Knowledge

Making Partners Hungry for the S-Thing

In some firms, the n°1 strategic challenge (when I use the word "challenge", and I do a lot, I mean something both important and difficult) has nothing to do with defining or implementing the strategy: it is to convince the partners that defining and implementing a strategy is something important that should get their attention.

The challenge is not about the content of the strategy, it is about the concept of strategy itself. In those firms, it is a rare achievement to get all, or at least a large majority of the partners in the same conference room at the same time to exchange views on questions like "Where are we? Where do we want to go? How do we get there? What's the price to pay to get there and are we willing to pay it? Are we happy with the way things are going around here?".

In those firms, strategy building is like some election day when the majority does not even bother to cast a vote.

There can be no strategy if there is not, in the first place, a consensus among partners that a strategy is a "must have" and that successfully developing a strategy requires some consensus, and therefore participation, from everyone.

The starting point of strategy building is therefore making partners hungry for taking part in the strategy building process. It is to convince them that sharing views on those big issues will be exciting, useful, effective, and rewarding. Before selling your strategy, you need to sell the idea of having a strategy. 

Antoine Henry de Frahan | 10 October 2006 |