Fix the 'End Goal' within the Strategy First!

• Strategy seems to be in everyone’s mind these days .. hey you have to ‘strategize’ to build competitive advantage & drive organizational, team or individual success. Is it not the ultimate differentiator against those who do NOT have a strategy, remember Strategic Management at B-School – so we go blah .. blah .. blah
• Seriously speaking, I value strategy for all the above virtues and have used it for attaining leadership positions in many ways myself. That said, I often see strategy taking too much of prominence in time, focus and mindshare where it begins to become a worry. Also remember that for all you may think, your competitors are strategizing too .. against you!
• I view strategy as one of the means to attain the end game rather than the highly involved end game itself – this very often happens without you even realizing it!
• The end game attainment goals needs to be definite – holistic goals like top-line, bottom-line, share growth or specific goals like market-share, productivity growth etc. Simply put, a metric that delivers incremental value to the organization & provides it with a competitive advantage
• Add to that a need for an accurate description of your current status – what is the point of figuring out where you need to go if you are not clear where you stand today
• That done, the ‘strategy’ needs to be taken down to all the functional groups that will drive the determined ‘end game’- sales, marketing, finance, operations, manufacturing with commonly agreed sub-goals that will cumulatively drive the overall end game. Disjointed and often contradictory strategies between functional groups have a history of downing many a honest effort - leadership, teamwork & collaboration are keywords here
• In my leadership career I have practiced a Plan of Record (POR) Methodology for determining & executing strategy collaborating multiple cross geography teams. The POR glues the teams by - documenting specific focus areas, specific action items related to these focus areas, designated primary owners, associated secondary owners (across cross functional teams), target completion dates, actual completion & comments. Quantify these as much as possible and ensure they capture the What, When, Where, Who & How? Watch out for the devil in the details & you will stay on track
• While the POR guides your execution, do not lie back just yet! Milestones along the way are crucial in determining whether the strategy is on track – quantitative milestones embedded in the POR (as recommended above) are very useful in accomplishing this
  If the variance between the forecast & actual is significant at consecutive milestones, it is very likely that we have a problem
• Socialize within the functional teams involved and do not be afraid to open up the Strategy shell … it is always better to take a step back and fix things rather than continue to make the shortcoming bigger than what it really is
• Your methodology and your quantified pre set goals will provide your team with the confidence in driving towards the end game goals. Assuming that you have set the goals right, you are very likely on the track to deliver incremental value & competitive advantage to your organization .. Congratulations!