Expert Insights on Strategic Thinking
Everyone
- 23 videos | 1h 8m 23s
- Earns a Badge
To go from A to B, you need to plan, and strategic thinking is the plan that gets you there. With it, you can see lay of the land, choose the best route, and avoid detours. You can even discover new destinations.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
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Acquire insights on the importance of focusing on assumptions and beliefs when formulating strategies.
Acquire insights on how managers can think more strategically as they move into more senior roles.
Acquire insights on how a leader is different from a manager.
Acquire insights on how to ask better, more provocative, "killer" questions to get better answers.
Acquire insights on the three perspectives that can help you think more strategically.
Acquire insights on how executives can make sense in a strategic plan.
Acquire insights on how to understand your competitive advantage through the story of Singer, a sewing machine manufacturer.
Acquire insights on the importance of hypothesizing, testing, and repeating in order to stay relevant.
Acquire insights on how Vineet Nayar achieved “impossible” growth by concentrating on the company-customer interaction.
Acquire insights on understanding that sometimes “crazy” ideas just might work.Tough Mudder is an example.
Acquire insights on the importance of paying attention to speed and security, rather than survival for an organization.
Acquire insights on the basic idea behind the ten rules for strategic innovation. -
Acquire insights on the role of managers in strategy formation.
Acquire insights on how disruption leads to growth in business.
Acquire insights on how to innovate by keeping customer requirements in mind.
Acquire insights on how the technique of "kill a stupid rule" can help people become more innovative in the workplace.
Acquire insights on how to innovate through open-ended questions.
Acquire insights on how to prepare your company from getting killed by its competitors in the future.
Acquire insights on the importance of challenging orthodoxies.
Acquire insights on how to fund internal innovation through budget reallocation.
Acquire insights on the three rules that make companies exceptional and the importance of raising them to the level of principles.
Acquire insights on how a statement like "I don't know" can transfer the power to the employees.
Acquire insights on ways to create excellence by starting small and testing your ideas with those that you trust.
IN THIS COURSE
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1. Strategy 101: Focus on Assumptions3m 11sA strategy includes a vision; the environment; assumptions and beliefs; a strategy; and a plan to execute that strategy. Focus on the assumptions and beliefs. FREE ACCESS
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2. How to Think Strategically2m 7sAs you move into senior roles be careful how you spend your time. Most senior managers say they should spend more time on strategic concerns; but they don’t. The only way to be more strategic is to talk to people outside the organization who are different from you. FREE ACCESS
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3. Strategic Thinking: The Difference Between a Leader and a Manager3m 10sLeaders see the big picture; how things are connected to the future; and how to get out of the box. Managers concentrate on the here and now. FREE ACCESS
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4. Ask Killer Questions1m 31sPeople go into meetings looking for answers without asking the right questions. Ask better questions to get better answers. FREE ACCESS
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5. Change Perspectives to Think Strategically4m 26sStrategic thinking is a skill that can be developed by changing three perspectives. FREE ACCESS
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6. Sense Making In Strategic Planning1m 49sTo make sense in a strategic plan: 1) get outside points of view; 2) allow space for the conversations to take place; 3) state your beliefs in the plan and the strategy based on those beliefs; then ask; 4) Do we still believe that? What happens if we’re wrong? FREE ACCESS
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7. Understand Your Competitive Advantage: The Singer Story2m 13sSinger trained 60;000 people world wide to sell sewing machines; but didn’t see that their advantage was their sales force; not their machines; they could have sold other household goods. By contrast; IBM transitioned from punched cards to information solutions. FREE ACCESS
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8. Admit You Don't Know; Hypothesize; Test; Repeat2m 4sLike vegetables; everything gets stale — ideas; strategies; markets; relationships. Unless we reinvent them they will fail. We become more irrelevant every day. The answer we think we know is already obsolete. Admit you don’t know; frame a hypothesis; test it; repeat. FREE ACCESS
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9. What vs. How3m 10sApple develops products on the “what” axis; but for every success there are ten thousand failures. For Southwest and Virgin airlines the “how” is more important. Vineet Nayar achieved “impossible” growth by concentrating on the company-customer interaction. FREE ACCESS
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10. Innovation: Paper Versus Reality2m 26sCrazy ideas on paper get shot down; but sometimes are winners. Tamera gives examples; especially Tough Mudder; which was shot down as crazy by Harvard professors. Today; millions compete in Tough Mudder. Give “crazy” ideas a chance to breathe life. FREE ACCESS
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11. Survival Is Not Mandatory2m 45sSurvival might not be mandatory, but for organizations that want to beat out their competitors, attention to speed and security is key. FREE ACCESS
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12. Overview of the 10 Rules for Strategic Innovators2m 12sThe ten rules for strategic innovators derive from three basic ideas. The new business must 1) forget the old business; but 2) be connected to the old business; which 3) requires learning how to resolve the differences. FREE ACCESS
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13. The Role of Managers in Strategy Formation2m 21sPeople at different levels need to think in terms of different time horizons. FREE ACCESS
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14. Disruption Is the Only Path to Growth3m 38sA business model — value proposition; resources; processes; and profit formula — is designed not to change. The only way to lead in both the original market and a disruptive market is to establish an independent business. FREE ACCESS
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15. To Innovate; Ask What the Customer is Doing5m 2sWhen you’re trying to innovate; ask what the customer is trying to accomplish. FREE ACCESS
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16. Kill a Stupid Rule4m 28sBrainstorm; “What rule should we kill or change and why?” Some rules can’t be killed; but can be changed. Everyone puts a sticky note for a rule on a white board that plots implementation (easy/hard) by impact (low/high). Kill at least one rule on the spot. FREE ACCESS
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17. Innovate with Open-Ended Questions3m 2sInstead of; “How can we improve our products and services;” ask; “How might we…;” “How should we…;” or “In what ways can we…” Think of questions ahead of time. For example; “If you were a competitor; what two things would you do to put us out of business?” FREE ACCESS
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18. Kill the Company2m 21sAssemble a highly diverse group of employees and ask; “If you were the competitor; what would you do today to put us out of business?” Post the threats on sticky notes. Then ask how to counter these threats. Answers will help keep the company ahead in the future. FREE ACCESS
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19. Challenge Your Orthodoxies3m 27sWrite down your core beliefs about consumers; how you operate; and how you make money. Then flip them. What if they weren’t true? What would we do differently? Marla Capozzi gives examples. FREE ACCESS
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20. Funding Internal Innovation through Budget Reallocation2m 54sTo innovate organically requires P&L dollars; which are the most difficult to get. But if companies think about inputs in addition to outputs; they may find diminishing returns; overinvestment in core products; duplication; and other opportunities for reallocation. FREE ACCESS
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21. Raising Rules to the Level of Principles3m 55sThe three rules are 1) better before cheaper—compete on value; 2) revenue before cost—increase volume or price premiums; and 3) there are no others. Follow the rules even when the data point in a different direction. Examples explain why. FREE ACCESS
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22. The Power of 'I Don't Know'2m 9sOn becoming the new CEO; he was asked; in front of 5;000 employees; “What are you going to do?” He answered; “I don’t know. You know. You tell me.” This transferred ownership to the employees. The job of the CEO is to enable employee performance. FREE ACCESS
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23. Creating Excellence4m 3sAll innovators want to create excellence, but to do this you need to take risks. To minimize these risks, start small and test your ideas with people you trust. FREE ACCESS
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