Did you just say strategy is overrated?

By Mandy Thatcher, Head of Content, Melcrum

In an article published in the latest issue of SCM, recently retired senior VP of corporate comms for Royal Bank of Canada David Moorcroft makes a controversial statement: "Strategy is overrated".

Given the huge amounts of emphasis communicators generally place on the need to be more "strategic", this almost sounds like heresy!

But David's comments and rationale behind his observation ring true: I’ve spent many years developing, refining, using and writing about a process for producing a clear and easy-to-use communication strategy that ensures resources are used in a focused and productive fashion. But I’ve come to the conclusion that we’ve put too much emphasis on strategy and not enough on implementation."

"Going forward, I think we need far less management consultant speak and marketing rhetoric in our strategies and more hands-on, practical ideas on how we can achieve our goals. When we’re hiring and building teams, we need to ensure we have people who can implement our grand scheme because that’s where the money is made."

Is this your experience? Do these words resonate with you?

Read the full article, published in The Source for Communicators, for this and other observations on the profession including:

• Branding has replaced reputation
• The PR profession is undervalued
• Social media needs more thought

Comments

[Sean Williams]

“Going forward, I think we need far less management consultant speak and marketing rhetoric in our strategies and more hands-on, practical ideas on how we can achieve our goals. When we’re hiring and building teams, we need to ensure we have people who can implement our grand scheme because that’s where the money is made.” David Moorcroft…quoted in The Source 8 May 2008.

I would definitely disagree with the learned Mr. Moorcroft that strategy is overrated. I would heartily agree with both of his sentences above!

I’d say that it isn’t strategy that is overrated, it’s “management consultant speak and marketing rhetoric” that has caused communicators to doubt strategy.

In fact, “more hands-on, practical ideas on how we can achieve our goals” IS strategy of the finest kind. You wouldn’t drive a car without an idea of your destination and some understanding of how to get there – you can’t drive communication without a strategy, either.

Can we get bound up in process and forget outcomes? Absolutely. But we will fail our organizations if we fail to outline the methods by which we link our communications activity to business outcomes. We are doubly certain to fail if we cannot articulate how what we do helps the organization succeed – in specific terms. We must evaluate, measure and adjust – all of that is strategy made real.

Communicators who decry strategy may be afraid of accountability, or certain that the thinking and planning that accompanies the process of strategy development is too much time spent away from writing, editing and counsel.

But no other organizational department has that luxury.

Strategy is essential.

[Mandy Thatcher]

You're absolutely right Sean, without a strategy it's difficult (or impossible)to know if your efforts are focused on the right goals and if they're actually having an impact.

Perhaps another consideration when it comes to strategy is simplication. As with a business strategy, a communication strategy that can be shared and explained in simple terms goes a long way towards clarifying what the function is collectively trying to achieve.

I think it can also make the task feel less daunting - if the team can focus on 2 or 3 (or even one!) clear objective, there's less of a sense of trying to "boil the ocean" and probably a higher chance of success.

[Sean Williams]

Mandy - this reminds me of a former boss's comment to me, delivered with some derision: "Sooner or later you have to tell people what you're going to DO!"

I wrote about this topic in a publication in 2005, mainly saying that both excellent strategy and execution are essential to effective communication management. We can neither focus so entirely on strategy that we forget how to write and edit, nor ignore strategy entirely to focus solely on "getting things done."

Cheers for now.
S.

[JeremyS]

I would answer yes, it does resonate with me. The problem starts with early, when you use the big Strategy word. A Strategy requires lots of meetings, volumes of presentations, and days of word-smithing.

How about a plan with goals to achieve? Little presentation required.

We have some folks in HR comms who have developed all sorts of "messaging frameworks" and "marcomms strategies." I'm still waiting for the actual communications to happen...

[david moorcroft]

Thanks for joining in the discussion, Sean and Jeremy. I'm counting on others to join in, too.
The point of my article is NOT that strategy isn't important or essential -- it is -- but rather that we have begun to put too much emphasis on strategy and not enough on how we can implement it. Take my old industry -- banking. All the Canadian banks have a strategy to be the leader in customer service, but according to the public reseach some are doing better than others. The same applies to building a wealth management business. So it seems to me that the Canadian banks that are having the most success are the ones that have figured out how to implement their strategies better than their competitors. Strategy is still important. But unless the strategy is truly a breathrough piece of thinking that can differentiate an organization, it is the implementation that will separate the winners from the losers. I think we as professional communicators need to spend more time doing reality checks with the people responsible for implementing our grand strategies, and ensuring we can realistically implement better than our competitors. It's a balance thing -- and I think we need to tilt a little bit more towards implemention in addition to strategy.
- David

[Peter Anderson]

Pity that when deriding management consultant speak we have to start a sentence 'Going forward...'

[Mandy]

An eagle eye for detail Peter! What's are your thoughts on the general conversation?