Nice article on bad strategy

McKenzie Quarterly's June issue has a good article on bad strategy that got me thinking about the "7 Strategy Mistakes" I'm presenting in late July. Some of what the article lists is also what's in the presentation.

The article lists the hallmarks of bad strategy are failure to face the problem, mistaking goals for strategy, bad objectives (fuzzy or "blue sky"), and fluff.

The article attributes the abundance of bad strategy to inability to decide, and to following a template-style strategy.

It's on the last point, his assertion that templating the vision, mission, values, and strategies always leads to empty rhetoric and fluff, that I believe the author is mistaken.

Of course, using a template poorly can go wrong .  If an organization found a strategy self-help website and approached it as if playing "buzzword Mad-Libs" they'll get meaningless fluff.  In the worst cases I've seen, they may work on it so hard and so long that they start to think it's beautiful -- often to the amusement of others.  What a waste when it goes astray like that!

But when leaders develop strategy well, they ...

• answer the hard questions in an honest SWOT,
• do the hard homework of figuring out who's the real competition and how to beat them, 
• do a cold-eyed, realistic assessment of the changing market
• make a coherent plan for using talent, finance, resources...

AND when they also really revisit the Why are we here? questions of vision, mission, and values (sometimes with help, when that's not a skill that the leaders start with) - then they can also engage the hearts, minds, and full talents of the organization.

Because the most brilliantly conceived competitive strategy won't make much difference if the organization isn't aware, aligned, accountable, and committed to it.

The article from McKenzie Quarter can be found at http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/The_perils_of_bad_strategy_2826