WHEN TO CHANGE GOOD STRATEGY: TO DISMOUNT OR TO RIDE ON?

The seven questions listed below help place parameters around good strategy (good strategy is strategy that is implementable and drives success, growth, and customer loyalty). But remember that these are not seven easy questions, nor are their answers cast in stone. I advise managers to ask these questions—all of them—at least twice a year. Even if the answers haven’t changed significantly, at a minimum you’ll be thinking on the right level with some regularity. Then, once you have the perspective that this combination of answers offers you, you’re ready to act and make hard decisions, because you’ll know why you’re doing what you’re doing, and your decisions will be based on sound strategic thinking. Remember, too: strategy is not tactics, it’s directionality.

Conversely, by regularly revisiting these seven questions you’ll have additional, crucial information to detect the early warning signs of good strategy that has taken a turn for the worse. If, for example, two or more of your strategic givens and/or answers to these seven questions change significantly, it’s often an early indicator that fundamental shifts in strategy are appropriate.

‘‘Strategy making is an immensely complex process involving the most sophisticated, subtle, and at times subconscious of human cognitive and social processes.’’ (Henry Mintzberg)

Coming up in my next blog: The 7 Questions you must ask yourself regularly and often!