I have a good friend who recently posted this quote from Southwest Airlines Founder, Herb Kelleher, on Facebook: “We Have a Strategic Plan: It’s Called Doing Things.” This is funny. But if you know anything about Herb – it is also tongue in cheek. His brilliant strategy for Southwest has produced record-breaking profits for the airline for decades. So, he surely has … [Read more...] about Strategy vs. GSD
Strategy
Aim & Impact
Mission Statement Mini-Case. Recently, my friends in the Office of Career Services at the Smith School of Business at Maryland asked me to do some strategy work with them. The first thing we reviewed was their mission. Here is the Mission exercise I take organizations through: *AIM: Specify exactly what “persons, places, or things” the organization aims to … [Read more...] about Aim & Impact
Strategy is “Like” a Theme Song
Can you hum the theme song for Hawaii Five-O? How about Mission Impossible? I bet you can and, if you can whistle, I’ll also bet that you can whistle the tune to The Andy Griffith Show. Can the people in your organization explain your strategy as effortlessly as they can hum the Hawaii Five-O theme song? I suggest that should be your goal. And when they explain it, … [Read more...] about Strategy is “Like” a Theme Song
Sleepwalking Through SWOTs
SWOT analysis – analyzing the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of an organization – is usually not done well. I often feel as if organizations are just sleepwalking through the process. I think this is because so many people look at this as a mechanical and analytical process while it should be spirited and creative. Examples: “I think our #1 Weakness … [Read more...] about Sleepwalking Through SWOTs
“Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch”
One of the guest speakers we had in for the Nonprofit Strategy graduate course I taught this past fall at the University of Maryland shared this quote with the class, and it was one of the students’ favorites of the term. I’m not sure who originated the quote, but there are lots of articles with this title and even a new book about to come out by that name. (I have not … [Read more...] about “Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch”