It is around this time of the year leaders go for a strategic planning retreat. Here are five questions to answer during the planning retreat. Question 1 What is the strategy in your strategic document? Carefully review your old strategy to see if your strategy has been defined simply. If an independent party reads through your strategic plan document, would they be able to understand your ‘strategy’? Insight: Many organizations have a document called the Strategic Plan. However, if you removed their name from the cover of the document, and control changed the same throughout the document, it could easily…

Once the problem has been defined, the next thing is to decide on the strategic choices – do you compete on price i.e. low-cost producer and sell at the lowest price. In which case, your source of competitive advantage is affordable pricing? Or do you focus on being differentiated by making products and offering services that your customers adore, in which case they are willing to pay any price? To do so, you must understand your market or customer segments, their incomes and offer products that are highly differentiated and appropriate for each segment. For example, Apple’s iPhone may be…

“Strategy is about making choices, trade-offs; it’s about deliberately choosing to be different.” Michael Porter Many leaders want to keep their options open. Because they want to avoid accountability. Keeping one’s options open is not prudent leadership, it is an indication of lack of confidence in the decision-making processes. Keeping your options open means more resource commitment, trial and error, and limited focus. It is not easy to win when you do so many things at the same time. However, do not confuse choice with identifying a specific sector or business and going a mile deep into the business or…

Strategy is choice. It is about making choices on how to win with stakeholders including customers against the competition or in case of government institutions, any entity that competes for budget allocation from the consolidated fund, is a competitor.

Before you become a board member, you feel a sense of deprivation. A feeling that if you were given the opportunity, things would be better. You would make the organization grow. It is like an aspiring politician wishing to be in parliament to make more insightful and informed legislation and contributions on the floor as if it is that easy. Mr Strategy Many boards operate on political theories- majority rule. The only exception is the veto powers that reside with the Board chairman. However, when the chairman is weak, or they do not understand their powers, they play politics by…