The Art and Discipline of Strategic Leadership

Mike Freedman | Mike Freedman

1 Effective Strategic Thinking
I have long believed that any organization without a cogent strategy is vulnerable. Too much strategic thinking these days is driven, in my opinion, by a desire to appeal to Wall Street investment bankers and analysts or by a dot.bomb-fueled fear of failure.

Strategy is a two-headed prong. It is creative enough to fashion a vision, while being disciplined enough to drive the vision into reality.

Mike Freedman defines the word as the •À?framework of choices that determine the nature and direction of an organization.•À? It is a definition I like. The word •À?framework•À? establishes boundaries and scope. •À?Choices•À? are about products, services, markets and capabilities. •À?Nature•À? describes the character of any organization. •À?Direction•À? is the organization•À?s course determined by choices about future products, services, customers and markets.

Notice that a decision is not strategic simply because it is long-term or involves mega-dollar expenditures. While these can be made within the strategic framework, only those decisions that change the framework are strategic.

Freedman says there are three critical aspects to a strategy:

1. A strategic vision is based on facts, informed assumptions and critical what-if thinking.
2. The vision must be communicated throughout the organization.
3. Its implementation must be monitored.

I particularly enjoyed the section on Strategic Master Project Planning. Freedman says the purpose of master project plan is to assess the necessary strategic initiatives, integrate the existing operation projects, identify project priority and interdict those projects which are out of line with the strategic vision.

This is a great book. As always, organizations that desire to survive and thrive will have to mast the art of strategy creation and implementation. The Kepner-Tregoe five phase model on which Freedman bases this book is a great foundation for organizations and managers who wish to begin the journey.

2 well-crafted strategic thinking book, with case studies
I have always been impressed by the work of the Kepner Tregore team because their methodologies really work. My first encounter with their work was the mastering and application of their decision making and problem solving strategies in the late 70's/early 80's, while I was a practising engineer. Subsequent fruitful encounters include Tregore's Vision at Work and Top Management Strategy (both of which are great works) when I was a General Manager. This book should have been available when I was still working in the corporate world. Anyway, I am very pleased to have bought and perused this wonderful book, which I will now add to my Strategic Thinking and Strategic Leadership bookshelf. I particularly enjoyed digesting the authors' practical approach to strategy formulation, which has been extensively covered in the book. The attendant case studies - field-tested - have been well selected and the process of working out their integrated model to help readers to understand - and eventually apply - has also been well crafted. I also like their way of posing pertinent questions to think through some of the process steps. All practising managers must get hold of this book. In terms of depth and breadth in the strategic thinking process, as well as the clarity in writing and presentation, I would rate this book in the same genre as Michel Robert's strategic thinking books. Across the board, the authors' writing in the book is crisp and succinct, and I really appreciate authors who write this way.