Reconciling Strategy and Execution
Lessons from elite commandos
With Stephan Schubert – Adjunct Professor of Strategy at INSEAD
| In spite of Afghanistan, there is much to learn from the military about reconciling strategic thinking and acting. It is an open secret that many organisations find it easier to develop new strategies than to actually implement them. Communication is often at fault, and the pandemic-induced rise of the home office does not help. Today, as our world seems to become more unpredictable than ever, even strategic thinking faces serious challenges. This is perhaps the moment to turn to the military, and, more specifically, to some elite commando units such as the U.S. Marines, Royal Marines, SAS, or Navy Seals. They all follow some simple principles that reconcile strategy development and execution in an uncertain and volatile environment. These principles translate easily into managerial practice and can be applied by any type of organisation for the benefit of better strategies, more effective implementation, and higher levels of employee engagement. Digital Transformation has been used widely and frequently in the past years. It has come to a place where companies are racing to leverage more data to reach the holy grail of better insights. Many other terms have also emerged recently: Advanced Analytics, IA, Data Literacy, AI and Machine Learning. But how does it all fit together and how should we prioritize the many data opportunities from a technology, process, and people perspective? In this masterclass we explore how to bridge the gap between strategy and technology, between business and IT, between people and data. With a starting point in the data maturity curve, we cover why mastering five specific best-practice disciplines, originated from 50+ real-life client cases, will help companies succeed on their digital transformation journey. |