Andrea Belk Olson Why Operationalizing Strategy isn’t about Communicating Proclamations
Here’s a line in a corporate strategy document from a multi-billion-dollar client I was working with a few years ago:
“We need to focus on better understanding the evolving needs of our current and future customers and tailor solutions to meet those needs.”
What the hell? Isn’t that what the company should do as just a basic, daily operating principle? That’s not a strategy; it’s a proclamation.
Sure, it sounds nice, important, and like something “we should focus on.” But it doesn’t tell employees how. How you’ll identify unique customer needs and how you’ll uniquely tailor those solutions. I mean, if this is a strategy, I don’t know why I haven’t gone to every single client and told them this. Likely, they’d laugh in my face and tell me, “No shit – thanks for that insight.” Any CEO who says this crap to their board should be reprimanded at least and fired at worst. They don’t know anything about strategy.
And if people don’t know how to craft a strategy, they’ll fill in templates with the obvious and give the company no true direction or advantage. In short, if your strategy makes statements that no one would refute, you haven’t made any real strategic choices at all.
On the flip side, being too constrained will limit the organization’s opportunity to explore new ideas despite having the means and capacity to pursue them. Here’s another excerpt from that same corporate strategy:
“We will generate salesperson success through improved onboarding and team selling.”
Okay, but are onboarding and team selling the only barriers to salesperson success? How is “salesperson success” defined? What about other ways to support salesperson success? What about other departments’ contributions to generating salesperson success, not just the sales team’s efforts?
Moreover, what problem is “improved onboarding” solving? Is the problem getting new salespeople productive more quickly? Or is it reducing salesperson attrition? These have wildly different solutions.
What problem is “team selling” solving? Is it getting departments to communicate more effectively? Or is it uncovering hidden customer needs? Or something else? Again, there are different solutions to different problems.
Without a clear understanding of the problems being addressed, the “actions” defined in the strategy can unintentionally cause the organization to spend resources on the wrong things.
About the Author:
Andrea Belk Olson is a keynote speaker, author, differentiation strategist, behavioral scientist, and customer-centricity expert.As the CEO of Pragmadik, she helps organizations of all sizes, from small businesses to Fortune 500, and has served as an outside consultant for EY and McKinsey. Andrea is the author of three books, including her most recent, What To Ask: How To Learn What Customers Need but Don’t Tell You. She is a 4-time ADDY® award winner and host of the popular Customer Mission podcast. Her thoughts have been continually featured in news sources such as Chief Executive Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, Harvard Business Review, Rotman Magazine, World Economic Forum, and more. Andrea is a sought-after speaker at conferences and corporate events throughout the world. She is a visiting lecturer and startup coach at the University of Iowa, a TEDx presenter, and TEDx speaker coach. She is also an instructor at the University of Iowa Venture School.
