A recent article entitled “The perils of bad strategy”, written by  UCLA professor Richard Rumelt, presents several hallmarks of a bad strategy:

• Failure to face problems
• Mistaking goals for strategy
• Bad objectives
• Fluff

The hallmarks reflect a management tendency to make plans based on aspiration rather than facts on the ground. Strategy is long-term but business leaders are measured in the short-term. As the country manager of a large technology firm told me:

“When I took this job, I made an annual plan and presented an annual report. Then they asked for six month updates, quarterly updates and now monthly updates,” Hans noted.

“What have you done for me today?” I replied.

Financial results defined by burgeoning spreadsheets, proliferating MBAs and clueless analysts have created an environment that makes it difficult to define and implement an effective strategy. Moreover, the marked financial advantage of global supply chains has elevated cost reduction to a corporate mantra.  Although a company with billion dollar expenses has e ample opportunity to reduce costs, it is management’s task to know when the consequences of austerity outweigh the cost savings. Let’s face it, cutting fat improves competitiveness. Cutting muscle is more problematic. Some companies, bereft of common sense, continue by removing individual genes from DNA particles.

Rumelt also identifies “an inability to make decisions” as a major reason for so much bad strategy. This analysis is accurate. But, isn’t it management’s job to make decisions?   Management has abdicated responsibility and embraced strutting. Strategy has become Shakespearian:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

By Dan Martin, CIO Global-Arena.com, also founder and owner of Dan Martin International.