MBA Fundamentals Strategy (Ference, Thurman, 2009)

p.28 the pursuit of a strategic vision - a desired future - takes place over a timeframe in which the initial attributes and forecasts... on which our strategy is based are changing constantly... Thus, strategy is more properly the study of dynamics rather than of statics.

p.33 the first KEY to strategic thinking is that of... using a clear and detailed definition of the desired future as the platform for developing a comprehensive timeline containing milestones and checkpoints to select, monitor, and dynamically adapt the strategic path.

p.33-34,35 Strategic thinking involves a continuing conscious, deliberate cycle, grounded in purpose and aspiration, of visioning, analyzing, planning, executing, monitoring, and adapting where the adaptations based in experience from the previous cycle become the bases for re-visioning and informing the next cycle... Another positive benefit of strategic thinking and the strategic process as presented here is that it increases the flexibility of the organization in responding to changing conditions.

p.50 to be a strategic thinker... is to... think simultaneously in time and space, to be visionary about the future and rigorously analytical about the present. The [strategist] is both a right-brain and a left-brain thinker who is able to move fluidly back and forth between the desired future and the actual present, constantly using the stream of information provided by ongoing events to monitor and adapt his/her strategic actions in pursuit of his/her evolving vision.

The Conceptual Level is concerned with our basic understanding of our enterprise - our organization, our product or service, our career. It starts with purpose... and envisions a future when that future is fulfilled... We define what is important to us, what is worth pursuing, and what we hope or expect will transpire as a result of our efforts... the conceptual level is the starting point (the catalyst) for strategic thinking...

The Analytical Level is concerned with the determination of whether the future envisioned at the conceptual level is possible. Now that we have defined our aspirations and limitations, we can turn to the tools of rational analysis to identify the challenges, the obstacles, and the possible barriers that may prevent us from achieving our purposes within the timeframe we have chosen. We also use those same tools to look for the resources, the supports, and the potential factors that may assist us in our efforts... The analytical level is inherently objective in nature...

The Operational Level provides the essential synthesis between the conceptual and the analytical and also drives the learning process... At this level, we are asking, 'What actions must we successfully execute, in what order and with what intensity, in order to overcome obstacles and challenges we have identified in order to achieve our purpose?' "

p.73"the success of any endeavor... depends first, on a clear sense of purpose and belief and second, on a guiding image of the future that we are seeking to bring into being by our conscious and deliberate effort."

p.76,77 The most essential skill of the strategist is that he/she is first and foremost an excellent diagnostician... It is the ability to ask the right questions in the right order and to listen carefully to the answers. It is based on the integration of knowledge, experience, and insight. Our diagnostic approach, therefore, is composed of a set of heuristics that provide us with the ability to reduce the seemingly overwhelming complexity of the organization and its environment to a workable model through a series of carefully chosen and sequenced questions. Depending on the answers to these questions, and to the further probing that the answer to each question suggests, we are able to form hypotheses, assess probabilities, and make choices for action.

I. Who are we? Why do we exist? ... II. What do we believe in? What do we hold dear? ...So what?... III. Where do we want to be? What do we want to look like at a specific future point in time? ... IV. What do we have to do to get there?

p.97-98 A mission statement satisfies the incremental criterion if it provides clear and unequivocal guidance to any organizational member as to how to allocate scarce resources at the margin. If you are down to your last hour of time... the organization... wants and expects you to spend it on that activity that most advances the core mission of the organization. The mission is... the fundamental decision-making criterion of the organization and the essential point of reference for resolving subsequent conflict over tactics or operations.

p.119-120,122 We might think of our values as the ultimate criterion for choice and action, as the basis by which we assess and judge the acceptability of options... We pursue this or that outcome because we believe it to be the expression of something that truly matters - that has value for us. We evaluate possible courses of action on the bases of whether they are consistent and compatible with our core values... If meaningful, our values have a prime seat at the table in all of our decision-making and a fundamental question to be asked when considering any course of action would be: (If we do this) Will we be living our values?

p.126,127 we need to define our vision or strategic intent as we set out on our journey in terms that will allow us to determine at the appropriate time whether or not we have done what we said we would do... organizations... function more effectively and are better able to maintain focus when the timeframes chosen for visioning and acting are within "eyesight" - in a range that is psychologically meaningful and that we can "get our arms around."... strategic intent should be stated in terms that are accessible to the senses, that [is], can be seen... in some objective and reprintable way... we should be able to specify going in - at the beginning - how we intend to assess achievement coming out - at the end [or at the checkpoint].

p.128 We believe that the way to make steady progress toward the achievement of these ultimate visions is to break the effort up into a series of manageable, psychologically meaningful chunks, each of which contains defined targets and measurable outputs, and each of which is informed by the experience of the previous chunk and informs the approach taken to the next chunk.

p.145,147 Where are we now [relative to where we want to be]?... What is critical to a Five Forces analysis of a marketplace is how these different constituents interact and what levels of power and influence they have on the market.

p.191-194 The Balanced Scorecard: A Simple Operational "Dashboard"... The balanced scorecard is so named because it effectively balances our strategic intent with our actions while allowing us to measure... our efforts along the way... It is critical that any measure used in the scorecard be objective, measurable, and repeatable... when executing a strategy, keep it simple, keep it focused, and keep it clear... the fewer metrics you use, the better. This will make your scorecard easier to manage, easier to communicate, and easier to track against.

p.227 The Key Concepts: Let's review what we have done up to now. We have fully developed our concept of our organization, its mission, values, and vision, in terms of its past, its present, and its desired future. We have defined our aspirations and described, in vivid terms, what the fulfillment of those aspirations would look like.

Next, we asked "What's going on?" both in the external environment (the world outside our organization) and in our internal environment (our capabilities and resources, our structures and processes) that might materially affect our ability to reach our targets. We tested the feasibility of our vision and used our analysis to identify gaps, both in the market and in our organization, that we would have to focus our strategy on closing.

Finally, we focused on our operating processes and procedures in order to build the delivery system, the "factory," needed to produce the outputs (the results) called for by our vision and to monitor our performance so that we might continue to adapt our efforts in real time in response to experience.

We have, in fact, set the stage for creating our strategy and moving to implementation - to action. We are now ready to use our vision, our chosen future, in the context of our analysis and our operational systems and structures to choose our strategy - to answer the final question... What do we have to do to get there?

p.229 we should expect, and we should anticipate, that we are likely to encounter any number of obstacles... at every step of the way... we aggressively seek to identify and prepare for them. In fact, these obstacles... are the gaps between our current state and our desired future state that our strategy must speak to and close.

p.228-232 What are the major stages/phases that we will have to accomplish along the way?... What obstacles are likely to get in our way?... What are we going to do to overcome these obstacles?... these three questions constitute the process of Folding Back... Folding Back is the Third KEY to Strategic Thinking.

p.231 our strategy... should be robust, that is, grounded in a strong consensus on mission, values, and vision, and buttressed by rigorous, ongoing analysis... it can withstand major shocks... it should be resilient, that is, it should have the flexibility and adaptability to be able to question current arrangements and to move quickly in response to changing conditions

p.232 Our strategic action plan provides the guidance and direction for implementing our chosen strategy. It specifies, step by step, who has to do what when in order to move along the timeline - along the intended strategy... our strategic action plan can and should focus on defining the actions and decisions that need to be undertaken to achieve the first milestone - to overcome the initial obstacles.