HOW TO MAKE STRATEGY SUCCEED

By George Marenya

trategy. No word has been used, overused and even misrepresented like this particular one. So what is strategy?And beyond definition and linguistics around it, what does it entail in the long run? This is what Professor Timothy Waema, Ron Price and Evans Baiya have set out to do. Define strategy in simple yet not simplistic terms. And they don’t disappoint. In their magnumopus- Optimizing Strategy for Results, they define strategy among other things as a: “Line connecting the current state of the company with its goal.”

Journey

Strategy is that journey. It is not reams of paper, booklets or manuals but what you do day in day out. What is more, it not some magic to be prescribed by a battery of consultants from without and presented to hapless staff as a magic wand. Since that is so, the people around you, those who will make this possible, become very crucial. Even more important is how you will let them know of your intentions moving forward.

The culture of the organization will define its strategy and ensure whether it succeeds or fails. Maybe Peter Drucker was right when he said that culture will eat strategy for breakfast. If the company norms and ethos are not in tune with the intended success story, then too bad.Everyone must know that they have an important role to play to make the strategy work. Knowing the individual strengths and the inner emotions of the team is the key to enabling them achieve the overall goal.

The feeling that one is valued and is deemed an integral part of the intended success story gives a lot of inspiration in itself.As you move along the journey of building strategy, it is important to keep out distractions. Concentration has to be kept at its peak if the tasks ahead are to be achieved. Dr. James Mwangi mentions in the book that ultimately, we succeed because of the “why” of what we do over the “what”. The why is the philosophy. It is what gives us the energy every morning and periodically keeps us awake in the middle of the night.

Road map Strategy enables our natural talents and

skills to harmoniously bring out the best in everyone. Talents are those attributes that exist in us. We don’t even notice we have them. Skills on the other hand are learned and applied with intention. Talents emerge from our sub conscious so that we may not even be aware we have always exhibited and applied them.

For strategy to achieve the required result in record time, we must not conflate planning and organizing. The overall themes and roadmap must not cloud out important tasks to be achieved in time and by whom. Organizing on the other hand is the skill that helps us know who will do what. It results in effectiveness. To be effective means aiming to do the right things. It must be differentiated from efficiency which is all about doing things right without measurable goals.

This book: Optimizing Strategy is big on soul searching. What would your customers or the world miss if you were not in existence? After thinking deeply about how your organization can change the world, the void its absence would create and its origin, you then have a good idea why your company exists. “Describe it in a sentence and write it down!” the authors insist.

It would not be too much to have a sit down with older members of an organization just to understand what the founding years looked like. These are the custodians of the purpose of the organization. Dr Mwangi will always tell you what his intentions and observations were when he first walked through the doors of Equity Bank. These dreams (why) remain the guiding light of the group even as it moves to become a continental behemoth. The organization will be stuck in one place if you keep referring to old documents and claim that this is how things are or have always been. Operating in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environment calls for patience as you wait for your team to buy into your idea for the future.

It is important to be clear whether a vision is inspirational or aspirational. An inspirational vision exists not necessarily to be achieved but to inspire and create some espritdecorps of sorts. On the other handis the aspirational vision with tangible and measurable goals. It is never bad to achieve such a big ambition that scares you.

In times of crisis, the company must allow leaders to emerge at the expense of hierarchy. Decision making and creativity must be distributed and devolved such that new solutions to new problems and situations emerge quickly to deal with the VUCA environment. Actually this is the whole point of the book. Strategy in an environment of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA). And the world surely is no longer the stable, staid environment our fathers saw. If it is not about whole economies tanking, it is COVID 19 or the war in Ukraine and Russia. It is a world where being prepared and unprepared almost means the same thing. It is a world for skills to deal with the next unknown. It is a world where you learn on a go.

Surprisingly thinking backwards and connecting the dots is important in trying to understand yourself and industry trends and therefore being ready for out of the blue scenerios. Identifying trends that are likely to shape your industry in the next 20 years is also helpful making you prepared for the volatile world that is the 21st century. But ultimately, customer focus is at the core of strategy for those who have made it like Equity. It also helps to make yourself synonymous with the environment and the society you work in. That is how WingstoFly has helped drive brand affinity for Equity to project itself beyond those who help you expand economic opportunity. Equity now is known as an enabler of life and opportunity itself. They are seen as a people keen on fostering generations of successful Kenyans for the good of the world and not just the immediate group welfare and good.

Such a strategy is so stable that it can withstand any shock thrown at it. For effective evaluation of strategy, don’t put in too much or too little. Be honest with yourself along the way. Work with data and context: the story around the data. Encourage everyone involved to think deeply, widely and boldly and this way uncover insights for the present so as to better illuminate the future. Create appropriate structures and forums for discussions and improvement and avoid short term thinking. Be ready to wait for results.

Do not fall for the temptation of starting well and quitting before you see the fruits of your results. Geoffrey Griffin, he of the Starehe Boys fame told us that tenure (allowing people time) is important in giving them the motivation to know that they are likely to see the fruits of their labor. Optimizing strategy is a case for clarity in approach and methods. It makes a good case and executes it well.

The book is well structured and therefore is an easy reference material depending on what it is you are struggling with at the moment. It is a good read for company executives, business students and the intelligentsia at large.

Enjoy reading it and may you succeed.