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  • Published on

    Why do Boards focus on monitoring (vs. strategy)?

    Governance Management Phd Research Strategy
    A very interesting discussion is underway in one of the LinkedIn groups at present. It has arisen out of a survey conducted by PwC, which showed many discrepancies between what Boards actually do and what directors think they should be doing or concentrating on. While attitudes are starting to move, actual behaviours are lagging well behind.

    Several researchers and practitioners (including me) are exploring why Boards concentrate on monitoring and control, when the respondents said they want to spend more time on strategy. Others are discussing the Board's role in IT oversight.

    These are important issues for Boards. I suggest you have a look, and contribute your views!
  • Published on

    Detecting competitive threats early

    Management Strategy
    One of the challenges that many businesses face is keeping up with the moving competitive landscape—and matching strategy to the competitive environment. All too often, something changes and businesses don't see it coming.

    As with any potentially destructive natural events like earthquakes and tsunamis, businesses need to monitor the landscape carefully to detect the emerge of competitive threats early—to maximise their response. The helpful article published by HBR this week encourages strategists to think carefully about how tomorrow's industry could be structured. The world-class authors posed five questions to help work through this. I commend the article to you.
  • Published on

    On matching strategy to the competitive environment...

    Management Research Strategy
    How well do you understand the competitive environment your business operates in? Most strategic planners and executives know that matching their strategies to their environment is crucial. Further, most claim to have a good understanding of their environment. However, recent research conducted by BCG and published in HBR indicates that the majority of firms misread their environment. Consequently, they run the very real risk of adopting an inappropriate strategic style and/or developing flawed strategies.

    Helpfully, there are many good tools available (a quick Google search will get you started) to help planners and executives read their environment more accurately. It is my experience that firms that use these tools, and engage a skilled facilitator to challenge assumptions, tend to create strategies that are more well suited to their environments. And that's got to be good for business in these tough economic times, don't you think?