Page 6 - newDATAmagazine | 06>10>2021

EDITORIAL
To plan with STRATEGY
Henry Mintzberg, renowned author, and
professor originally from Canada, with
practice at McGill University (Canada) and
INSEAD (France), when asked about the
cause of the failures in strategic planning,
when based on formulas and analysis,
answers:
"Because analysis-driven strategic
planning is doing little more than elaborating
and operationalizing strategies that
companies already have. That's not strategic
thinking."
The method Mintzberg refers to fails
because it's based on three assumptions:
1. On the assumption that discontinuities
can be predicted;
2. On the assumption that only statistical
information (hard data) is sufficient for
strategy, ignoring informal information
(soft data);
3. On the assumption that strategy
creation can be formalized.
Whether for use in professional or personal
life contexts, any strategic planning should
seek to instill change in organizations (AS IS)
through the implementation of programs or
initiatives that will enable the organization, in
the future, to move closer to a framework
perceived as desirable (TO BE). In other
words, we want the organization to change
and we know what changes to introduce to
achieve the desired new configuration.
On this path, it is fundamental to
understand that, like Murphy's Law , anything
can happen. Organizations are increasingly
dependent on their surroundings and, even
with solid internal structures, they are
influenced by the growing global instability.
As it is not possible to guarantee sufficient
reliability in planning, the assumption that
everything will go as planned is one of the
most serious assumptions that can be made.
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MAGAZINE
or with ASTUTENESS ?
In today's world, which is fully connected
24 hours a day and has experienced
exponential growth in the last two years, the
power of social networks is implanted.
Although, with distinct importance and
scales, organizations now live under the
scrutiny of social networks, which represent
the will of the masses. National elections are
won on Twitter and Facebook, and if Ronaldo
says you shouldn't drink Coke, the world
reacts en masse. It is clear that the
importance of soft data has grown and so
has the manager's responsibility in
interpreting it. It is therefore essential to
ensure that the portion of this meaningful
information is used to support the
construction of strategic planning.
Mintzberg also says: "The real challenge in
the art of creating a strategy is to detect the
subtle discontinuities that can destroy a
business in the future. And for that, there is
no technique, no program, only an astute
mind in charge of the situation."
This insight from Mintzberg, collected
about 20 years ago, finds a parallel in our
current reality. Today, some of the global
leaders we know regularly share their vision
for the future of humanity, and many are
misunderstood. Probably one or several of
them will be right in their visions, which could
ease our path of evolution as a society,
avoiding the obstacles along the way. The
problem is that we don't know which of them
are "seeing right"…
Horácio Lopes
®
BCI VP . Editor newDATAmagazine
®
BCP . Consultor de Gestão
Marketer . Formador
Perfil | Profile
(1) In Business Minds, Reino Unido, Mestres da Gestão.
42 Gurus do Management em directo, 2002, Centro
Atlântico, ISBN 972-8426-60-3