Michael Porter's line comes up in nearly every client session: the essence of strategy is choosing what not to do. It strikes a chord with executives who get strategy, because the obvious product and market choices are easy. The ones in the yes/no grey area are what change business performance. Working with some excellent strategic thinkers over the years, I have found five traits they all share.
They define what strategy is
For themselves and for their company. The fate of the firm is the sum of decisions made on its behalf, and if those decisions do not come from a shared understanding of what strategy means, there is no consistency or alignment in any of them.
They have a framework
Products, markets, capabilities. Great strategists recognise that strategy is the tough is/is-not choices in those three areas, and the framework pulls them out of the weeds into quiet clarity, however fast the market moves.
They have a decision process
A repeated set of questions they ask every time: what is the purpose, what are the criteria, what are the alternatives, what are the risks. The process is what lets them decide quickly without deciding carelessly.
They make assumptions visible
They know every strategy is a bet and they write the bet down, so it can be tested and changed before it fails.
They say no, out loud
Because the criteria are visible, they can decline a good idea that does not fit and explain why in one sentence. That is the trait the other four exist to make possible.
Then and now
Written in 2015. These five traits are, in order, the behaviours the MOVE® system was built around. The system does not replace the thinker. It makes the five habits the default for the whole executive team rather than the gift of one person in it.
Monday
Score yourself one to five on each trait. Then ask your CFO to score you. The gap between the two lists is more useful than either list.
