Kim Warren on Strategy

Strategy insights and living business models

Strategy is not an Art!

Every statement ‘Strategy is an art, not a science‘ knocks back any chance of being taken seriously by management colleagues. Some such statement comes up on just about every strategy discussion group I follow, but it’s a false dichotomy, and untrue in any case. The ‘Picasso’ analogy is a nonsense – not only is every work by true artists highly creative, but every brush-stroke is too. Creativity is a minuscule element in strategy – spotting some business idea that no-one else has done – but 99% of it is serious, logical thinking and working-out. Even issues where creativity might be helpful are much more often tackled, successfully, by reasoning than by creative genius – you can think your way to spotting new market opportunity, and work out analytically how to tackle a competitor. There are armies of strategy professionals out there (even if not named as such) doing rigorous investigation, analysis, and decision-making, and helping their organisations do well as a result. Even where a genius insight happens, it will then be built on by hundreds of times more effort in its implementation than the split-second Eureka moment. Can we please stop devaluing the vast amounts of hugely important, professional work that strategy professionals do?

Strategy Dynamics Essentials

Strategy Dynamics Essentials book cover

Strategic Management Dynamics

Strategic Management Dynamics - cover image