5 Questions to Ask While Crafting Strategy

With the continued onslaught on the bottom line from forces like regulations, political instability, disruptive technology and changing customer expectations, gone are the days of long term planning – RIP Five year Plans!

Strategy & Planning needs agility and frequent revisions so that they are aligned to the market forces. Organisations can only grow by either staying ahead of the market or by creating a new market.

Organisations can only grow by either staying ahead of the market or by creating a new market

We can beat the market organically through superior internal processes resulting in lower costs or better and differentiated offerings. Inorganically, you have to find your partner with whom you can capitalize on the merger synergies.

Creating a new market is through innovation and the process is continuous because what’s innovation today is commonplace tomorrow, thanks to the dynamism in the market.

So, as executives and business leaders what are the some of the right questions to ask when it comes to strategy and planning.

1. Are the strategies adaptive and/or emergent?

Strategy will ultimately result in activities connected to our business models, products, customers and markets. So, being adaptive or emergent means our strategy should be either shock resistant or be shock absorbing and must be flexible enough to deliver opportunistic responses to unexpected events.

More on Adaptive Strategy

2. Are your strategies listening to your customer?

Strategies cannot be crafted in isolation. Strategy and operational planning needs to consider customer insights and expectations. Customer is the most important stakeholder in strategy formulation. Thus, strategies need to be more revenue generating and customer focused and less history driven.

3. Do the strategies align to the core competency?

An organisation's core competency rest with its people, processes and offerings. So, the leaders need to assess the core competencies correctly to devise an effectively aligned strategy and the operational plans. Core competency is the source of competitive advantage and sustainable strategic advantage. Business models are built around these core competencies. Hence, strategic planning should be configured around these core competencies. Leaders with a view from the top can help here.

Read - Strategy Consulting - Generalist Approach

Business models are built around these core competencies.

4. Are our strategies in line with the organization structure?

Will give you an example – innovation may be on the priority list of the CEO but is the underlying organizational architecture suited for the job? Bureaucracy and multiple reporting lines are the sworn enemies of Innovation. So, for the innovation agendas to work, the CEO needs to realign the organisation structure and set the platform to nurture innovation.

5. Are we technology savvy when crafting strategy?

Effective strategies are data driven and based on inputs drawn from decision science with sophisticated machine/deep learning algorithms bringing out the impossible to imagine insights and predictions. Effective operational strategies can be very responsive - an example, they can be based on immediate cumulative feedback from loT sensors placed as strategic listening posts. So, leaders need to consider technology as a key enabler for strategy formulation as well as their execution.

Read - Strategy based on Artificial Intelligence

So, with the new financial year around the corner, when the strategy and operational planning would be taken up, as business leaders it is imperative to check if our plans cover the the fives nuances of strategic planning. Let us ask ourselves these 5 question !

Did you like the article and want to carry the discussion forward? You connect with me at d.santanu1@gmail.com

Disclaimer - The opinions expressed here represent my own views and not those of my employer.

Hampi , Karnataka Trip Jun 2017

Visit to Wayanad - nestled cozily in the Western Ghats!

Wayanad calling!!! We boarded a AC volvo from Madiwala bus depot in Bengaluru.  Overnight bus journeys are always thrilling. The weather was pleasant and our onward journey to Kalpetta - specifically to the central town of Wayanad started!

At around 4am, the bus stopped for a morning Chai and bio break. My wife was fast asleep – so I only got down, took a stroll in the bus stand. The bus stand had an open area with overlooking hills  – the sky was clear and studded with stars and it was 10 degrees – enjoyed the halt. We reached Kalpetta  at 8am in the morning - walked for 15 mins and reached our hotel – “The Woodlands”. The staff was very courteous and we quickly planned our sightseeing for the day. In an hour we got ready, finished our breakfast at the hotel only and hopped onto our Toyota Etios waiting outside.

The town of Kalpetta is 1200m above mean sea level and it was pretty pleasant - less crowd say when compared to a  Ooty. We could see Temples, Churches and Mosques - all in a radius of 500m which illustrates the communal harmony.

Our first stop was at the Phookot Lake. It was a bio-diversity hot spot. It had a small museum and boating amenities but the best part was the lake itself. We took a stroll along the perimeter of the lake. The place was filled with wild flowers, berries, butterflies and hufe spider webs!

One would smell the wild jungle odour and hear the hissing sound. Yes, I had never such big spiders and large cob-webs in my life! They were huge. We spotted snakes in the lake too. Also. There were panels set in a platform in the lake for harnessing solar energy.

Pookot Lake

Spiders

Spiders and Cobwebs

Heard a hissing sound above me

Our next stop was Lakkidi view point. The view point was situated at one of the higher altitudes and gave us a birds eye view of the roads leading to and fro Wayanad district Good place.

After a good 30 mins of drive, we reached the Meenmurthy Waterfalls. We had to walk uphill for a km to the waterfall. It was little tiring given our overnight journey and uphill climb now, but when we reached the waterfall zone, it was awesome!! The water flow was pretty restrained and it was more of a  multi –tiered waterfall and we saw people enjoying in the waters at places where the slopes was sort of gradual. The waterfall was meandering downhill through the big boulders. On the way back, we had some tender coconuts and it was too good or should I say more natural or at least I felt so!

Plant fossils

Tender Coconut was awesome

Next stop was Banasura Dam – It is the largest natural Dam in Asia. We trekked all the way to the top of the Dam. This was a first time for me – standing atop a Dam! Could see the dam water trapped between hills of the Western Ghats. There was a strong cool breeze - Nice experience and pleasant experience!

Panels on the dam to tap sun's energy

Banasura Dam - Largest natural dam in Asia

It was almost 2.30 pm and went to the nearby Dam View Restaurant for lunch.

Full with lightly spiced fish and other Maliyali stuff, we headed towards the Wayanad Museum.

The museum had some pretty old artifacts and collections – really impressive.

Our next destination was Wayanad Adventure Camp and Karlad Lake. Still, heavy because of the lunch we did not try any adventure stuff – instead chilled around the Lake and enjoyed the natural beauty.

It was a nice break from the daily office-home-office life. Next day, we started at 6 am towards the Muthanga National Park. The national park does give a forest like feel and but you have to be really lucky to spot any wild animals. We did come across a couple of elephants and deer. Would suggest you to give this a skip (unless you are a wildlife enthusiast) since this is pretty much off route and chance of spotting wildlife is rare too.

From Muthanga, we headed towards the second most important town in Wayanad – Sultan Bathery. The history goes like this - this town used to be a Jain stronghold and later on turned into a godown holding inventory of arms and ammunition during Tipu Sultan’s reign. Small town - we found mainly vegetarian restaurants around. We visited visited the centuries old Jain Temple.

Sultan Bathery

Edakkal Caves was next in our itinery now. We drove towards the base of a hill and then realized that the cave is situated at the top of the hill with no motor-able road to take us there. So we had to walk a good 2 km which seemed like 10 km as we were climbing uphill. It was almost like a steep trek. Though there were shops on the way – so we kept on rehydrating ourselves. The last part of the climb was really tough  as it was very really high and slopes were dangerously steep. On reaching the caves, it was like going back to the pre-historic age.

All these inscriptions were dated were from 2000-1000 B.C. – now that is vintage and history! There were writings and drawings inside the cave. Felt really lucky – Was trying to decipher the meaning of the drawing till my wife pulled me out of the cave and we saw a mesmerizing view from the top of the hill. An experience! Wonder what life would have been for those in the caves to come out every time and witness this natural beauty.

We visited few other spots and dams before retreating towards our hotel. Scroll below to see the snaps.

Adventure Club at Karlad Lake

Wayanad Bus Stand