Leadership – Invigorating Strategic Vision

Vision – “Dream” or “Foresight”

In the bible, Joseph with his cloak of many colors in the Kingdom of Egypt was asked to interpret the Pharaoh’s dream. The outcome of that interpretation was a plan for the next fourteen years through times of abundance and times of famine. (NIV Bible Genesis 41:25-40) The Pharaoh was so impressed with Joseph’s ability to present a workable strategy over the following fourteen years that he raised Joseph from a prisoner to the second most powerful man in the Egyptian Kingdom.

Theological discussions aside, the lesson for the value of insightful and actionable strategic plans is clear. Strategic advantage for an organization can be gained from a comprehensive plan that is properly executed. Leaders that possess the foresight to create and invigorate an actionable strategic plan are rewarded with sustained competitive advantages.

The key to invigorating a strategic vision is to create an actionable vision that promotes not only the execution of the business strategy but insists on leaps of progress tied to the organization’s core objectives. Today’s difficult economy drives many leaders away from their strategic vision. Day to day tactical imperatives overpower the already stressed and depleted leadership resources.

Only organizations that have weaved the strategic vision + plan + lean deployment together in the fabric of their culture will continue to look forward and take advantage of opportunity leaps. An integrated transformational model that employs this strategic lean deployment systematically reviews its competitive market position, maintains accountability for results, and challenges the status quo.

An example of the transformational model in action:

I was speaking today with a friend about business development for his Company’s products into a closed but lucrative market. We discussed the advantages and disadvantages of his products alongside the entrenched competition. The gist of the analysis was the Company’s products were high quality and more comprehensive, while the competitors were quality products delivered as set packages at a lower price.

We discussed the size of the market, potential customers, and market share by the participants. The strategic gap analysis opened an opportunity that had not been identified in the past because strategic lean deployment was not integral to the Company’s culture. The Company had previously …

• Identified the market for their products as deliverable to their client organizations through the human resource function after penetrating the client through senior management
• Considered their competition to be the handful of other firms supplying similar products and services using this methodology
• Calculated their market and their market share by the total dollars of products and services provided by these rival firms and the customer.

The strategic gap analysis suggested the Company was missing a major opportunity by not identifying the in-house human resource function as a competitor. The in-house human resource function produced services and programs that substituted for the Company’s products. This significantly expanded the size of the potential product market. An actionable strategy suggested penetration potential for complimentary, strategic alliance, or cost effective substitute products and services.

Eliminate exclusive short term survival thinking from your organization.

Provide a business system that integrates an actionable strategic lean deployment initiative into their day to day key performance indicators.

Motivate leadership to embrace new ideas of customers, markets, product management, and order fulfillment using lean thinking and strategic planning.

Develop a culture of accountability for strategic initiatives as well as traditional performance metrics.

Envision a proactive business model focused on the opportunities of the future as well as the imperatives of the present.

My final thought: Thinking strategically ‘out of the box’ is more important during difficult times when the world is closing in on your company.