It's The Process

most companies that i see either have a business strategy built by consensus or don't have a strategy and want to build one, again by consensus without going through a comprehensive strategy building process.

the often avoided process takes time (often 3 to 4 months) and energy (3 to 4 of your best young professionals and an experienced leader).

the issue is that the product you are seeking is the process itself, not the resulting strategy document.

the process is the goal and is more than worth the effort.

Change

Change = discomfort, stress, fear, and anxiety

No Change = unemployment, bankruptcy, discomfort, stress, fear, and anxiety

It's your choice.

Dinosaurs and Other Fossils

businesses are too comfortable today.  the internet has changed society and people; they are more informed and more demanding, they want information, transparency, and a cause to believe in.  they want to deal only with companies that can fulfill their needs quickly and conveniently

if your company is fat and happy today with a relative monopoly in your area of the business world, you had better take the blinders off because the earthquake is coming.  if you still have a monopoly in your market segment -- it's just an artifact of history and will soon go away.  the New York Times was pushed out of the Fortune 500 by Netflix; others will soon fall

this is not the age of patch, repair and evolve -- especially when we are speaking of our information technology systems -- the foundations of our businesses.  this is the age of separate, incubate, innovate and experiment; building new core I/T infrastructures from scratch around customers, needs, and information as a product.  we are in an information driven revolution and that information can become as valuable as any other product or service that you provide

many people believe that the information driven companies like Google, Facebook, and Amazon are aliens who live in another world and are of no threat to "my" industry.  but the truth is that these companies are information black holes and they will go where the information is; banking, transportation, medicine, etc.  the threat is there whether you see it or not

the customers are there (4.7 billion cell phone users in the world), the competition is moving powered by an information engine -- are you going to survive

what is your vision and strategy.  can every one of your professional employees see, live and feel that vision and strategy every day.  is experimentation the norm and do you provide a world where no experiment is a failure as long as we learn from it

today customers want convenience, price, transparency, personal tailoring, and a mission to believe in; are you there or at least moving rapidly to "there" -- if not, good night sweet Charlotte.