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Building a Strategy: Do Politicians Have it Figured Out Yet?
October 28, 2008
The Canadian federal election ended recently, and the American presidential race is fast approaching. After watching these events play out in televised debates, and reading about them in news stories, I decided to peruse the candidates’ websites. When I visited John McCain’s website, I first noticed the banner at the top that reads: Reform - Prosperity - Peace. I assumed these three things to be the overall objectives of his presidency, but digging deeper into the website, I found few specific ties back to this overarching headline. What sort of reform? Prosperity for whom, and how will it be measured? Peace for the world, or just for Americans? I started to suspect that these words simply tested well amongst American voters and are not directly tied to his plans to lead the country. I hoped Barack Obama’s site would fare better, but instead I found myself overwhelmed by a list of 25+ individual “Issues”, each with its own page that describes the problems currently existing within each issue and plans about how to overcome them. While the site does go into great detail about how each of these issues will be tackled, it lacks a clear picture about how these issues fit together to form a consistent plan for the country.
And isn’t that part of the problem sometimes, that often more concern is shown about the individual issues at play, rather than the overarching direction in which we are heading? A lot of time is spent talking about the pieces that go into the puzzle, but less about what the ultimate outcome is supposed to be. Have you ever completed a jigsaw puzzle where they don’t show you the picture that’s on the box? You can kind of make out the picture on each piece, but it’s a heck of a lot harder to put them together when you’re not sure that the end outcome is supposed to be. I often feel like I’m completing one of these puzzles when I watch political debates – a lot of time is spent on debating small issues and very little time is spent explaining the big picture strategy each candidate has for the country.
What is strategy exactly? There are many definitions out there, and I tend to prefer ones that describe strategy as the choices that are made about which course of action to pursue in order to achieve a set of goals/objectives. A strategy should take the individual issues at play and fit them together to form a cohesive whole that sends everyone marching in the same direction. There are numerous methods by which strategies can be developed, but once they’re completed, they should entail the following components:
1. Scope Definition: Is this a strategy for the entire company, a few corporate divisions or just one product line? Without the proper scope noted, it is difficult to know the breadth and depth of the strategy that you should be making.
2. Goals/Objectives: Why is it that you have a strategy? Strategies are meant to guide everyone in the same direction, but what is that direction and how will you know if you are progressing there successfully? Is the strategy meant to increase sales or is it meant to improve customer satisfaction? Without knowing the purpose of the strategy, and having some way of measuring progress, we will never know if the strategy has been successful. Oftentimes, disagreements about the correct course of action actually come down to differing perspectives on what the goals/objectives of the strategy should be. If someone thinks that the strategy should be targeting increased sales and another person thinks it should be targeting improved customer satisfaction, they might have drastically different ideas about what constitutes a good strategy.
3. Guiding Light: How will you achieve your goals/objectives? A guiding light is a concise idea that sends everyone in the same direction towards fulfilling the goals/objectives (point #2 above) within the defined scope (point #1). For example, if a soap manufacturer decided it needed a product line strategy that will increase the likeability of the brand, the guiding light could be, “Be the greenest soap in the world.” This statement provides a clear reference point for anyone making a decision about which course of action to pursue in regards to this product line.
4. Strategic Pillars: With so many issues at play, what are the key levers that can be pushed/pulled in order to influence the strategy? Strategic pillars are these key components of the strategy that underpin the overarching idea and support moving everyone in the desired strategic direction. While it can be tempting to consider everything a “must have” when compiling pillars, it’s much more powerful to be able to boil down the issues into several buckets that are easy for people to remember.
5. Execution Plan: Now that you know what you’re trying to achieve, the direction you are heading, and which areas are most impactful to getting there, how will you actually move forward? An execution plan details the tactical things that must be done within each of the strategic pillars to move in the direction of the big idea and ultimately achieve the goals/objectives. At Torque, we often say that you have to start with something tangible in order to move forward – a person, a product, a billboard, etc… An execution plan is all about figuring out what tangible tools you have at your disposal, and deciding how you will utilize those tools in order to support your strategic pillars.
What do you think? Does strategy play an important role when attempting to lead large-scale efforts? If so, what are the important components to a good strategy?
~ Terence Smith / Lead Consultant / Torque
