What Makes a Strategy a Winner?

Strategy is to put a plan of action by adapting principles that are designed to accomplish a specific and or general goal (Thompson, Strickland and Gamble, 2008). Therefore, an organization does need a strategy that can define its mission, goals and strengths counter to its opponents. In this day and age the advanced technology and constantly changing markets have made it imperative for an organization to not only understand the need to of strategy, rather its important for the organization to successfully analyze and carry its daily activities.

 

A strategy that fits an organization well helps to analyze its goals and mission by evaluating its past, current standing and predicted future. It must be able to explain the current situation of the organization by the management to be able to evaluate its marketing and production conditions.  A successful strategy can give the organization a competitive edge over its rivals by articulating new sources, transformation, and changing ways that can spur growth. The right strategy must also be able to articulate a way forward and how the organization can reach its destination by overcoming challenges step by step and into transcending into daily details of the organizational activities (Thompson, Strickland and Gamble, 2008).

A successful strategy must resonate with employees of the organization and allow them all to function at their respectful specializations with common end results that are in collaboration with producing goods and services that will attract and please customers effectively and efficiently. For example, the Coca-Cola illustration of its strategic vision is the strategy designed to carry out operations, attain desired goals, meet the performance and ultimately make profit that benefits and felt by all (Thompson, Strickland and Gamble, 2008).

It is imperative for leadership and management of any organization to understand and value the input of its employees. Leadership should back up management and management should be the mediator representing both the leadership and employees. A manager’s position is a calculative and tricky position, always in need of a hands-on person with people skills and experiences. Education alone cannot always transcend management and leadership skills because people skills are not always taught in the class, whether in the field or through hands on activities.

Therefore, any organization with qualified managers will have competent management that represents people by formulating ideas that are from the employees and such management if involved in the strategy made by the leadership, will relate to employees’ input to such strategy. For example, as Program Manager of my organization which is care service based not for profit agency, we collect employees’ concerns and ideas through supervision meetings to each employee once a week and or when an issue arises. These concerns are carefully looked upon and studied by supporting data because each shift employee has access to our data collections network where we feed important daily data for each client’s/consumers. Their concerns are always related to the presided incidents that involves either a client(s) or fellow employees. As a member of the management team, we pushed for a strategy that was not only client based, but rather also employees focused because they are the one handling all the active and actual work of our care and services. It is then that management becomes an empowering body to the employee’s and supporting them to reach production with efficiency and effectiveness.

This is the process we use to formulate a strategy that involves employees in the strategy planning. It is customized to my organization, but it has the premise of involving employees as the one center principles. This way the strategy is well known and communicated, employees are committed; even after the financial meltdown of 2008 that shrunk the employees’ investments and stability of the organization, we are now stronger and moving to the right direction (Thompson, Strickland and Gamble, 2008).

Leadership and management have high stakes on the organizational strategy. Therefore, it is critical for leadership and management to understand and value the input of its employees. This is done by leadership backing up the management and management to be the mediator representing both the leadership and employees. As Program Manager myself, a manager’s position is a calculative and tricky position. A successful organization is always in need of a hands-on person with people skills and experiences to help strategize its daily functions. Education alone cannot always transcend management and leadership skills because people skills are not always taught in the class, whether in the field or through hands on activities.

The strategy is to have a competent management that represents people by formulating ideas that are from the employees. The strategy here is well known and communicated, employees are committed; even after the financial meltdown of 2008 that shrunk the employees’ investments and stability of the organization, we are now stronger and moving to the right direction (Thompson, Strickland and Gamble, 2008). The result of a strategy that encompasses employees in the making gives them more responsibilities and motivations to meet the desired goals.

My statement on "the right strategy must also be able to articulate a way forward and how the organization can reach its destination by overcoming challenges step by step and transcending into details of the organizational daily activities” is an example of employee based strategy (Thompson, Strickland, and Gamble, 2008).

The world is evolving with the people in it. Technological advancement has made the world different and efficient day by day. The successful organization will respond to this change and adapt changes and challenges as they come.  Therefore, status quo is no-brainer in todays and tomorrows world. To put the organizational strategy in to perspective, take a look at what the Xerox CEO, Ursula Burns, when she said that the world is changing and therefore people and organizations are also changing, organizations that resists to transform and conform to the changes as they happen such organization will get stuck (Burns, 2012). This is prolonging of my statement that “I think the more willing a company is to be flexible and realize that the strategy will be every changing with the times.  I am sure many companies had to adapt new strategies as the economy began to suffer.  When it did not rebound as quickly as some may have hoped those strategies were again revisited…”

It is unfortunate that some companies don’t see what many experts and professionals see. To them it is about the dollar sign and the easy way is to maintain the status quo. This strategy is prevalent in the public sector where profit margin and accountability are not measured as same as the private sectors. But that doesn’t not mean that change is not coming in the way also. It is coming and the earth is shifting beneath them.

Also my statement that “Management that is knowledgeable, flexible, and efficient possess the ability to adapt their strategy as outside conditions change as well as internal process require adjustments, will set an organization up for positive results” is resonating to the contemporary changing organization. In case of Best Buy, it needs a visionary leader with visionary strategies that can rescue it from its financial calamities. The new CEO must be the leader with strategy that taps in team play, team building and who is able to use his skills and experience to offshoot growth by exciting employees, winning back customers, reaffirm the Best Buy brand (Yahoo Finance, 2012). He must not look only at imposing and shoveling ideas to the already burned-out team/employees. He needs to understand the employees’ frustration and what it takes to get back customer satisfaction. They are the ones going implement his strategy and turn it into success. Therefore winning their hearts and minds are the key factor for his strategy become successful.

A successful strategy will need to involve the employees because in today’s world you need knowledgeable and skilled employees to get the job done. Such strategy will make an organization competitive especially when its employees know by heart their organization’s strategy. If the employees participate in formulating the strategy, they will know it well and most likely perform it well. Therefore, the job of leadership is to envision the strategy and management to make sure the strategy is productive can be made easier when employees know the strategy (Thompson, Strickland, and Gamble, 2008). Of course strategies differ from one organization to another just like corporate culture, strategy is unique also.

                                                             

However, what makes a strategy a winner is the strategy itself and communication used by the visionary leader using the team and message he/she assembled. A strategy must include the following steps, development of strategic vision mission and values, creating purposes, creating a strategy to meet the goal that takes the organization in the right direction, implementing the strategy and monitoring outcomes by appraising performance also to initiate adjustments of changes as they become apparent (Thompson, Strickland, and Gamble, 2008). This process of implementing a strategy must carry a message of management’s aspirations for the direction leadership wants the organization to be in the future. Some leaders set limits and deadlines with clear set of goals to be achieved. The aim is for all employees in the organization to know what is needed to be done in a set period of time. 

What Makes a Strategy a Winner? Think of how global markets have changed and think about technology advancement with constant changing environment? How can a company/organization stay competitive in the market and what strategy can deliver? These are questions that a competitive leader will need a team that can help him to answer and deliver. No single person can deliver these questions by his/her own; it takes a team effort by the team builder and team player to all pitch in and gets the job done with assistance of a visionary leader who will articulate a working strategy. That is leadership and that is a working progressive strategy in the constant changing environment.  

Reference:

Burns, U., (2012). “If you don't transform, you're stuck”: On the imperative to transform. Xerox CEO: By NPR staff. http://www.npr.org/2012/05/23/153302563/xerox-ceo-if-you-don-t-transform-you-re-stuck

Thompson, A., Strickland, A., Gamble, J.  (2008). Crafting and executing strategy; The quest for competitive advantage: Concepts and cases, 17ed.  New York, NY:  McGraw-Hill Irwin. 

Yahoo Finance. (2012). Best Buy names Carlson's Hubert Joly as new CEO to turn around consumer electronics chain. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/best-buy-hires-joly-ceo-111702889.html

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