I recently attended a ‘fireside chat’ event run by Digital Doughnut, focusing on digital leaders’ insight into The Art of Strategy.
Witnessing some heavy hitters on stage discussing the meaning of strategy was a real eye opener… in that it’s hard to quantify and everyone has their own take on what it actually is!
Graham Ruddick, CEO of social business specialists Communitize, chaired the event and wanted to get stuck in with figuring out:
- What strategy is
- Why you need it
- Where it comes from
- How you create it
- How you roll it out in your organisation
First in the firing line was Mary McKenna, Chief Executive of youth placement service Task Squad. The most important thing she said was that you need a business strategy to survive.
Her honesty was palpable and infectious – she knew the score and strongly suggested that going in half-cocked will end in failure. She was comfortable admitting she’d seen it, done it and learnt the hard way, so I was more than happy to take her advice.
Photo courtesy of Heather Nolan
Next up was Anthony Hook, Strategy and Innovation director at software company sitecore, who has seen this huge business through a massive strategic sea-change and lived to tell the tale.
The take-home from this smart guy was to make the strategy real. Translate the strategy to everyone – find the fine line between too much process and guiding principles so people can live and breathe it. In other words, how will the employee in the warehouse react?
Finally, Martin Spiller, a partner at financiers Jenson Solutions, took to the stage and let his northern charm take over. By investing in too many startups to count, he’s been there, seen it, got the t-shirt and probably written a book along the way.
Plainly put, he summarised what strategy is into the nice and simple:
- What do we want to do / be?
- How are we going to do that?
- How are we going to know when we get there?
Importantly, it’s worth noting that strategy changes depending on the organisation you work in, but across the panel there were some common themes:
- Be honest and transparent
- Make it tangible for everyone
- Don’t get bogged down in the terminology (tactics vs strategy)
- Allow for flux depending on business / environmental pressures
- Find a way to help the strategy live and breathe as part of company culture
Strategy should be something that everyone wants to be part of. Create a team that’s stronger as a unit than a collection of individuals. Martin quoted his (very successful) rugby team strategy:
- In our own third we kick
- In the middle third, if we can’t see anything on, we kick
- In the final bit… we try and do something with the ball
My philosophy (and the panelists’) is that we need to stop looking at digital as separate. Strategy is strategy – get your hands dirty with the doing, but make sure you step back once in a while to check you are on the right course.
As I had my face buried in my iPhone taking notes, it was nice to have the session rounded off with some quick fire questions… Again, differing views so I’ll let you decide who said what and who is ‘right’.
Strategy: art or science?
- 50:50
- More art than science but the science backs it up
- Pure art
Can you train strategists?
- No
- Up to a point, but if they aren’t right you’ll always end up with 10% missing
- Yes and no
How do you spot a good strategist?
- Someone who takes calculated risks, experiments and learns
- As long as they have a healthy attitude and aptitude it’s a good sign
- I just want to see curiosity and a sunny disposition
You can find out more about the digital strategy event with this short film from the organisers.
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