In formulated strategy we use a lot of words like innovative, based on core competencies, market driven, customer centric, operational excellence, best-in-class, top quality, leveraging existing brand, etc…. You named it and of course business model and business model innovation are now part of these buzz words. Are they still meaningful or did we forget the deeper concepts behind the words? Do we use the technocratic jargon to signal others that we are the experts?

doublethink by duncan

As I have argued in my last post, I think we use in strategy and in management in general too many generic and meaningless words. And I think we use also too many meaningless graphs and pictures to say nothing as a matter of fact. Visualization does not help you if your strategy is bad. Sorry, Alex for this .

Every decent firm claims in restructuring that it is concentrating on its core competencies when divesting or closing parts of its firm. Well, and often it is the same firm that argued some time ago that it was necessary to buy this now divested firm since it wanted to offer full service to its customers. We have so many words for “Sorry, it did not work. We just could not make it work”. Why are we so afraid about the truth?

Management Newspeak

In management we have invented Newspeak. Original, Newspeak is a fictional language in the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. The basic idea behind Newspeak is to remove all shades of meaning from language. While in Orwell’s novel the government tries to introduce Newspeak to the people in order to make the people more compliant to its will, in the case of management it is our own fault. We managers use our own Newspeak and we have taken all meaning out of it. (more…)

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The question what  a good strategy is is difficult to answer. With hindsight it is easy: A good strategy is one that works. But in foresight? Many formulated, intended strategies are plain boring, generic and not customer centric, but focused on investors. Many business model innovators on the other hand have clear strategies that are focused on customers and on the value proposition.

Boring strategies

“We earn a premium on our cost of capital”

“We form the best team in industry”

“We help our customer to be more successful”

“We ensure sustainable development”

Have you found out which company has these pillars for its strategy?

Probably not. The strategy is so generic and interchangeable that it fits for almost any large company.

Are you attracted as a customer to this company?

Probably not, since so many companies claim to help customers to be more successful.

Does this spur emotions in you?

Definitely not! It is just plain boring!

How about this company: It claims that it is driven by “passion of success” that rests on “four cornerstones”: “superior brands”, “superior supply chain”, “superior talent in lean organizations”.

Do you know which company it is?

No, since it is so generic. It could stand for many companies in many industries. It is boring. It does not give the company any real purpose to exit.

Value centric strategies

So how about this:

“to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” (more…)

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These are the slides of the second part of my lecture I gave at Leuphana University in Lüneburg in May. The first set of slides you find here.

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