Idea in Brief
The Problem
As companies respond to intensifying competitive pressures and challenges, they ask more and more of their employees. But organizations often have very little to show for the often Herculean efforts of their talented and engaged workers.
The Approach
Leaders can address this problem by simplifying strategy—that is, selecting fewer initiatives with greater impact. A value-based strategy gives executives a holistic view of the many activities taking place within their organizations.
The Process
A strategic initiative is worthwhile only if it does one or more of the following: creates value for customers by raising their willingness to pay, creates value for employees by making work more attractive, or creates value for suppliers by reducing their operating cost.
In the past few decades, strategy has become increasingly sophisticated and complicated. If you work for a sizable organization, chances are your company has a marketing strategy (to track and shape consumer tastes), a corporate strategy (to benefit from synergies), a global strategy (to capture worldwide business opportunities), an innovation strategy (to pull ahead of the competition), a digital strategy (to exploit the internet), and a social strategy (to interact with communities online). In each of those domains, talented people work on a long list of urgent initiatives.
