During one of my Strategic Marketing lectures at EIT recently, we were setting the stage for students to start their major assignment for this course. The opening discussion revolved around being prepared to think outside of normal bounds…to explore new ground on which to base an innovative business model and marketing strategy.
I posed the notion that “fear” is a significant determinant of how conservative/ constrained strategic thinking ends-up being. I have found over the years that the more fearful leaders are the more conservative their strategic thinking is…and the slower the rate of evolution of the organisation that they’re responsible for providing leadership to.
I urged students to think in realms that may not have been delved into before…to push boundaries to discover seemingly plausible commercial ideas on which to base their assignment. Don’t allow all of the various forces (e.g. regulatory/ legislative constraints, etc) which surround businesses to dictate original focused strategic thinking.
It was really interesting to see students’ reaction to the above messages…many taking written notes on this subject.
I believe that it is the above sorts of messages – when understood and communicated by a range of influential leaders – that will prove to be the salvation of the N.Z. economy in the end. The art of free and deep strategic thinking must be revitalized and re-established as a strong differentiating feature of the N.Z. business environment if we’re to “hold our own” internationally. Business leaders/ owners must be told and be reassured that “it’s perfectly O.K. for you to think strategically”…that “you’re not breaking any laws if you think strategically”….and where necessary these people should be taught/ re-taught how to think strategically.
Legislation/ industry regulation will always be there to curtail and govern certain processes and procedures. Yet you should not allow these pressures to prevent you from thinking strategically on a “blank canvas” as the starting point for setting commercial direction. Get your “big picture” (vision creation) sorted firstly, and only then become concerned about factoring-in/ analysing the potential impact of forces such as regulation/ legislation on your chosen direction.
So have the courage to generate clear strong vision.