STRATEGY IN A CONNECTED WORLD

Macro thinking and Micro changes align a global network 

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Marlon Mattos

Management Consultant 



GET IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT

The idea is that we can foresee the future, when in fact the point is to create it.

“We fixate on events…last month’s sales, new budget cuts, [the current stock price]…Yet the primary threats to our survival today come not from events but from slow gradual processes to which we are 90 percent blind.”

 – Peter Senge in The Fifth Discipline

CHANGING THE GAME


As an Advisory Professional, it is imperative to help clients define an ideal future state. This process of facilitated ideation should be unhampered by current phenomenon. Beginning with current parameters only dampens the burning platform that instead should be abolished. By only eliminating unwanted consequences, what is left may not be the optimal nor intended outcome, but the charred remains of what once was.


If an organization is not clear on what an ideal operating model looks like, how on earth will it know what should be done under constraints? Instead, beginning with the idea of a blank slate is the fundamental catalyst for success in developing an unobstructed vision to approximate, and a strategy to achieve it. What would you do, if you could do anything? When you are changing the game, traditional rules to the game do not apply.


-Marlon Mattos

MAKE THE CONNECTION


We can restructure and create a vision of holistic success, once we understand how we are all connected.

Key Methodology:


  • Systems Thinking allows us to map our relationships and world
  • Design Thinking allows us to create an uninhibited future state 
  • Strategic Thinking allows us to move to that future state  


UNDERSTANDING THE GAME


In a world where Kim and Mauborgne’s oceans strategy is a splash away from global arbitrage and market creation, there is an inescapable understanding that barriers to entry are no longer geographic. Moreover, the recent financial crisis has made it abundantly clear that the global economy intricately connects us all.


To succeed in a dynamic and connected world, an organizational strategy must be bigger than silos and further than the front door. It must take into account networks, industries, and global trends, while perhaps growing with local partners to incubate a market leading position.


While the world shrinks and effective reach expands, aligning stakeholders for sustainable growth can become a momentous task. General Creighton Abrams shared an approach to the eating of an elephant that is apropos - It must be done carefully, and one bite at a time. This of course is to say that the grandest of challenges can be surmounted with small increments of purposeful change. Operationalizing a strategy happens every day, and in every decision. Alignment is achieved through focused and deliberate prioritization of efforts, both small and large, empowered by a culture of innovation.