Tactics
Contents
I. TACTICS
A. Key Questions
B. Making It Happen
1. A Crucial Assumption
2. Three Necessary Steps
C. A Military Excursion
1. The War
2. The Battles
3. ASAP - As Soon As Possible
I. TACTICS
A. Key Questions
Tactical Questions
1) Who should do it? Who should be accountable?
2) When should it be done? What is the deadline?
3) With which wherewithal?
-- capital (the budget, financing)
-- internal resources (management, machinery, processes)
-- external resources (outside teams, offshoring, legal)
-- what tools (software)
4) From which, and whose, perspective?
B. Making It Happen
One crucial assumption and three necessary steps
1) A crucial assumption
A major strategic shift will be difficult. Interesting is that companies ". . . today are no more effective at delivering on large-scale change initiatives than they were 20 years ago. In a recent Bain survey, 70% of the companies said their change management initiatives did not deliver the expected results. That success rate was unchanged from similar surveys we conducted in the 1980s and 1990s. And the environment for change is only getting more complex." (Bain website, 2010) A major shift in strategy, or a complete new one, is one of the most demanding changes of all -- with a correspondingly low success rate.
2) Three necessary steps
1. Answer the tactical questions above thoroughly.
2. Realize that culture eats strategy for breakfast.
3. Handle the internal negotiations within the company as carefully as one does external ones.
Your emphasis on executing a strategy should be more on "actions on the front line" than on reading or contemplating about it. That notwithstanding, a little history follows.
C. A Military Excursion
The distinction between strategy and tactics has a long military tradition, from Sun Tzu´s The Art of War, 6th century B.C., and Alexander the Great (356 -323 B.C.) to Karl von Klauswitz (1780 - 1831) and modern contributors. Therefore beginning with two military distinctions seems reasonable: (1) The War and (2) The Battle.
1) The War
Karl von Klauswitz in his classic Vom Kriege (On War - 1832, published posthumously) writes that strategy is the manner in which one puts together a series of battles to fight a war. These strategic decisions are taken before and during the war. One might refer to this concept as corporate or global strategy. Proactive decisions can be duly deliberated.
2) The Battles
Klauswitz also makes the distinction that strategy is about where you should be for a battle, deploying what strength and when -- (land versus sea; attack versus defend; night versus day). These strategic decisions are taken before a battle. One might refer to this concept as local or sbu strategy. These proactive decisions are usually under more time pressure than for (1) the war.
Tactics concerns the grouping and movements of the forces used in a battle: army and navy; infantry and artillery and also the when, "here comes the cavalry." These reactive tactical decisions are taken throughout the battle. Speed - response time - becomes critical.
To make these distinctions in the business world clearer, one may divide the running of a company into different functions. A common, albeit somewhat arbitrary, division is: Strategy & Organization, Marketing, Financial Management, Accounting and Controlling, Management Information Systems (MIS), Production, Human Resources and Legal.
In the above, strategy clearly drives the "where" decisions. However in practice the distinction is not that sharp. The most obvious crossover function is marketing. Marketing research and CRM may drive the "where" decision. The attrition of traditional customers and the appearance of new ones from unexpected geographical regions, industries or segments may cause a strategic shift. (This process may reflect "bottom-up" strategy formation.)
Other functions can also drive strategy. The obvious catastrophic example is the legal department when the corporation is faced with a class action lawsuit (product recall) that threatens its very existence. Hence a major change in the company´s strategy may be imperative.
At the risk of stating the obvious, strategic decisions can be minor or major, just as tactical ones can. Leaving a remote, declining market, or abandoning a small segment of unprofitable customers are strategic decisions ("where to compete"). However they are not particularly important ones.
Introducing multi-million Euro TV campaigns or deciding to build an entire new factory rather than replace antiquated production equipment, are, in contrast, extremely important decisions. The capital budgeting for these kinds of major projects requires the approval of senior management. Nevertheless they are not strategic, but tactical ("how to compete") decisions.
The preceding sentence introduced a phrase "how to compete," or, more generally "how to get it done." That is an integral part of realizing the Grand Vision, the CEO as Chief Evangelist Officer. The example in the subpage "Culture Eats Strategy" about the Haier sledgehammer is an edifying example.
3) ASAP
The acronym stands for As Soon As Possible. It was much used by the Seabees in World War II. (The Seabees were construction battalions of the United States Navy, famed for remarkable feats. An example is their building bridges in the Pacific while under heavy enemy fire.) Applying the right tools and techniques should, of course, be done ASAP.
ASAP
Ask questions to generate Alternatives
Seek superior Solutions
Act on plans which are Achievable
Perform consistantly to escelate Profits
ASAP
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1 Chaotianmen Yangze River Bridge at Chongqing, China, the world's longest through arch bridge © Glabb 28.07.2012, CC Atribution-Share Alike 3.0
2 Chaotianmen Yangze River Bridge © Kingwillzhu, Jan. 2009 CC Atribution-Share Alike 3.