A quote that resonated:
The future is much more important than the new, the hip and the cool. The fashion and communications industries may rely on a constant feed of zeitgeisty whims, but product designers and strategists need to develop a deeper understanding of change. Our timeframes are too long and problems too complex for such fluff. Management thinker Gary Hamel frames foresight as being “prescient about the size and shape of tomorrow’s opportunities” by building an “assumption base about the future” based on “deep insights into the trends.” His advice that “strategy must be created from the future backwards, not the present forwards” also underlines the short-termism of much of today’s innovation activity which places too much emphasis on what consumers said last month.
From Core77
9 November, 2008
Dear Roger,
Thank you for your thoughts and insights on strategy. I couldn’t agree more.
As a very experienced strategic thinker and business strategist (have been in this field since 1974), NOW is the time for serious strategic thinking and operational action. I published a book back in 1987 called “The Executive Guide to Strategic Planning.” Little did I know that some 21 years later, this book would still be selling today. Recently the Chinese Productivity Center adopted this as “one of the ten best books on US Management.”
So, keep up the good work. We have some very serious strategic issues facing us all…and the only CEOs and Companies that are going to survive and thrive in this environment are those who are able to think strategically and execute operationally across their entire organization.
Patrick J. Below
Founder & CEO
CEO Consulting Services
Thanks for the comments Patrick – could not agree more.