The Mind of The Strategist Refresher

The Mind of the Strategist by Kenichi Ohmae, a McKinsey alum, is a great book and an extremely valuable read for small and medium businesses and especially start-ups.  It is enjoyable to revisit the classics and apply the common sense and wisdom they share.  Here is a section filled with some common sense approaches to management strategy that often get overlooked despite their simplicity.

Ohmae begins "In my experience, there are at least three major constraints to which the business strategist needs to be sensitive." 

"I think of them as the essential R's: reality, ripeness, and resources."

"Let's begin with reality...business strategists must always be aware of the customer, the competition, and the company's field of competence."

"Ripeness, or timing, is the second key consideration that the business strategist must address.  Unless the time is ripe for the proposed strategy, it is virtually certain to fail."

"Resources, my third R, constitute such an obvious constraint that it is amazing that they should be ignored or neglected by strategists.  Yet examples abound of strategies that failed because their authors were not sensitive to their own resource limitations and skills."

These are powerful strategic thoughts to visit from time to time when crafting your next technology, business, marketing, or sales strategy.   

Have you done your homework (market research)?  Have you put the current and potential customer to work for you?   

What is your competition doing?  What are the competitive threats and opportunities? 

Are you sticking to your guns in terms of core competence or are you taking a shot gun approach to earning market share/leadership? 

Finally, are you seizing strategic opportunities with timing and resources in mind?