dispatches from the new world of work

Mike and Tom, Mike vs Tom

I spoke to a brilliant colleague who is writing a book about the impact of business ideas, strategy in particular. I will not try to summarize 5 intense hours in a paragraph, but ... well ... I'll try. "There are two kinds of people"—what nonsense! But, hey, let's go with it. The pure "strategy guys" (M. Porter, Exhibit #1) believe in the importance of ... no surprise ... strategy. The "other" crowd (of which I am perhaps the member with the highest name recognition) "believe in" ... PEOPLE & EXECUTION. (In Search of Excellence "Basic" No.1: Action! No.2: Customers! No.3: People! We—the good guys, of course—believe that the strategy, while important, is secondary (very secondary?) to the "infrastructure"—Execution Mania, Customer Love, Passion for People. (Which in turn requires "hands on" leadership vs "intellectual" leadership.") As one prominent soul apparently told my pal, and I paraphrase (thanks to a crappy memory), "Porter couldn't comprehend the people side of the equation if you gave him a century." That is, of course, unfair—I guess.

(Attached is a frivolous pair of slides I concocted a while back contrasting Porter, Peters, Drucker, and Bennis. FYI.)

Tom Peters posted this on 07/18/06.

Comments

In my own blog and on several reading lists, I've said that the main reason to read Porter is that all the academics use his jargon. Whatever else Professor Porter did, he defined the language that's used in academic (and hence, MBA) discussions of strategy. More interesting to me is what's been happening in the way the military thinks about strategy over the last couple of decades. The move has been toward downplaying "strategy" and talking more about "doctrine" -- how we're going to deal with the problems we'll face, even if we can't define them yet. If you haven't read it, pick up a copy of Warfighting, the US Marine manual (FMF-1) of strategy. The word around the campfire is that General Al Gray penned this himself. For my money it's the best single book on strategy for Western readers.

Posted by Wally Bock at July 18, 2006 5:55 PM

M.Porter is a guru by himself. Likewise is TP. One must not compare oranges and apples , just becuase they are round in shape [aka 'guru']

Both thought process invoke diciplines that certain cultures can adopt too and leverage., in the same breath, i must also say "TOMato" and "tomATo" :)- and the bakers dozen strategy.

Crafting Strategy for the sake of crafting is not an art. Exuction without finese is not art at all. The glove must fit the hand, else it becomes a guanlet that is thrown down.the fight then becomes who is right and who is wrong--rather then what is right and what is wrong !!
IMHo, both execution and Strategy is of the utmost importance and both have the same weigthage. They are the yen/yang of business innovations, sustances and governence.

sidebar : Tom, I like the matrix you built [ppt].. how did you drive at the collary info nugguts ??

Posted by /pd at July 18, 2006 6:36 PM

I am with PD on this to me this is very like the management vs leadership debate. Effective leaders need to do both

Effective leaders need to be able to do strategy and then do execution to make it happen

My fav book on this is Strategy Safari it neatly takes apart the "schools" of strategy in an easy to read form

Posted by PaulH at July 19, 2006 2:12 AM

To be frank, a debate about importance weightings strikes me as a little bit like over-strategising! Firstly, I don't believe you can quantify it like it was an exact science; and secondly, there are some decisions that demand time and care; some that can be made straightforwardly; and others where "any decision as long as there is a decision" will do. However, as PaulH says, leadership means making sure you do strategy and execution equally well. And this, imho, means i) getting the right balance of strategy and execution skills skill onboard and focused; and ii) never losing sight of the fact that when you've typed the last full stop on the strategy paper, it's only the beginning: now you've got to deliver it.

Posted by MarkJF at July 19, 2006 3:05 AM

Here's another thought. Most folks on this blog agree on the importance of passion and determination. However, to what extent is this part of the problem? Sometimes, people whose main brief is execution get so bogged down in what they're doing that they never look up and notice that the world has changed since the last time they looked at it. Maybe that leadership thing should be clarified to something like, "Leaders routinely ensure they're doing the right things."

Posted by MarkJF at July 19, 2006 3:12 AM

Mark JF: My pal Warren Bennis had a felicitous phrase for this, from his observation of "Great Groups"; he called them "dreamers with deadlines."

Posted by tom peters at July 19, 2006 8:09 AM

The best GURUS in town...(definitely NOT in the order of importance...a random order indeed)

1) Michael Porter
2) Tom Peters
3) Vijay Govindarajan
4) Krishna G Palepu
5) C.K.Prahalad
6) Henry Mintzberg
7) Charles Handy
8) Gary Hamel
9) Kenichi Ohmae
10) Rosabeth Moss Kanter
11) Clayton Christensen
12) Edward De Bono
13) Ram Charan
14) Rakesh Khurana
15) Andy Grove
16) Warren Bennis
17) Phil Kotler
18) Kjell Nordstrom
19) Jonas Ridderstrale
20) Robert Kaplan & David Norton