One aspect of strategic decisionmaking is about competition. You create barriers for competition where competition is imminent, and you obtain relative superiority over competition where the competition is manifest.
Another aspect of strategic decisionmaking has to do with innovation. You think of new ways to create value for customers.
Yet another aspect of strategic decisionmaking concerns itself with reflection. You figure out your own core competencies and play to exploit them. You understand your culture and put its strengths to use.
Strategy alters the strength of the enterprise relative to its competition.
Tactical issues, on the other hand, are about efficient execution. Tactical decisionmaking leads to absolute gain in operational efficiency. It leads to streamlined processes, reduced risk, and so forth.
Tactical decisionmaking can often be incremental: improve utilization, enhance productivity, increase return-on-investment. The metrics it aspires to meet are absolute: efficiency, quality, productivity, profitability.
To quote Kenichi Ohame, from The Mind of a Strategist, his famous strategy classic, "The mind of a strategist functions differently. Gaining relative superiority over competitors is different from making internal improvements with reference to an absolute model. It is the difference between going to battle and going on a diet."
Often then managers who make a transition from a tactical level to a strategic level are quite un-prepared to change to a strategic mindset. Several managers were able to experience this firsthand at a strategy workshop which I will describe in this blog some time soon.
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