Strategy is getting a bad rap these days – too static, too rigid.  With Innovanomics™, Strategy is a dynamic, evolving process continually monitoring changes that impact the business as well as progress in execution.  It is not a static, behind closed doors exercise; it’s a dynamic, continual, out in the real world continuous exercise, grounded in a company’s purpose (or mission) and core values.  If it doesn’t support those, you’re headed down a very slippery slope.

One of the hardest strategic choices is balancing wealth protection (current customers, markets, supply chains) and wealth creation (future new customers, markets and supply chains).  But this isn’t an EITHER/OR choice, it’s an AND, BOTH.  Existing wealth creates new wealth…wealth in tangibles, such as equipment, market share and intellectual property and in intangibles, such as corporate culture, experience and knowledge.

The Innovanomics™ framework includes setting initial goals, looking at your and your customers’, worlds from the outside in, refining and prioritizing the goals and developing a highly actionable, executable way of achieving them.  A key to success is holding yourself and others accountable with clearly defined measures (quantitative and qualitative) and responsibilities. Innovation has to be core to and aligned within the strategy, not orthogonal.   So ask yourself the following:

• Why do we do things the way we do?
• Do the assumptions that got us here still hold true?
• Do we know and are we helping our customers do the jobs they and their customers need or want done, in the way they need or want them done?
• Are our current customers and markets the same ones for tomorrow?
• Are we easy to do business with?
• Are our employees engaged and excited to be here and solve customers' problems?
• Do we en"courage" taking risk to solve problems? Do we reward or punish risk taking?
• Do we give our people the freedom and autonomy to innovate?
• Do we hold ourselves accountable, really?
• Do we know our business model, and if so, does it even make sense anymore?
• Are we accomplishing the purpose and mission of this company?
• Do we really live out our values or just put them on mouse pads and walls?
• Do we measure all aspects of sustainable success - intangible and tangible?

Given your answers, do you think it’s time to look at your business a bit differently?  It’s a formidable but imperative task.  And if you don’t, eventually you won’t need to.  If you would like to, we can discuss your concerns and see if it makes sense for me to help.