Strategy and Innovation

Ok..some gyan and floating thoughts this time..

Strategy..Strategy..Strategy

This is the word that has been reverberating in my corridor since the last couple of years. Now the end point of strategy has always been in being able to generate new business or revenues. Unfortunately most organizations mix strategy into creating an excel sheet or powerpoint plan with a rolling forecast approximating a certain % of market share at worst. I think the dividing line between creating annual plans and creating strategy has been lost or misunderstood by many. Either you create a successful formula or exploit some form of external change in your environment and ride the early mover advantage. That is strategy. For e.g in my previous company, I handled a triple based role - Firstly, being responsible for Banking and capital markets strategy, Second for driving sales across the globe which involved meeting clients/prospects, understanding pain points and pitching our services etc and thirdly of managing the bid office. As part of strategy, I had identified insurance asset management as an area being particularly ripe for outsourcing especially after the hurricane onslaught when the insurance asset manager moved from the liability to the asset side. Second was for doing the valuations of all the OTC derivatives. This was right before the crisis even hit the market and Bear Stearns/Lehman still being the kings of their fiefdom. I had predicted that there will be an urgent need for all banks/asset managers etc to outsource the valuations bit and there is a good deal of money to be made in this.

To take a position on this opportunity, my organization would need to quickly ally with the domain players, a few technology parties and do some internal investing on its own as well. And all this was supported with a business case down to the last dollar required to make it happen. I even went to the extent of getting the largest players in the globe to the deal table to showcase the opportunity. But alas!! The big swinging dicks just didn't have the appetite and largesse to eat such big ones. Nor the vision. It was a time of utter frustration.

But coming back to the point, I love Steve Jobs for his innovation - for whatever he has done to the entire music industry. In one of his interviews where Rumelt asked him on his future strategy, he didn't beat around the bush. All he said was,"I am going to wait for the next big thing". He is a standing testimony to the fact that innovation if supported by the right knowledge and skill pools can change the game completely. Clearly your end product has to have a completely different value compared to the competitors and the company should capitalize on the early mover advantage. Inspite of many mp3 players to hit the market after the Ipod, none have been able to dislodge it from the supremo position.

Unfortunately, I am still in a similar shit-faced position of strategizing and laying things on the table with no one to eat the pie. But things are less gloomy than the earlier organization. There are a few glimmers of hope that the company might move on the suggestions. But a lot of water will flow over the head and we will lose the early mover advantage is what I feel.

Current music - Thiruda Thiruda - Koncham Nilavu