Strategy isn’t “messy”

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… and there are general insights. Just jumped on another claim that strategy is too complex,  subtle and case-specific to understand or learn about. (I hope the link works – it’s a LinkedIn discussion in The Strategy Bureau group under “Should strategy be taught like medicine?”)

The first claim was that “strategic” means, by definition, messy – I don’t see why. An issue, initiative, plan or whatever is strategic if it will likely make a significant difference to the medium- ...

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Building acquisition capability

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Good discussion of M&A in strategy+business from Booz. Points out that making acquisitions is, like most other activities, something you get better at with practice, so skilled companies build real capability at doing it. Cisco is a well-known case [also with much skill at alliances prior to possilbe acquisition – Google will point to tons of stuff on them] and this article highlights Johnson & Johnson. Especially useful extra, though, is the guidance offered on managing the process. ...

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More items on strategy in the crisis

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Amongst the continuing stream of articles on this, some good ones [I’ve left out some bad or downright dangerous ones] include:

Seven Ways Forward from Booz & Co’s strategy+business on, with specifics for Manufacturing, Consumer Products, Aerospace and Defense, Telecom, Finance, and general guidance on rebuilding capabilities for long-term growth.

Surviving the Downturn: Lessons from Emerging Markets from Sloan Mgmt Review [title self-explanatory]

Three Opportunities to Seize in the Downturn a blog post from Harvard Business ...

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Booz & Co on strategy today

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Some sound principles in a brief Memo to the CEO. Particularly good is the focus on opportunity today’s conditions offer for sound firms.

Full article at Rethink Your Strategy: An Urgent Memo to the CEO.

Much of the advice is generic, and requires much more work than the brief headlines suggest. It also implies undoing much of the foolish activity that firms engaged in during the boom – by cutting fringe activities, shedding marginal businesses, ...

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