Master the building blocks of strategy with McKinsey

This video is a short conversation with two Mckinsey consultants, in which they give an overview of a longer Mckinsey article — ‘The Building Blocks of Strategy’.

This is a must-watch if you want to get some really pithy, practical insights into what good strategy looks and feels like.

The key learnings we can glean from this video are:

1. Good strategy starts by really digging down into what is  the real money maker for your company. At this point it’s absolutely vital that you make sure you bust any myths that may have become prevalent about the sources of your profits.

2. Search —  Form a view of the future and how it affects the core areas of your business. Look at new ways of making money into the future. It’s a good idea to have a few options so that you can choose the best option among several. 

3. Plan. There’s no such thing as a great strategy without a clearly incremented plan for execution.

4. Commit!  Leaders have to be prepared to commit and be patient and see the strategy through to the end.

As McKinsey say themselves in the article:

Creating strategy in today’s environment of complexity, ever-changing priorities, and conflicting agendas is a daunting task. Yet when senior executives invest the time and effort to develop a more thorough, thoughtful approach to strategy, they not only increase the odds of building a winning business but also often enjoy a positive spin-off: the gifts of simplicity and focus, as well as the conviction to get things done.

Read the McKinsey article here and watch the accompanying video below to understand their idea of strategy building blocks in more depth.