Look at the companies who are moving forward, such as Google with its release of Plus. Great companies control their own destiny.  And yes they might stub their toe now and then but they succeed even when things do not go well by “failing forward” meaning that not only do they learn from their mistakes but their mistakes come out of a proactive effort to improve things beyond the status quo.

I am not advocating boldness for the sake of being bold or reckless, but I am saying that good companies have aggressively surveyed and scanned the environment and are re-inventing themselves to deliver an appropriate response.  And these are the companies who have the head start and will lead in the future.

Below are seven bad but tempting approaches to avoid when deciding on strategic direction.  The thing that all of these approaches have in common is that they give the appearance and sense of action but are really non-committal and passive in nature. If you are in a “wait and see” mentality you are no longer in the game; you are watching from the sidelines.

1-Being Faux Opportunistic- Being opportunistic is a good thing. But you have to be opportunistic within your strategy and in a proactive way.  Just saying “we should be opportunistic” as a strategy is saying very little if there are no boundaries or active searching in place.   You can only get there by having clear plan that allows you to adjust it and take advantage of unanticipated opportunities.  Being opportunistic does not mean we wait until an opportunity comes to us and we will grab it. It means putting things in motion, making things happen and being in the right place at the right time to leverage good circumstances.

2- Dabbling- When it comes to strategy, companies must resist the temptation to only “dabble.”  Dabbling is weak and only in an extreme exception can be productive.  If you want to try out something you may as well commit to it.  Of course you still need to plan, monitor, evaluate success and adjust, but give it a real try.  Without strong intention you are better not even attempting it.

3- Avoid answering the hard questions unlit a later time. I have been around too many executive teams these days that are tempted to keep deferring the real tough questions until later.  In looking back, many executives will tell you that they responded slower than they should have to the economic turndown hoping that it would end soon or not be as harsh as it was looking to be.  The tendency in this scenario is either denial or a form of analysis paralysis, always requiring endless discussion before taking a stand. Take on the tough questions, as they do not magically go away. Remember, hope is not a strategy.

4- Solving non-critical problems. This is another wrong turn.  I have seen executives and executive teams get all excited and hyped up solving problems that are peripheral to the real challenges of a company.  This scenario gives the sense that you are doing something of value when there is little payoff — not to mention the fact that you just wasted a good deal of time and energy.

5- Going Nostalgic- referring to, explaining, or defending the past. By nature great companies are always looking forward.  They appreciate and are rooted in the past, focus on the moment but look forward particularly when it comes to strategy.  There is little gained in direction setting when time is wasted referring to, explaining, blaming or defending the past.  This usually comes out when someone gets a little defensive about prior decisions. You should learn from and build off the past but the past shouldn’t limit the way you analyze the future.

6- Providing critique instead of providing solutions. As you know this is a pet peeve of mine, executives thinking that their greatest contribution to the company is being critical of ideas without proposing any solutions.  And what can often happen in a strategy session is that this approach becomes a communal experience ending in a feeding frenzy of sorts. Beyond the critique of solutions being offered be prepared to spend more time in creating the best way forward.

7-Embracing designed vagueness. This means throwing out impressive sounding platitudes without the detail or clear direction to make them meaningful.  For example I will often hear that the company should have ‘managed growth” because growth at all costs is bad and that no growth is bad.  Sounds great on the surface — and hard to argue with — but what direction does that statement really provide? So do not stop at platitudes: explore and define the actual ideas underneath.

So how do you avoid the approaches above?  Often by just putting them out there you take away their power and willingness of people to utilize them. Some organizations will identify these traps and call their peers out on them when any of the approaches are being employed—sometimes with gentle words and sometimes with a crumpled piece of paper.

It is imperative to choose a direction because by choosing a direction you now have an actual course to correct.  Your direction should be clear and strong but at the same time not inflexible or untouchable.  By avoiding the above temptations a direction that is intentional and deliberate can guide your company, even in the toughest times.

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I have witnessed many of these discussions myself and have heard many stories about this most excruciating decision, in particular over the past few years. What is interesting is that there are similarities that are in common with all/most of the companies:

• Huge amounts of energy and time are expended on this issue even though the budget for this initiative had been determined months ago and is a relatively small item.  Now, there is great value in improving and correcting strategy as you go along when necessary but it just seems disproportionate to be looking at such a small line item in a vacuum and spending so much time on the morality of the action.
• The decision was so tough that a conclusive decision was not made until the last possible moment.  This results into two possible scenarios. First, the company finally determines that clients really like the cards (or even expect them) and that this is an important marketing spend.  Because this decision is made at the last minute, execution is often highly flawed.  The card design is inferior, the right people do not sign the cards, or the cards arrive too late (it is not enough just to get them to the client before the holiday but have them there for the client to notice the weeks before the actually holiday) to name a few.  The second scenario is that the powers that be make a late decision to cancel the Holiday cards in the name of saving money and being fiscally responsible. Then a less than stellar email goes out to the company explaining why the decision was made often with a very self-righteous attitude.  Hmmm.
• When executives, sales people, account managers get wind that cards or gifts are not going out they end up doing it themselves.  This takes time out of their day and usually costs more than if the company used their economy of scales to get this done.

Sound familiar? I hope not but it might.

So what is the answer? Well, it will be different for each company. For some companies their Holiday card or gift is a part of the brand, for others might be an obligatory action with little value.  For some industries it is a pure necessity.  Some companies may find value that each account manager is trustworthy enough to do their own thing with Holiday cards and the results are highly customized.

But here is the grind.  Holiday cards, although a small line item, are given inordinate amount of attention and review because they are such high a profile item and can be observed by everyone in the company.  This really distorts the decision making process and can really skew the decision-makers response.

First, the decision should not be made in a vacuum but in relationship the entire marketing strategy. Second, the decision should be verified by at least September so that proper and graceful execution can be realized just like you would do for any other marketing campaign. (Duh.)  If the decision is made not to send out cards, make it early and thoughtfully and move on.

I wish executive who fret about the Holiday card debate would spend the same amount of rigor and time on some of the most significant issues of the organization.

Lastly have a great, renewing and sacred Holiday. (And yes, consider this my Holiday card to you.)  Peace.

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So today I wanted to reflect on what made the session go so well.    The fact is that there were a lot or reasons including the quality of the Board members and much of the pre-work that went into the event.  But beyond that I just want to share a few salient seemingly random items that really helped in the facilitation of the session.

First, we started off the meeting with a commitment to Shoshin, or what the Zen Buddhists refer to as the ‘Beginners Mind’ that is to say, a stripping of preconceived conceptions and positions to a true attitude of openness and eagerness to explore.  This approach  although sounding warm and fuzzy really opened up the intellectual pursuit of analyzing the market with fresh eyes and being open to the solutions that would help the organization embrace the new territories ahead..  This was critical as so many times executives think they are innovative or charting a new course when all they are really doing is rearranging things or putting band-aids on top of band-aids never questioning the paradigm in which they are operating.

This openness helped the group have better dialogue and robust conversations.  And although we used a variety of tools and models to help process the multitude of information, I also observed as key was that the tools were secondary to the quality of the conversation and analysis.  Strategy-making teams often turn the SWOT analysis or the Hedgehog model into ends in themselves as opposed to tools of focus and evaluation.

And I cannot forget a small item that had significant impact on the quality of the retreat.  It is something that comes up a lot these days.  How many times in conversations do you hear “it is just a matter of semantics?”  This is especially true when it comes to people’s definitions of terms like Mission and Vision.  It can get really confusing with terms such as Strategy, Strategic Plan, Strategic Imperatives, Strategic Direction, Strategic Objectives, Strategic enter word of your choice here.  So in a preemptive move we came to agreement on what those terms meant to this team.  This helped to shed the many wasteful conversations than would have been had.  In addition to the definitions we were very clear about what the horizon line was for each term, i.e. 1 year, 2.5 years or 10 years and beyond.  This activity anchored the fruitful conversations to come.

After all was said and done with the new strategic imperatives, we had actually one more question to ask that would help us uncover the glue that was needed for the execution: “Where is the hope and excitement in this plan?”  It is very important to grasp this and build it into the works.  Without answering this question, the organizational execution becomes harder as there must be a compelling reason for the follow through.

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During this time it has seemed like the much of the chatter at the strategy retreats, visioning sessions and business planning meetings has focused on Brand.  And as I reflect on this the idea I realize that talk of Brand, Branding, Brand Strength has reached a fever pitch.  Non-business types talk about Brand, contenders on the Celebrity Apprentice speak about Brand consistency and relevance and even my 70 year old mother and retired school administrative assistant has used the term.  There has been on onslaught of new books on the subject and sports and entertainment celebrities hire teams to develop their personal Brand.  I myself made sure I got educated and became a relative expert on the subject to best serve my clients.  And I think this is a good thing as Brand is so very important to every organization.

But I do propose that there has been a good number of companies and people who potentially became too myopic on the Brand conversation and neglected equally important aspects of the business including contingency planning for a downturn, talent management and plain old business planning.  Some organizations even neglected the personal one-on-one relationship building with clients.  This has been especially true with B2B companies.  I believe that there was a ‘relaxing’ of effort in building strong personal relationships because there was so much focus on Brand and maybe even a hope that the Brand reputation was substitute or create a virtual relationship with the client.  Which of course it does not.

Now, hear me clearly, I am a huge believer in Brand and it is critically important to organizations!  I live it, I teach it, and I consult about it.  However, Brand is not sufficient in itself and must be complimented by the other business disciplines especially building personal relationships.  In order for businesses to be successful in this highly competitive world market place they must put effort and expertise in all areas of the business disciplines.

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