Strategy

I carried out interviews with twenty-six executives, all division managers or CEO's in the electronics and telecommunications sector. My interview plan was simple: I asked each executive to identify the leading competitor in their business. I asked how that company had become the leader - evoking their private theories about what works. And then I asked them what their own company's strategy was.

These executives, by and large, had no trouble describing the strategy of the leader in their sectors. The standard story was that some change in demand or technology had appeared - a "window of opportunity" had opened - and the current leader had been the first one to leap through that window and take advantage of it. Not necessarily the first mover, but the first to get it right.

But when I asked about their own company's strategies, there was a very different kind of response. Instead of pointing to the next window, or even mentioning it's possibility, I heard a lot of look-busy doorknob polishing [...] They each hald told me the formula for success in the 1990's electronics industry - take a good position quickly when a new window of opportunity opens - but none said that was their focus, or even mentioned it as part of their strategy. Richard Rumelt - Good Strategy / Bad Strategy
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