Karim Zuhri - Strategic planning vs tactical execution - How to connecting both phases and avoid bad strategy - S2 Ep6

One of the main reasons companies don't grow and stagnate is because they fail to execute on their planning phase. 

There's many reasons why. This is an area we'll cover exclusively in this episode. 

It’s always nice when you stumble across people in strategy who have interesting backgrounds. The more diverse and strange the background, the better the strategist in my book. These people tend to be a wealth of wisdom and have a certain perspective that only comes off the back of diversity of thought which in turn stems from a diversity of life experience. Karim’s career so far is strong and broad with a solid foundation of both book and street smarts. It started with a double masters in computer science and energy engineering, before he moved into product strategy and management and consulting roles. His CV is impressive to say the least.

But then there’s the global context. To say he’s multicultural is an understatement. He’s lived and worked in 7 different countries which beats my measly 4.

And this global curiosity must have helped land a role at the business travel division of Expedia group. Here he led global projects to help create a customer obsession culture in order to drive business growth. Managing a 15m budget and bringing together over 7 different departments to make them more customer centric was no easy feat.

He’s just finished a product role at Safety Culture at the start of 2021, which is an Australian unicorn startup.

Currently, he’s in a senior leadership role at Cascade - a strategy software platform that’s focused on bridging the gap between planning and execution for multi-business unit companies.

And this is why we had to talk Connecting these two phases is one of the most challenging things a company will ever do. This whole episode is on just this topic. But by listening you will pick up so much more value.

You’ll learn why companies don’t follow through and what are the 3 main things that prevents them.

You’ll find out which things need to be present for strategy to work really well.

You'll find out why we’re both dismissive of bridging in external consultants into a grey-haired boardroom to do annual strategy days.

You'll learn which question you should ask yourself before starting any task which will instantly make you more strategic.

Find out the main things which prevent innovation and all the true hallmarks of innovative companies.

Learn why company culture is so pivotal and underestimated as a successful strategy driver

Karim isn't a boring person. So even if strategy isn't your thing, have a listen and I'm sure you'll pick up quite a few handy tips no matter what job you do. 

Ciao for now.