Strategy, Vision, Story, Culture

First I need to admit that I'm a total newbie in any strategy work. I can openly admit that most of what I have is just scratching the surface and guesswork. But I'm getting increasingly curious about how to craft a strategy.

Even the best strategy isn't worth a penny if people don't know about it. People need to hear about the strategy. They need to be able to discuss it and ask questions. Possibly even help in crafting the strategy. I believe that's not always possible and maybe everyone doesn't even care too much about such things, but it's easier to embrace something you have been involved with early on. (I believe same things apply for leading change also. And well, strategy is about changing the company from one stage to another.) Communication becomes critical when executing the strategy.

I have recently learned that I've confused crafting a strategy and crafting a vision in my mind. I mean, if we start making a new strategy, first we should have a goal. Ambitious and challenging, yet reachable with some stretching. Or even unreachable. I was again happy to watch a video about Spotify. The second part of Spotify culture introduced the Definition of Awesome. I think company Vision should be something similar. What you aim to be in the future, the ultimate goal.

And then Strategy would be 'just' those steps that take us towards that goal. There might be big and scary actions that will need to see the daylight, but more or less this is how I see it. Now I'm facing some doubts. Spotify is emphasizing the importance of culture. Almost all companies have values. The recent presentation by Eric Schmidt from Google seems to point to the direction of culture plus right people and even directly saying that having a strategy is stupid. In today's fast moving world the strategy might be out of date quite soon after it has been crafted. Old truths don't hold anymore.

Experience is less important than skills, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Months and weeks have turned into seconds and you can be either a dinosaur or a small and agile mammal. Those who don't adapt will become fossils and relics of the past.

But maybe strategy can also be to create an kick-ass culture while pursuing that vision. If you aim to be the best damn player with the most awesome products that customers love, that vision is not going to get out-of-date soon.

Fourth interesting concept related to the same topic is the company Story. I read about this from Ville Tolvanen's blog (who unfortunately blogs in Finnish). I like this approach of having a Story. Stories are easy to remember and they don't need to be precise. Using metaphors is often a powerful way to get the message through. Maybe the trick is to tell a story about a company that had an awesome culture and was chasing a glorious goal...