news to the team/s under your control.  And then you’ve got to get on and implement that change.  Where do you start?  What are the problems you’re likely to face?

This change initiative has really come at a bad time.  You’re short-staffed as it is, and nobody’s able or willing to devote time to these new developments.  What’s more, it is possible your people: