The way we do strategy today is ridiculous. Decks on decks on decks that people approve but never revisit. Let's try to incorporate strategy into everything we do.
7. 0%
33%
67%
100%
1995 1999 2003 2007 2011 2015e
7
N O I N T E R N E T
N O S M A R T P H O N E
G L O B A L A D U L T P O P U L A T I O N W I T H . . .
Evans
9. Digital is cost performance
improvement of critical
technologies – making really hard
things easier and cheaper than
ever before
Computing created massive
productivity improvements
relative to wages for workers, and
is likely to eliminate many jobs,
allowing companies to operate
effectively with less profit.
Practically speaking, everyone is
connected perfectly with each
other, increasing the complexity
of our world.
9
Review: Defining “digital”
10. Pace of change, rate of growth,
topple rate
Changing expectations and
smarter everyone
Platforming of everything
Everyone becomes an user
10
Understanding digital problems
16. Employees = Customers =
Employees
Pay and be paid with time and
money
16
Everyone’s a user
17. Pace of change, rate of growth,
topple rate – these are all
increasing as computing gets more
distributed (particularly with the
deployment of mobile). 55 people
can reach 1 billion – WhatsApp!?
We’re more educated than ever,
and our expectations are higher.
There’s no reason to accept a
shitty experience from a legacy
player – go start your own thing.
There is an all-out race to be the
lone platform-owning monopoly
in every sector. This is why
companies that “get it” are
investing all profits back into
growth and user experience.
There is no longer an useful
distinction between employees
and customers – value exchanges
just happen in different ways, but
we’re all users, all the time. 17
Review: Understanding digital problems
20. Strategy: The plan for the
allocation of resources to
anticipated demand.
Structure: The design for putting
the enterprise’s existing resources
against current demand.
Tactics: The efficient and steady
use of current resources whose
allocation had already been
decided.
20
Strategy and Structure: Chandler, 1962
23. 😫 Fluff: Fluff is a form of
gibberish masquerading as
strategic concepts and
arguments.
😫 Failure to face the challenge:
When you cannot define the
challenge, you cannot
evaluate a strategy or
improve it.
😫 Mistaking goals for strategy:
Many bad strategies are just
statements of desire rather
than plans for overcoming
obstacles.
😫 Bad strategic objectives:
Strategic objectives are
“bad” when they fail to
address critical issues or
when they are impracticable.
23
Classic Fails: Rumelt
26. 26
Complex
Cause & effect is
clear in retrospect
Probe, Sense, Respond
Chaotic
No cause & effect
system relationship
Act, Sense, Respond
Complicated
Cause & effect is
clear to experts
Sense, Analyze, Respond
Simple
Cause & effect is
obvious to everyone
Sense, Categorize,
Respond
Disorder
Snowden
27. Good strategies are long-term
projections of demand and
changes necessary to meet it. But
what utility is a long-term
projection of demand if new
competitors scale to billions in a
matter of months?
Frameworks are easy, fast
solutions to strategic problems,
but apply pre-existing thinking to
new data from new conditions.
A faster option: use sense-making
tools all the time to bring strategic
methods into all decisions.
Also: be wary of bullshit for
bullshit’s sake, and mindful that
repeated production of future-
casting PowerPoints is a waste of
everyone’s time.
27
Review: What is strategy
30. 30
If strategies are hard to make,
we will make them seldomly.
If strategies are hard to remember,
we will use them rarely.
31. 31
If strategies are hard to make,
we will make them seldomly.
If strategies are hard to remember,
we will use them rarely.
If we can’t remember our strategies, and
update them infrequently, we’re fucked.
32. User stories/Jobs to be done
Polarizing strategy statements
32
Always-on Strategy Practice
33. 33
As a user
I want to take an action
So I achieve an outcome
35. Independent Can be built in any
order
Negotiable Flexible; the team can
choose how to implement
Valuable Outcome is actually
worth something to the user
Estimable Actually useful for
planning work
Small Easier to estimate, plan,
implement and iterate
Testable Have built-in, or at least
prescribed, success and failure
criteria
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INVEST: Rally Software
44. We’re all users, and we’re all hiring
products, apps, services,
companies, colleagues, and feeds
to do jobs for us. Use a Jobs To Be
Done framework continually to
understand why things are being
hired, and to eliminate as much
bias and assumption as possible.
Strategy is about choice, and
creating short, memorable
mnemonics for those critical
choices is essential. Choices must
be between two desirable
outcomes – else, they’re not really
choices. Develop and consent to
these strategy statements as a
team, and do it frequently.
44
Review: Always-on Strategy Practice