Thread by @MrAlanCooper

Just because a business entity has a well-formed and clearly stated strategy, that doesn’t mean that it is executing that strategy. 1

Just because the CEO and their immediate circle have a strategy, that doesn’t mean that the middle managers are clear on what that strategy really is, or what it means to their every day work. 2

Particularly in tech companies, the practitioners at the lowest rungs of the company make some of the most impactful, customer-facing decisions in the entire organization. Do those practitioners know what the strategy is? 3

Strategy is largely understanding what your goal is and having a rough idea of what your route towards it will be. The exigencies of day-to-day work buffet you and your efforts along that route. Staying focused is very hard. 4

How clearly one understands the organization’s strategic goal determines how effectively one can achieve it. Executives are paid to articulate strategy, but how many practitioners are? 5

At the level of middle management, most people are paid purely to execute some function or mission. The strategic rationale is not known, not understood, not investigated, not articulated, not compensated, not communicated, and not appreciated. 6

The nature of strategy is complex. But communicating complex strategies is difficult, and comprehending them is more difficult still. 7

So executives must streamline their strategies into brief encapsulations. They get expressed in mission statements, in catch phrases, in slogans, in sound bites. 8

But sound bites are far too brief and simplified to contain the sophistication of the actual strategy of a complex technological business. There is an enormous signal loss in most declarations of strategy. 9

Companies have internal strategies and they have their public-facing versions of them. Publicly, Apple was the “computer for the rest of us.” Privately, I don’t know what their internal strategic mantra was, but it was probably closer to “A brand to conquer the world.” 10

If you work at a big tech company, what strategy do you internalize? What strategy do you execute? Whose truth do you listen to? 11

A statement of strategy that, for example, says “serve the customer” instead of “serve the user” will force radically different decisions to be made at every level of the organization. 12

In today’s world, we are all proud "customers," but we look askance at sketchy "users.” So, for the sake of good optics, companies have “customer-centric” strategies instead of “user-centric” ones. The difference is profound. 13

But even if your strategy is pure as snow in the upper atmosphere, by the time it has made its way down to the salty, muddy street level of quotidian work, it is adulterated and misunderstood. 14

Anyway, the bottom line of this tale of misery is that management’s main job is not developing a winning strategy. Far from it. 15

Management’s main job, its most important, mission-critical job is communicating the strategic mission to the practitioners who must implement it. And by communicating, I mean really assuring that people internalize the fullness of the strategy. 16

This has far-reaching implications on what managers have to do and how they do it. For example, instead of hiring people who can code or design well, they must hire people who can grasp the implications of a strategic position. 17

For a company to actually follow a strategy, all of the internal systems of the company have to further the strategy. That is, compensation has to be based on embodying strategy and not on achieving key results. That’s tough. 18

Strategy has to be discussed and deconstructed and examined by every employee so that they can internalize it. This is management-intensive work that few companies value, support, or even recognize. 19

So, I fart in the general direction of your strategy. And so does everybody else. Everybody can see the strategy emperor is wearing no clothes. And I say this as the creator of a strategy-consulting firm. 19

It's a perfect example of "kayfabe," a neologism I just learned (HT @miniver). Everyone acts like the company follows the strategy, but everyone knows, tacitly, that the company does nothing of the sort, and everyone is okay with that. 20

@miniver And then there is the destructive action of a company's enemies on the sanctity and clarity of the company's strategy. 21

@miniver Of course, a company's biggest enemies are always on the inside: executives gaming their way onto the board, investors trying to liquidate their interests, directors jockeying for power, managers gunning for options or a bonus. 22