The Strategic Executive Show

Discover the critical moments when businesses must change their strategies to survive. Explore the importance of identifying customer needs and the fine line between strategy and tactics. Learn from Chipotle about enhancing perceived value, and uncover alarming stats about managers' understanding of strategy. Delve into five essential steps for crafting effective strategies and the invaluable concept of 'contextual radar' to navigate dynamic market conditions. This insightful discussion is a must-listen for anyone aiming to boost their strategic acumen!

Dive into the world of decision-making and delegation, featuring insights from the infamous Decision Demon and Napoleon Bonaparte. Discover the nine pitfalls that hinder effective choices and learn how to establish clear decision rights. Uncover the impact of groupthink and the halo effect on strategy. Explore methods to streamline decision processes, enhance accountability, and boost team morale. Plus, find out how written strategies can filter priorities and clarify ownership. Effective leadership starts with mastering these key strategies!

Explore the essence of innovation beyond flashy products—it's often about small, meaningful changes. Discover techniques like solving customer challenges and jumping domains to unlock creativity. Learn to embrace observation as Leonardo da Vinci would, and see how the Value Mining Matrix can help unearth customer needs. A unique focus on deviating from norms reveals how unconventional approaches can spark true innovation and lead to sustained success in business.

A survey of two thousand executives by McKinsey and Company showed that only 19% of companies have a definite and distinct process for developing strategy. That means for the majority of organizations, strategy development is a random and crisis driven event…if it even happens at all. Today, I’m excited to share with you a proven process for developing strategy. First, I welcome one of the greatest strategic minds in history, Carl von Clausewitz, to share his planning approach, and you’ll also learn how to distill your entire strategic plan into 1-2 pages. Then, I welcome the *almost* five-time Grammy award winning hip hop artist, Stra-Da-Gee, to perform his hit song on strategic planning entitled, ‘Strat Plan’. We will also talk about the importance of leading boldly through confident strategic direction, and you’ll be introduced to the Strategy Scaffold tool to bring together your purpose, business model, and plan.   What You’ll Hear In this Episode:  Strategic thinking is the generation of insights that lead to advantage, while strategic planning is the channeling of those insights into a directional guide to achieve your goals and objectives.  GOST is an acronym for goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics. You’ll learn how it’s spookily accurate when it comes to setting strategy. Good leaders continually reinforce the key elements of their plan, and filter out the extraneous noise that could get in the way of their team’s execution.  When you try to do a little bit for everyone, you lose strength and focus.  How does the ability to act boldly show up in history’s champions?  What are the five primary phases of strategy development?  You’ll gain access to the Strategy Scaffold tool. Stra-Da-Gee, performing his hit rap song on the keys to strategic planning.  Lyrics Stra-Da-Gee (1).pdf   Quotes/Tweetables: “Do you have a strategic plan? If your plan could talk, what would it say?”  “Good leaders continually reinforce the key elements of their plan, and filter out the extraneous noise that could get in the way of their team’s execution.” “You will always have a choice between the most courageous and most cautious decision.”  “Intelligence without audacity is not enough. You must have the guts to explode the game to upend your opponent’s thinking, and in doing so, unnerve them.” - Garry Kasparov   Connect with Us! Strategic Thinking Institute Rich Horwath on LinkedIn Rich Horwath’s YouTube Channel StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad: Using Strategic Thinking to Defeat Bad Strategy and Save Your PlanDeep Dive by Rich Horwath  Elevate: The Three Disciplines of Advanced Strategic Thinking by Rich Horwath   Mentioned :  Carl von Clausewitz  McKinsey  Garry Kasparaov  Keywords: strategic thinking, strategy, strategic planning, strategic, tactics, goal, goals, objective, objectives, plan, planning, business strategy, business acumen, executive coaching, executive coach, leadership development,, leadership, rich horwath, effective meetings, CEO strategy, CEO coach, productive meetings, carl von clausewitz, mckinsey, strategy scaffold  

It’s a jam-packed episode as we dive into a proven framework to create a strategic team, and help your team set clear and compelling strategic direction. First, I discuss ways to maximize your strategic leadership potential by reviewing the 3A  Strategic Thinking framework. Here you’ll learn to apply several new strategic tools to your business to create more insights, make strategic trade-offs and better align your priorities with your time. I’ll then chat with our dead guest, Dr. Igor Ansoff, considered by many to be the father of strategic management.  Finally, I share Dr. Seuss’s take on  strategy, and dive deeper into how structure follows strategy and why failing fast may not be as great as it seems.   What You’ll Hear In This Episode: Why you should stop people from throwing “strategic” in front of other words to make them sound important What does “being strategic” really  mean? How to stop the villain Jargon Goblin from confusing your team on the common business planning terms Today’s dead guest, Dr. Igor Ansoff, known as “The Father of Strategic Management” on how to become more strategic Research shows that one-third to one-half of new chief executives fail within their first 18 months. If you follow the practice of failing fast and often, you may soon be an unemployed CEO! The #1 cause of business failure is…bad strategy.  The 3A Strategic Thinking Framework: acumen, allocation, and action. Nearly half of the activities that managers work on are actually tasks that could be delegated to others. The importance of creating an Insight Network and harnessing your people’s insights on a regular basis Completing a Decision Inventory to clarify decision rights A whopping 71% of executives say their meetings are unproductive and inefficient. Developing a Time Tracker to better align your priorities and time Dr. Seuss’s take on being strategic?   Quotes/Tweetables: “Strategic: possessing insight that leads to advantage.” “At the heart of strategy are two components: insight and advantage.” “Taking the time to think strategically and plan appropriately will lead you to succeed fast and often.” “Strategic decisions are not self-regenerative.” “How often do we get caught up in the seemingly endless cycle of fire drills that distracts us from proactively thinking through and focusing on creating and executing our strategies?” “Being a strategic leader is not a nice to have these days, it's a must-have.”  “If your team’s strategic plan is nothing more than a rehash of last year’s tactics smothered in a mountain of customer data and spread out across 75 PowerPoint slides, then grab yourself a frosty, cold can of Insight Hard Seltzer…And please, strategize responsibly.”   Connect with Us! Strategic Thinking Institute Rich Horwath on LinkedIn Rich Horwath’s YouTube Channel StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad: Using Strategic Thinking to Defeat Bad Strategy and Save Your PlanDeep Dive by Rich Horwath  Elevate: The Three Disciplines of Advanced Strategic Thinking by Rich Horwath   Mentioned :  Dr. Igor Ansoff Jack Dorsey Tom Gentile Tim Cook Harvard Business Review - One-half of Chief Executives Fail Within 18 Months Harvard Business School Professor Boris Groysberg The Visible Hand Keywords: strategic thinking, strategy, strategic planning, strategic, tactics, goal, goals, objective, objectives, plan, planning, business strategy, business acumen, executive coaching, executive coach, leadership development,, leadership, rich horwath, effective meetings, CEO strategy, CEO coach, jack dorsey, igor ansoff, productive meetings

Welcome to the Strategic Executive Show. I’m your host Rich Horwath,  founder of The Strategic Thinking Institute. In this series, I’ll share tools, tips and techniques to enhance your strategic thinking and planning capabilities to set direction, create advantage and achieve your goals. This week, it’s all about digging into what strategy is at its core, and how to understand and reconnect with its true purpose and meaning.    First, I’ll chat with a special guest–Chinese General, philosopher, and author of, The Art of War, Sun Tzu–and by the way, he’s dead–to talk about the core differences between strategy and tactics, how effective strategy can create a roadmap to your goals, and the importance of tuning up your strategic plan  to adapt to your evolving environment. Then, we dive into the most common mistake regarding strategy, and why mistaking operational effectiveness for strategy can prevent you from separating yourself from the pack. Our first episode wouldn’t be complete without a quick visit from Strategy Jack, to help us break down some tools and techniques to craft an impactful roadmap. Let’s strategize!    What You’ll Hear In This Episode: How strategy has become convoluted and confused with other terms  in business.  The common traps to avoid when developing your strategy.  The difference between strategy and tactics.  Why strategy without insight compromises your competitive advantage.  The three elements within an impactful strategy: Resource allocation, unique system of activity, and primary components.  What research says 93% of the top financially performing companies have in common.  What two questions good planning should aim to answer. The G.O.S.T. Framework: Goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics.   Quotes/Tweetables: “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat” [3:50] -Sun Tzu “Without strategy, it becomes a game of tactical roulette, where you're just throwing things up on the wall to see what sticks. With strategy in place, it provides a path to your destination.” [4:00] -Rich  “Preparation is seldom exciting, but it is the foundation of success.” [5:02] -Rich “Simply put, strategy is how you plan to achieve a goal.” [8:30] -Rich “Show me how your people are spending their time, talent and budget every day, and you'll see your true strategy.” [9:15] -Rich “Good leaders don't leave strategy to chance” [9:30] -Rich “It's not until you get off the beaten path that the beating can begin” [10:38] -Rich “​​It's very difficult to fix something that's been done badly, you'd better do your thinking and planning up front when you have the time.” [17:27] -David Mamet   Connect with Us! Strategic Thinking Institute  Rich Horwath: LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | Books    Mentioned :  The Art of War  StrategyMan vs. the Anti-Strategy Squad: Using Strategic Thinking to Defeat Bad Strategy and Save Your Plan Keywords: strategic thinking, strategy, strategic planning, strategic, tactics, goal, goals, objective, objectives, plan, planning, business, sun tzu, create, develop, effectiveness, leadership, rich horwath, 

Are you strategic? New York Times bestselling author on strategy Rich Horwath shares tools, tips, and techniques to enhance your strategic thinking and planning skills to set direction, create advantage, and achieve your goals. Sometimes he has live guests, and sometimes he has dead guests…tune in to find out who he’s talking about strategy with this episode.