This week, I expound a radical approach to curbing abuse of the term ‘strategy’. Why did I choose to pick a strategy this week? Simples, it is the most overabused term in the entire deck of bullshit bingo cards.
For me, strategy in a business context only has one truly appropriate meaning. Strategy is a cohesive and coherent response to a significant challenge. Nothing more and nothing less.
Dans ce pays-ci, il est bon de tuer de temps en temps un amiral pour encourager les autres – Voltair
My gran used to tell me that honesty pays. Of course, she never really understood banking or IT, probably because she didn’t really want to know anything about them. She never lived to witness the amazing hype circuses, hear the spin-doctors’ mendacious spiel or partake in the focus-group dog-and-pony shows of the 21st century. Indeed, if honesty were guaranteed, my grandmother would have amassed more wealth than Warren Buffett.
Step up to the plate, get real with the bleeding-edge reality that we are facing, and seize the bull by the horns, as time is fast running out.
Yes, the moment of truth has arrived. It’s time to choose on which side of history we want to be on. Now is the time to make up our minds. The choices are clear. Big Data or the dark unknown? (more…)
Towards the end of 2014 I gazed into the amazingly incredible crystal ball called Good Strategy, well known and admired by the readers of the Good Strat Blog, and made some predictions about Big Data for the year to come. The year of the goat. As I write now we are reaching the end of the wonderful year of 2015 – an anno quite-allrightus. So, equipped with good cheer, emboldened by the thoughts of passing the vacations with loved ones, friends and family, and heartened by my impending (albeit temporary) demobilization, I have decided to look back at my predictions of a year ago, to see how accurate or mistaken they ‘have become’, and to share those reflections with you. (more…)