In today’s crisis-ridden economic environment, long-term prospects are unfortunately often near the bottom of the priority list; and yet in the great uncertainty of a stormy ocean, there is an increased demand for the safe anchor of strategic orientation. However, the need to develop workable and stable strategies without neglecting the vital day-to-day business necessities increasingly calls for thinking in feedback loops, allowing iterations, and exploiting the company’s collective intelligence – all without putting too great a strain on the organisation’s operational capacity.
One successful, highly effective strategy is to bridge the gap between “all over” and “still to come”. The strategy outlines a vision of the future that shows the way for all activities, is understandable for employees, and inspires them to want to be “part of it all“. In future, this will more and more often (have to) involve designing strategies that incorporate the increasingly important common needs and requirements of staff and customers alike: the desire to see the bigger picture, discover the broader general meaning, to be treated as human beings who make decisions based on rational, emotional and intuitive considerations. Read more under Transformation
Systemic strategy works on the concentration of an organisation’s resources, at the same time taking account of the complex interactions between the strategy, culture and structure of a company. Which strategy seems possible in the context of the existing culture? Which strategy does our structure allow? And more besides: (how) would our culture have to change as a result of the new strategy? What implications does this strategy have for our company structure? In all of these questions, the people who will eventually support, promote and implement the strategy represent the focus of this three-cornered control mechanism: human beings, with their wealth of diverse and very real skills and abilities.