The ability to modify strategy at the right time can literally save or destroy a business.  This week, we hear from our special dead guest, Rod Serling, and his narration of The Strategy Light Zone. We talk about a checklist of five moments when it's critical to reevaluate your strategy, how to look for evolution and customer needs, the distinction between strategy and tactics, and what we can learn from Chipotle on increasing the perceived value of a product or brand. You’ll also learn about  the five steps to a solid strategy process. 

What You’ll Hear In this Episode:

•  Research published in the Harvard Business Review showed that 43% of managers couldn't state their own strategy and 67% of managers believe their organization is bad at developing strategy. Both of these dismal numbers may be in part due to the fact that only 19% of managers say their companies have a distinct process for developing strategy.
• A checklist of five moments when it's critical to reevaluate your strategy. 
• Goals are what you are trying to achieve and strategy is how you're going to get there.   
• As you accomplish goals and new goals are established, changes in resource allocation are often required to meet them. 
• How to look for evolution and customer needs.
• The distinction between strategy and tactics was articulated even as far back as 2500 years ago by Chinese general and philosopher Sun Tzu. 
• Expertise in any domain is the result of deliberate practice, not natural born talent. 
• How the contextual radar tool helps us determine when to change strategy. 

Quotes/Tweetables: 

“Goals are what you are trying to achieve and strategy is how you're going to get there.” 

“ The end game of business strategy is to serve customers' needs in a more profitable way than the competition.” 

“When determining whether or not to change strategy, it falls under your own roof.” 

Connect with Us!

Strategic Thinking Institute

Rich Horwath on LinkedIn

Rich Horwath’s YouTube Channel

Rich Horwath on Instagram

StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad: Using Strategic Thinking to Defeat Bad Strategy and Save Your Plan

Deep Dive by Rich Horwath 

Elevate: The Three Disciplines of Advanced Strategic Thinking by Rich Horwath

Strategy for You: Building a Bridge to the Life You Want

Mentioned : 

Chipotle 

Sun Tzu 

Rod Serling 

This episode, it’s all about decision-making and delegation, with an appearance from the dastardly Decision Demon and special dead guest Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the greatest strategic minds in history on how he makes decisions. You’ll learn tips and techniques to clarify decision rights, identify the causes of faulty decision-making, and maximize your time through better delegation. 

What You’ll Hear In this Episode:

•  Resource allocation requires us to make trade-offs. 
• The nine causes of faulty decision making - which one of these does your team fall into most frequently? 
• Decisions, or the lack thereof, can make or break our strategy. 
• How can the halo effect and groupthink influence our future decisions? 
• By implementing frameworks and processes to establish decision rights, we can put ourselves in much stronger strategic and financial positions. 
• One of the reasons it's crucial to have strategies in written form is that they provide a filter for what you should and shouldn't do.
• Five steps for your team to eliminate the confusion around who owns which decisions.
• How leaders can fully engage their teams in the execution of strategies. 
• The four factors to simplify and ensure effective delegation. 

Quotes/Tweetables:

•  “Decisions, or the lack thereof, can make or break our strategy.” 
• “By implementing frameworks and processes to establish decision rights, we can put ourselves in much stronger strategic and financial positions.” 
• “Companies fail because they are trying to do too many things, serve too many different types of customers, rather than focusing their resources in the areas where they can generate the greatest value and in turn, the highest profit margins.”
• “Research in the social sciences has shown that commitment increases by 34% when we simply share with people the “why” behind what we’re doing.”
• “Gaining full engagement means involving your people in conversations in determining what the goals and objectives look like, and the strategies and tactics and achieving them.” 
• “Decisions of a revolving-door nature are ones that can be readily entered into again and reversed if need be. One-way door decisions are those that cannot be re-entered and therefore, require more expertise.”

Connect with Us!

Strategic Thinking Institute

Rich Horwath on LinkedIn

Rich Horwath’s YouTube Channel

Rich Horwath on Instagram

StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad: Using Strategic Thinking to Defeat Bad Strategy and Save Your Plan

Deep Dive by Rich Horwath 

Elevate: The Three Disciplines of Advanced Strategic Thinking by Rich Horwath

Strategy for You: Building a Bridge to the Life You Want

Mentioned : 

Jeff Bezos 

Napoleon Bonaparte 

Keywords: strategic thinking, strategy, strategic thinking, strategic planning, strategic, tactics, goal, goals, objective, objectives, plan, planning, business strategy, business acumen, executive coaching, executive coach, leadership development, leadership, rich horwath, effective meetings, CEO strategy, CEO coach, productive meetings, jeff bezos, google, apple, innovation, amazon, napoleon bonaparte

• • When we hear the term innovation, we tend to think of a cool new product or technology that's going to change the world. But that isn't really what most innovation entails. A recent three-year study on innovation found that only 13% of consumer product companies introduced a breakthrough innovation. 
  • Most innovation tends to come in incremental doses, even for companies known for innovation.
  • When was the last time you and your team truly created new value for your customers?
  • What is domain jumping, and how did a company called Sharklet jump domains? 

• Technique #1: Solve their challenge. 

• Technique #2: Jump the domain. 

• Technique #3: Use an Innovative Mindset to deviate from the norm. 

• The Norm Deviation Matrix provides a methodical way to separate yourself from the pack and innovate to generate better results. 

Quotes/Tweetables:

• “To not innovate is to die.” - Tim Cook, CEO, Apple
• “In order to innovate, it's important to not only cross domains at a higher vantage point but to also look at things from a granular level to observe the nuances.” - Rich 
• “Learning is the only thing the mind never gets exhausted from, never fears and never regrets.” - dead guest Leonardo da Vinci 
• “When we realize that excellence is described as a deviation from the norm, we know that it's required to innovate.” - Rich
• “Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation... even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.” dead guest Leonardo da Vinci 
•  “If we're doing the same normal things in the same normal ways as everyone else in our space, then mediocrity is to be expected.” - Rich 

Connect with Us!

Strategic Thinking Institute

Rich Horwath on LinkedIn

Rich Horwath’s YouTube Channel

StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad: Using Strategic Thinking to Defeat Bad Strategy and Save Your Plan

Deep Dive by Rich Horwath 

Elevate: The Three Disciplines of Advanced Strategic Thinking by Rich Horwath

Mentioned : 

Jeff Bezos 

James Dyson 

Steve Jobs 

Gym Guyz

Sharklet 

Value Mining Matrix 

Norm Deviation Matrix 

Keywords: strategic thinking, strategy, strategic planning, strategic, tactics, goal, goals, objective, objectives, plan, planning, business strategy, business acumen, executive coaching, executive coach, leadership development, leadership, rich horwath, effective meetings, CEO strategy, CEO coach, productive meetings, leonardo da vinci, apple, sharklet, innovation, amazon

What You’ll Hear In this Episode: 

• Strategic thinking is the generation of insights that lead to advantage, while strategic planning is the channeling of those insights into a directional guide to achieve your goals and objectives. 
• GOST is an acronym for goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics. You’ll learn how it’s spookily accurate when it comes to setting strategy.
• Good leaders continually reinforce the key elements of their plan, and filter out the extraneous noise that could get in the way of their team’s execution. 
• When you try to do a little bit for everyone, you lose strength and focus. 
• How does the ability to act boldly show up in history’s champions? 
• What are the five primary phases of strategy development? 
• You’ll gain access to the Strategy Scaffold tool.
• Stra-Da-Gee, performing his hit rap song on the keys to strategic planning.  Lyrics Stra-Da-Gee (1).pdf

Quotes/Tweetables:

• “Do you have a strategic plan? If your plan could talk, what would it say?” 
• “Good leaders continually reinforce the key elements of their plan, and filter out the extraneous noise that could get in the way of their team’s execution.”
• “You will always have a choice between the most courageous and most cautious decision.” 
• “Intelligence without audacity is not enough. You must have the guts to explode the game to upend your opponent’s thinking, and in doing so, unnerve them.” - Garry Kasparov

Connect with Us!

Strategic Thinking Institute

Rich Horwath on LinkedIn

Rich Horwath’s YouTube Channel

StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad: Using Strategic Thinking to Defeat Bad Strategy and Save Your PlanDeep Dive by Rich Horwath 

Elevate: The Three Disciplines of Advanced Strategic Thinking by Rich Horwath

Mentioned : 

Carl von Clausewitz 

McKinsey 

Garry Kasparaov 

Keywords: strategic thinking, strategy, strategic planning, strategic, tactics, goal, goals, objective, objectives, plan, planning, business strategy, business acumen, executive coaching, executive coach, leadership development,, leadership, rich horwath, effective meetings, CEO strategy, CEO coach, productive meetings, carl von clausewitz, mckinsey, strategy scaffold

Welcome to the Strategic Executive Show. I’m your host Rich Horwath,  founder of The Strategic Thinking Institute. In this series, I’ll share tools, tips and techniques to enhance your strategic thinking and planning capabilities to set direction, create advantage and achieve your goals. This week, it’s all about digging into what strategy is at its core, and how to understand and reconnect with its true purpose and meaning. 

First, I’ll chat with a special guest–Chinese General, philosopher, and author of, The Art of War, Sun Tzu–and by the way, he’s dead–to talk about the core differences between strategy and tactics, how effective strategy can create a roadmap to your goals, and the importance of tuning up your strategic plan  to adapt to your evolving environment. Then, we dive into the most common mistake regarding strategy, and why mistaking operational effectiveness for strategy can prevent you from separating yourself from the pack. Our first episode wouldn’t be complete without a quick visit from Strategy Jack, to help us break down some tools and techniques to craft an impactful roadmap. Let’s strategize! 

What You’ll Hear In This Episode:

• How strategy has become convoluted and confused with other terms  in business. 
• The common traps to avoid when developing your strategy. 
• The difference between strategy and tactics. 
• Why strategy without insight compromises your competitive advantage. 
• The three elements within an impactful strategy: Resource allocation, unique system of activity, and primary components. 
• What research says 93% of the top financially performing companies have in common. 
• What two questions good planning should aim to answer.
• The G.O.S.T. Framework: Goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics.

Quotes/Tweetables:

• “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat” [3:50] -Sun Tzu
• “Without strategy, it becomes a game of tactical roulette, where you're just throwing things up on the wall to see what sticks. With strategy in place, it provides a path to your destination.” [4:00] -Rich 
• “Preparation is seldom exciting, but it is the foundation of success.” [5:02] -Rich
• “Simply put, strategy is how you plan to achieve a goal.” [8:30] -Rich
• “Show me how your people are spending their time, talent and budget every day, and you'll see your true strategy.” [9:15] -Rich
• “Good leaders don't leave strategy to chance” [9:30] -Rich
• “It's not until you get off the beaten path that the beating can begin” [10:38] -Rich
• “​​It's very difficult to fix something that's been done badly, you'd better do your thinking and planning up front when you have the time.” [17:27] -David Mamet

Connect with Us!

Strategic Thinking Institute 

Rich Horwath: LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Books 

Mentioned : 

The Art of War 

StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad: Using Strategic Thinking to Defeat Bad Strategy and Save Your Plan

Keywords: strategic thinking, strategy, strategic planning, strategic, tactics, goal, goals, objective, objectives, plan, planning, business, sun tzu, create, develop, effectiveness, leadership, rich horwath,