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Waseem Ahmed is working in the field of public transportation as a solutions manager. Technology and its applications to solve life’s problems are his passion. He is a graduate of Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), from where he obtained a master’s degree in computer science.
Before moving to Qatar, he had worked with many corporates in Canada like HSBC Bank and TELUS Communications as a technical project manager. In the course of his 12 years in the management sector, he developed an interest in the study of the concept of business strategy and its impact on the business’s performance. Based upon his observations and experiences, he wrote a number of articles to help business community in understanding key concepts of an effective and practical business strategy. In an interview with Qatar Tribune, Ahmed, who is resident of Qatar since 2010, spoke in detail about corporate strategy and common delusions. ExcerptscTypeface:>
Q. What is the role of corporate strategy department?
A. In any organisation roles and responsibilities of every department are clearly defined. Human Resources and Finance are good examples. In corporate world, there exists one department, which not only does have vague responsibilities, but its deliverables vary radically from one organisation to another. It goes by the name of Strategy or Corporate Strategy Department.
Confusion about strategy department’s role stems from the fact that the concept of business strategy has not been defined as rigorously as other areas of business such as finance, marketing, etc. Rather than indulging in theoretical definition of what is strategy, it is much more valuable to build an appreciation of what is NOT a strategy. Having an awareness of pitfalls of strategy can help in avoiding common but costly errors in business decisions.
What are common delusions of business strategy?
Well, in my opinion the first delusion is ‘All fluff and no stuff.’ Business strategy requires an insightful and thoughtful analytical process behind its articulation. Absence of analytical and inductive thinking manifests itself in the form of highly verbose and worded strategy statements sprinkled with buzz words. When the strategy creator tries to state the banal as something innovative and aspirational, then fluff is used to create a façade of intellectual sophistication. By fluff, I mean usage of filler words, buzz words, data, or graph that doesn’t add value to the intent of the message.
Barnes and Noble (B&N) is a major chain of book stores in United States. Since 1980, B&N’s business strategy was to develop large scale books stores at carefully chosen locations where a wide variety of books can be offered at discounted rates to customers. Internet created a new venue for books sales, but B&N continued to focus on its strategy of physical books stores. Consequently B&N failed to create an effective strategy that takes into account tectonic changes of ecommerce. Lack of strategy is evident in B&N mission statement that says: “Our mission is to operate the best specialty retail business in America, regardless of the product we sell. Because the product we sell is books, our aspirations must be consistent with the promise and the ideals of the volumes which line our shelves. To say that our mission exists independent of the product we sell is to demean the importance and the distinction of being booksellers.”
This statement is full of fluff. In other words, the statement says that they are a book store and want to keep it that way. This statement is in contrast to Baladna’s mission statement that says, “To become and remain the lead supplier in every product or service segment we choose to operate within the food industry in Qatar.”
Baladna’s mission statement has a clarity of thought and can act as a guiding principle in making policies and business engagement decisions. On June 5, 2017, an embargo was placed on Qatar by its neighboring countries that created a shortage of dairy products in the country. Sensing vacuum in the market and need of the country, Qatari entrepreneur and businessman Moutaz al-Khayyat got 3000 cows airlifted from Germany to Qatar, and launched “Baladna” as brand of dairy products. Right after its formation, Baladna launched milk based products and soon became the market leader in Qatar for milk based products. One can link each product launch of Baladna to its strategy of carefully selecting a market segment and then dominating it with high-quality products. In the last two years, Baladna is the fastest growing brand in Qatar.
What are other delusions?
A list of incongruent initiatives as strategy is another delusion. With some variations, common strategy formulation process followed by many organization involve a number of steps. These include:
A. With the help of external consultants / internal strategy department, a long list strategic objectives are created for each department.
B. Each department’s last year’s performance and current activities are used as baseline to create a list of objectives.
C. Objectives are then further divided into number of initiatives. Initiatives that are expensive or having long duration are marked as strategic. All objectives and initiatives are combined to create a strategy document for the organisation.
Before moving to Qatar, he had worked with many corporates in Canada like HSBC Bank and TELUS Communications as a technical project manager. In the course of his 12 years in the management sector, he developed an interest in the study of the concept of business strategy and its impact on the business’s performance. Based upon his observations and experiences, he wrote a number of articles to help business community in understanding key concepts of an effective and practical business strategy. In an interview with Qatar Tribune, Ahmed, who is resident of Qatar since 2010, spoke in detail about corporate strategy and common delusions. ExcerptscTypeface:>
Q. What is the role of corporate strategy department?
A. In any organisation roles and responsibilities of every department are clearly defined. Human Resources and Finance are good examples. In corporate world, there exists one department, which not only does have vague responsibilities, but its deliverables vary radically from one organisation to another. It goes by the name of Strategy or Corporate Strategy Department.
Confusion about strategy department’s role stems from the fact that the concept of business strategy has not been defined as rigorously as other areas of business such as finance, marketing, etc. Rather than indulging in theoretical definition of what is strategy, it is much more valuable to build an appreciation of what is NOT a strategy. Having an awareness of pitfalls of strategy can help in avoiding common but costly errors in business decisions.
What are common delusions of business strategy?
Well, in my opinion the first delusion is ‘All fluff and no stuff.’ Business strategy requires an insightful and thoughtful analytical process behind its articulation. Absence of analytical and inductive thinking manifests itself in the form of highly verbose and worded strategy statements sprinkled with buzz words. When the strategy creator tries to state the banal as something innovative and aspirational, then fluff is used to create a façade of intellectual sophistication. By fluff, I mean usage of filler words, buzz words, data, or graph that doesn’t add value to the intent of the message.
Barnes and Noble (B&N) is a major chain of book stores in United States. Since 1980, B&N’s business strategy was to develop large scale books stores at carefully chosen locations where a wide variety of books can be offered at discounted rates to customers. Internet created a new venue for books sales, but B&N continued to focus on its strategy of physical books stores. Consequently B&N failed to create an effective strategy that takes into account tectonic changes of ecommerce. Lack of strategy is evident in B&N mission statement that says: “Our mission is to operate the best specialty retail business in America, regardless of the product we sell. Because the product we sell is books, our aspirations must be consistent with the promise and the ideals of the volumes which line our shelves. To say that our mission exists independent of the product we sell is to demean the importance and the distinction of being booksellers.”
This statement is full of fluff. In other words, the statement says that they are a book store and want to keep it that way. This statement is in contrast to Baladna’s mission statement that says, “To become and remain the lead supplier in every product or service segment we choose to operate within the food industry in Qatar.”
Baladna’s mission statement has a clarity of thought and can act as a guiding principle in making policies and business engagement decisions. On June 5, 2017, an embargo was placed on Qatar by its neighboring countries that created a shortage of dairy products in the country. Sensing vacuum in the market and need of the country, Qatari entrepreneur and businessman Moutaz al-Khayyat got 3000 cows airlifted from Germany to Qatar, and launched “Baladna” as brand of dairy products. Right after its formation, Baladna launched milk based products and soon became the market leader in Qatar for milk based products. One can link each product launch of Baladna to its strategy of carefully selecting a market segment and then dominating it with high-quality products. In the last two years, Baladna is the fastest growing brand in Qatar.
What are other delusions?
A list of incongruent initiatives as strategy is another delusion. With some variations, common strategy formulation process followed by many organization involve a number of steps. These include:
A. With the help of external consultants / internal strategy department, a long list strategic objectives are created for each department.
B. Each department’s last year’s performance and current activities are used as baseline to create a list of objectives.
C. Objectives are then further divided into number of initiatives. Initiatives that are expensive or having long duration are marked as strategic. All objectives and initiatives are combined to create a strategy document for the organisation.
