Why business strategist must wade through both conceptual and contextual thinking?

Business strategist for that matter any type of strategist must have excellent ability to think in terms of concept and in terms of the context where he is in.

It was Lord Buddha who originally introduced the first conceptual framework in human history wherein he presented the philosophy of Buddhism. He was able to do so after rigorous training of the mind focussing and variable analysis. He came out with cause and effect, a theorem all of us know and most of us practise.

Conceptual thinking is not necessarily a gift. Anyone can develop it by applying concentration & focus over a subject/issue/problem, developing alternative solutions, evaluating pros and cons of each of the alternatives, making trade-off if necessary and finally optimizing the use of means one has and achieving the ends one seeks. This optimization gives out the line of best fit or the right way which is chosen as strategy.

But no business strategist can stay in the high pedestal and dictate the chosen business strategy as the best and ram it on the throats of the operational managers. Before finalizing a strategy he must listen to those who are going to execute and must be able to foresee typical conditions that could prevail at the time of implementation.

Understanding the context in which line managers will be placed is the key factor that determines suitability of adopting a particular strategy. Everyone working in a firm understands that making profit is key for survival and at the same time a firm need to understand that it must give customers value proposition which they cannot simply reject.  

In a competitive and ever changing market place, a product however much innovative it is cannot command big following unless line managers fine-tune customer relationship, target customers and distribution channels.  Contextual thinking will highlight how all three aspects can be motivated to buy more and sell more. Paraphernalia of contextual thinking includes among other things, communication, demand management, persuading, trouble shooting, negotiation and decision making.

 

Cheers!

 

Muthu Ashraff

Business Strategist

Mobile: + 94 777 265677

E-mail:   cosmicgems@gmail.com

Blog:   Business Strategist

Seven definitive proofs that vision fathers business strategy

In board rooms, strategy is the most articulated words. It is excusable, because ultimate responsibility of drawing business strategy rests with the board of directors. But what is startling is the fact nobody remembers that strategy did not arise on its own but chosen as a translating mechanism of business vision into reality. Here are seven definitive proofs that confirm strategy is borne out of vision:

1.        In vision a business speaks of business policy and its beliefs and values. You write a vision statement indicating the philosophy in which you work, the concepts that guide and the value judgement you make in progression towards your ideals

2.        Vision portrays the standard that is set for achieving over a period of time. In other words, business makes a choice that has long haul. Hence, the overtone of vision is aspiration as well as inspiration.

3.        A business vision statement answers the questions “What to become or Where to go”. It seeks an end-state that business wishes to achieve at the end of its business cycle. In order to do that, a vision statement provides direction and guidance in brief manner but with broad intent

4.        “Brevity is better part of valour” goes the adage. Vision does just that. Savour the vision of Department of Commerce of USA:  “By assisting the private sector, our vision is that the United States continues to play a lead role in the world economy”. Do I need to say any more?

5.        Business vision is chiselled as policies of a business that govern conduct of transactions in every circumstance. Such policies are of general nature and do not give facts and figures but ideas and concepts. In fact, vision is borne out of conceptual thinking. This type of thinking trains you to spot the missing link or information that is needed to solve a puzzle. In a vision statement you are looking for an over-awning concept or all-prevailing idea in global manner

6.        Vision relates to goals of a business. The goals are set as end-state of business strategy. That is to keep the big picture intact and behind your table so that you often turn back and watch your business vision and then watch your steps in executing business strategy

7.        Board of directors is entrusted with the formulation of vision and accompanying business policy, business strategy and corporate goals. Being lofty in nature and broad in outlook and perhaps too distant to view armchair analysts often miss the tree as forest when they react to short term lull in the progress of a company and dub it as vision failure.

 

Cheers!

 

Muthu Ashraff

Business Strategist

Mobile: + 94 777 265677

E-mail:   cosmicgems@gmail.com

Blog:   Business Strategist

This is what happens when you use conceptual thinking for strategy formulation

Whether you are in politics, military or business you cannot do without training yourself in the art of conceptual thinking. More so, in the case of business strategy formulation where conceptual thinking is much needed as you face market that is in constant state of flux. You have to get the right business strategy. And that comes only out of conceptual thinking.

First and foremost aspect that you notice when you apply conceptual thinking is the understanding of underlying relationship of all factors. Searching for new and existing elements, surveying individual elements, setting how these elements go for backward or forward integration, setting patterns and trends in order to understand connection and relationship are some of the processes that you can perform easily. More often than not, a conceptual thinker lands on a connection between and amongst the factors that were never perceived to exist previously.

Issue recognition is yet another feature of conceptual thinking that contributes immensely towards strategy formation. In business strategy, conceptual thinking guides you to move in tandem by listing all known issues even checking on for any other un-known ones or known but un-fathomed ones. It sheds light over identifying important or critical variables and prods you to go deeper into analysing these with a view to get the right variables in place resulting in an effective business strategy.

Last but not least is that you are able to produce business strategy that is logical & rational taking into count the needs of the market place, goals of the company and the development of product/service so that you are able to get the perfect  value proposition. As a bonus, you also can configure aspects of strategy implementation and strategy evaluation within your business strategy document.

 

Cheers!

 

Muthu Ashraff

Business Strategist

Mobile: + 94 777 265677

E-mail:   cosmicgems@gmail.com

Blog:   Business Strategist