When it comes to strategy, the force should be with you, says a Harvard b-school professor:

“Talk about strategy as the animating force of a company, the energy that directs everything that a company does.”

So says Cynthia A. Montgomery (video interview below), the Timken Professor of Business Administration and author of The Strategist: Be the Leader Your Business Needs.

Montgomery has formed new thoughts about strategy based on years of teaching and coaching global business executives.  She writes:

“I came to see that we cannot afford to think of strategy as something fixed, a problem that is solved and settled.  Strategy – the system of value creation that underlies a company’s competitive position and uniqueness – has to be embraced as something open, not something closed.  It is a system that evolves, moves, and changes.”

The professor advises executives to consider four basic questions when it comes to strategy:

1. What does my organization bring to the world?
2. Does that difference matter?
3. Is something about it scarce and difficult to imitate?
4. Are we doing today what we need to do in order to matter tomorrow?

Watch Montgomery discuss why strategy needs to be reimagined. Continue reading →