It has almost been a decade; I have been in the consulting side of business. I kind of have lost count of the no of organization with whom we partnered and made them up and running .Not only that, few have opened their businesses using our backbone. From manpower to consumer insights and to marketing strategies, we gave them all. If I were to say my organization did 360 degree overhaul of India Inc …I wont be wrong or overestimating my deliverables.
However, what still surprises me or my acumen is a strange word in the language of business. This word has always made me feel alien to the world of business. What so ever it means, this word has always meant something which is not to be decoded or cannot be decoded. The word which is in mention here is STRATEGY. Well!! We all grow up hearing and adoring this word. Management graduates worship this in books, organization worship this in context of their CEO’s and consulting firms have mastered the art of producing and reproducing strategies.
Quite honestly, somewhere and somewhat, at the back of my mind I have termed the word strategy as the most overrated, highly publicized and a perfect gimmick for selling any product/service in the market place.
I do not deny the presence of ideas or the brilliance through which they get executed.
What I detest, loath or despise is the aura of the word which dissects or disconnects a common resource in an organization in contributing to the value chain. To make it crystal clear … a simple question is what I seek answers for … ask a normal average employee…
KINDLY FORMULATE A STAREGY FOR THE DROP IN SALES BY TOMORROW?
After this question, pat comes the unsaid reply …”strategy making is not my job, these are to be made by experts, those people who have been there and done that, so why should I bother myself “
In simple terms, we have just disconnected the resource by putting the onus of this heavy word on his shoulders.
On the other hand, if the question would have been,
I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE YOUR VIEWS ON PICKING UP THE SALES, LET”S SEE WHO IS MOST CREATIVE. SO JUST LET YOUR MIND FREE.
GIVE ME THE MOST INNOVATIVE SOLUTION?
The difference here is quite simple. The first method has an alienated feel to it, as the word strategy needs to have experience, knowledge and expertise so on so forth. However the latter is more inclusive in nature. It connects the human capital with the problem. It also gives the leverage to think as innovatively as possible.
The point here is simple, I request the organizations and India Inc to help me decode or redefine the word strategy into a more user friendly expression. We need people from bottom to top who can think on their feet and come out with ideas every second. Every simple idea which originates in a mind, irrespective of its qualification/experience/expertise is termed as a strategy only when it is accepted in the market. Only when that idea becomes commercial viable, it is called a STRATEGY. Before its execution and success or failure it’s just a simple idea. Hence let’s just treat ideas as ideas and not make them into rocket science by calling them as strategies. If we need more so called strategies, then we need to have more of ideas and to have more ideas, we need to have less of strategy.
Difficult???? ….Yes Strategy is a difficult word for difficult people.
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