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By Indy Chakrabarti – Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer, Avetta
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” Peter Drucker
It implies that the culture and practices within an organization naturally shape its future achievements, rather than solely relying on the direction set by an individual who proposes a particular vision of the future.
In a competitive business environment, it’s critical for organizations to employ a strategic vision when it comes to day-to-day business operations. Read on to gain valuable insights shared by Indy Chakrabarti, Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer at Avetta, as he unravels the tactical truths behind the strategic vision and its practical application in your daily life. Don’t miss the insightful guidance on navigating challenges that hinder the realization of strategic goals and how they can be translated into actionable steps in your day-to-day life. This informative discussion, filled with actionable advice and tactical truths will help you embark on a journey to unlock your own strategic vision and transform your aspirations into tangible results.
Strategy is often misunderstood as the process of generating grand, futuristic ideas through idle contemplation. However, this is not an accurate understanding of what strategy truly entails. In reality, no matter how many imaginative ideas or elaborate three-year plans are developed, they do not automatically qualify as strategies until they are put into action.
A three-year plan though serves as a comprehensive document outlining the desired accomplishments intended to achieve in the next three years. Further, it’s typically useful for marketing purposes such as attracting investors or motivating employees, and creating such a plan is crucial and aids in clarifying the thinking of both individuals and organizations, it should not be confused with strategy because it cannot translate into actionable steps.
Clients can be a major obstacle to implementing effective strategies as illustrated in the “whiner’s curse” analogy adapted by Henry Ford.
Imagine that your current customer possesses a horse and a carriage, and your strategic direction is to create a revolutionary Model S (not the Model T). When you ask your customer about their future preferences, they would like to have a horse and carriage with two horses. Despite explaining your plans for an innovative self-propelled metal vehicle, they would accept it to be a great idea but keep asking and whining about, “Where’s the second horse?” This situation exemplifies the “whiner’s curse.”
Though I wouldn’t refuse that customers are vital to any organization, one must listen to their needs, and must never ignore their input but find a way for your strategy to navigate and thrive in this customer-oriented world.
Drawing inspiration from auto-rickshaw drivers, Chakrabarti highlights that an auto driver stuck in traffic, without any three-year plan or a grand design for navigating through the traffic, still possesses the ability to maneuver through traffic efficiently. There is a certain set of characteristics of an auto driver that you must understand in order to understand what strategy actually means and how to make it survive in a challenging landscape which are:
1. The Power of Knowing the Roads:
Analogous to an auto driver, we must also have a very clear understanding of the roads and the landscape to reach the destination without any three-year plan. In the realm of business, as highlighted by Chakrabarti, understanding the landscape entails grasping essential elements such as your organization’s financials, data, market conditions, and trends. By immersing yourself in these crucial aspects involving the organization’s profit, expenses, and forecasts, you gain clarity on the roads. Hence, just like an auto driver navigates effortlessly through familiar roads, having a career understanding of your business allows you to comprehend your business and the surrounding world. This understanding forms the bedrock for effective decision-making and successful implementation of strategic initiatives.
2. Collaboration: The Key to Execution:
Next, similar to an auto, organizations must leverage the transformative power of collaboration in effectively executing strategic goals. This can only be done when organizations realize the key role played by customers and hence mold their ideas or strategy to fit customer feedback rather than rigidly sticking to a preconceived plan. Hence, in order to align the ideas and strategies to customers’ preferences, organizations must alter their mindset of needing unlimited resources, and funding, instead, navigating through the side lanes, finding ways to collaborate and achieve goals with existing resources. This also requires working closely with department heads, convincing them of the value and aligning their interests.
3. Embracing Adaptability:
In order for your organization to navigate the ever-changing business landscape, understanding the importance of adaptability tends to be very vital. Just like autos are being repurposed into a double-decker to suffice various transportation needs in order for them to stay agile and responsive to market trends and customer demands, strategies should be made adaptable to fit existing circumstances and resources for your organization to get a competitive edge. By embracing adaptability, you position your organization to thrive in dynamic environments, meeting the evolving needs of your customers.
Indy Chakrabarti – Chief Strategy & Marketing Officer, Avetta
Institute of Product Leadership is Asia’s First Business School providing accredited degree programs and certification courses exclusively in Product Management, Strategy, and Leadership.
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