Jocelyn R. Davis and Tom Atkinson offer some compelling thoughts on strategy in their article, “Need Speed? Slow Down,” in the May, 2010 Harvard Business Review. They describe the concept of strategic speed as one of reducing the time it takes to create value. While “reducing time” might sound like speeding up, their research results suggest the opposite.
In their research of 343 companies, the two found that, “the companies that embraced initiatives and chose to go, go, go to try and gain an edge ended up with lower sales and operating profits than those that paused at key moments to make sure they were on the right track. What’s more, the firms that “slowed down to speed up” improved their top and bottom lines, averaging 40% higher sales and 52% higher operating profits over a three year period.”
Anecdotally, just a few days ago, I chatted with a valued colleague dealing with the problems of growth at his market-leading firm, and he described a culture that was laser focused on very few initiatives and committed to moving slowly and deliberately to ensure quality. This firm intuitively gets the notion of strategic speed.
The Simplicity and Practicality of Strategic Speed for Your Business:
I love the concept as the authors express it. The notion of reducing the time that it takes to create value screams of jettisoning the undisciplined pursuit of more (Collins, How the Mighty Fall) and rails against exhortations from executives to do more, faster. It implies deliberately deciding what you will not do and carefully constructing your teams and processes to execute, learn, innovate and execute some more.
Many firms struggle with the “We’ve never met a project we didn’t like,” syndrome, saying yes to every opportunity that swims by, hoping that one or a few will hit it big. Others navigate the world shifting their business strategy to rationalize the next investment, acquisition or strategic partnership that once in place will change the game for the better. Employees look on and wonder and then go about their work with little context for what truly will create value and how to make decisions that will help the firm move faster towards value creation.
Moving at the pace of strategic speed as I envision it, allows an organization to arm its people with context, including a crystal clear understanding of customers and their vexing challenges. The right pace allows everyone to focus on creating great customer experiences and on improving systems, services and offerings that continue to meaningfully serve and differentiate.
The Bottom Line for Now:
There are no silver bullets in business, but there are some approaches that work better than others. If you’re looking for more from your business, you may want to consider slowing down, looking around and then choosing your next steps carefully. And plan on stopping a lot along the way.
Enjoy the slow ride to value creation!
Hi Art, thanks for this post on Forum’s HBR article. Excellent summary, and great to hear that it is resonating with you and your colleagues. You are spot on. The ‘we never met a project we didn’t like’ is actually one of the 4 distinct profiles that we found slow organizations down (we actually call it “Everything to Everyone.”) The others are:
– “Not my problem” – where people understand the strategy but turf wars and silos fragment attention and prevent proper execution
– “Myopia Utopia” – where short term focus rules … this “all hands on deck” mentality can create strong unity but can result in too much groupthink and inability to see problems
– “Boiled Frogs” – strong clarity and unity around current strategy, but inability to shift with market.
Have you or your colleagues seen those profiles in clients as well?
We’ll have much more about this topic on forum.com/blog, a webinar on June 16, and of course HBP’s publication of our book Strategic Speed in June. Thanks again – Steve Barry, The Forum Corporation
Steve, thanks for reading and sharing! Your “Everything to Everyone” and additional three categories are fantastic. Frighteningly, I can recall company and client scenarios where those issues become blended in a morass of political and strategic confusion. Can’t wait for the webinar and the book! Thanks again for sharing your insights and upcoming activities. -Art
Hi Art,
I loved your post on our HBR article. You’ve given me a wonderful quote to use in my next talk about Strategic Speed — “the undisciplined pursuit of more” (Collins). That line perfectly captures what we call the “noise zone” — as opposed to the “value zone.” (Reminds me – I clearly must read How the Mighty Fall.) Thanks, and hope to see/hear you at some of our upcoming book launch events. -Jocelyn
Great post, Art. I like the way you integrated the article and other observations. When Tom Hall and I were putting together our book, Ruthless Focus, one thing we discovered was that many companies who are successful for the long term don’t do as much as their competition. They have a clear strategy that they can express simply. And they stay with it until it needs to change. That’s not often. Wal-Mart has pursued the same strategy for almost fifty years. That lets them put energy and creativity into doing things better, not coming up with a new strategy every couple of years.
Mediocre managers try one initiative after another, never taking long enough for the benefits to emerge. Great managers, like Jack Welch, work very differently. During his twenty years as CEO of GE, Welch only had four corporate initiatives.
Jocelyn, thanks for the great article and for commenting here! Wally, coming from the tech industry, where the habit for many firms was “strategy of the year,” I find much wisdom in the article and in your comments. Thanks for reading and sharing! -Art
Congratulations! This post was selected as one of the five best independent business blog posts of the week in my Three Star Leadership Midweek Review of the Business Blogs.
http://blog.threestarleadership.com/2010/05/12/51210-midweek-look-at-the-independent-business-blogs.aspx
Wally Bock
As always, Art you are spot on!
The last year has been consumed with tactical survival. It is time to start thinking strategic again.
As the economy rebounds there will be many more opportunities.