Prof. Vijay Govindarajan of Tuck School of Business explains 'Strategy' differently. Strategy needs to be fundamentally different from what an organisation has done in the past. It's all about selective disposal of the past and renewal for the future - what he calls as looking at Box 3 (the future) instead of Box 1 and 2 (past and present).
Besides, strategy is contextual and relative, not an 'absolute' concept. What works for X firm may not work for Y in the same industry. What works for X organisation in one country may not work for the same X organisation in another country.
During my classes at IIMA, I happened to see his presentation. As an anecdote, he quoted Ford's introduction of a mid-sized car for India in the 1990s. They planned to introduce the $20,000 version for the Indian market. A new design team at Detroit worked on cost-cutting and, inter alia, proposed to retain power-windows only for the 2 front doors so as to reduce costs. In the Indian context, this was bound to be a disaster since labour is cheap and people who could afford a Rs.10 lakh car could very well hire a chauffeur. Finally, the one who got power windows in this Ford car was the chauffeur of the rich Indian.
I saw a few more talks by Mr.Govindarajan on youtube and was impressed by the way he delivered the concepts of strategy and innovation.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Sunday, August 9, 2009
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