What’s to be Done?
Sorting out the mess in the strategy field will be a major undertaking, but this chapter makes some suggestions for how it might be done. Management have a key role here – do not accept the poor insights that emerge from the weak and unreliable methods on offer, but demand rigorous and evidence-based answers on which to make decisions. Get themselves and their teams clued-up on anything that might help define and manage their strategy better.
The elephant in the room in all this – or rather not in the room – is the strategy consulting community. If sound knowledge and practice in strategy is to be found anywhere, it is in the knowledge and experience of McKinsey, BCG, Deloitte, Bain and the rest, linked to the best practice of their best clients. We need them to bring that expertise to the table, just as you would find in Law, Medicine, Engineering or any other decent profession.
The academics need to take a long, hard look at what they do, apply some common sense to the research questions they ask and the methods they use to ask them. Then they must get connected, deeply and intensely, with the real-world.
Lastly, we need a strategy profession! As noted at the start, when executives mess up strategy they mess up all our lives, so the chapter ends with some thoughts on how such a profession might be developed. It has happened in other fields, so should be possible in strategy.
References (links to be added)
Not all references may be available freely to all readers or in all regions.
- https://www.cfainstitute.org/
- http://www.cfainstitute.org/cfaprogram/Documents/cfa_charter_brochure.pdf
- http://www.cfainstitute.org/cfaprogram/courseofstudy/Pages/index.aspx
- For information on this and other regulations, see www.sec.gov/rules/ http://www.amanet.org/
- http://www.amanet.org/
- http://www.managers.org.uk/
- http://www.managers.org.uk/management-qualifications
- http://www.asmiweb.com/
- http://www.smiknowledge.com/certified-strategy-practitioner.html
- http://www.strategyplus.org/
- http://www.thecbsa.org/
- http://www.incose.org/
- https://www.cfainstitute.org/pages/index.aspx
- http://www.smsweb.org/
- http://sps.org.uk/
- http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b95ef8ce-6c2b-11e1-b00f-00144feab49a.html#axzz1p1lUSpQa
- http://www.hec.edu/MSc/Programs/Masters-in-Strategic-Management-MS-MSc
- http://www.tilburguniversity.edu/education/masters-programmes/strategic-management/
- http://www.wu.ac.at/programs/en/master/simc
- http://www.aacsb.edu/accreditation/
- http://www.efmd.org/index.php/accreditation-main/equis
- Tim Koller, Marc Goedhart, and David Wessels, 2010, Valuation: Measuring and Managing the Value of Companies, Fifth Edition, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
- Tim Breene, Paul F. Nunes, and Walt Shill, 2008, Rise of the Chief Strategy Officer, Accenture. Retrieved 4-2-2012.
Cartoon by “Higgins“