Strategy

Steve Jobs said, "There's a human drama to most everything. You look at it sometimes, and it seems dry as history. But if you peel the onion, there's humanity underneath." Working in various industries from bartending at a sports bar to managing a cafe to selling replacement windows to being an industrial mechanic and beyond, I noticed patterns in how the internal management structure of each organization played a pivotal role in the overall attitudes and motivation level of the employees. When systems were clearly optimized to maximize the value of the employees, they were proud to play their part. When systems were inefficient or no systems were defined and employees were leaderless, there was always a sense of resentment in the workplace as if they were subconsciously embarrassed at their own lack of impact and felt the company management was more less making a fool of them whether by incompetence or carelessness.

We are peppered daily with headlines about rapid change. Unprecedented corruption, political instability, unsettling climate data, suffering jobs markets, perpetually rising real estate prices... Despite the alarmist and exaggerated nature of news headlines, the fact remains that the world has always existed in a state of flux. Human cultures on local and global scales evolve and adapt to the world around them and their own internal elements. Individuals typically mature and grow intellectually and can even dramatically or subtly transform their physical appearance. Change is the only constant in human life.

Reflecting on the whirlwind of changes we exist within, we can see how failing to grow and adapt will yield sour career results. To follow our interests strategically, pay attention to trends and new developments in not only your current industry but the wider sector as well as seemingly unrelated sectors. Inspiration can be drawn from unrelated businesses and the core concept can be extracted and implanted into your field.

Bruce Lee's most famous quote, "Be water, my friend" is an unbeatable metaphor of the concept of constant adaptability and openness to the evolving realities around us. The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology currently projects that 85% of jobs in 2030 currently do not exist.

In Blue Ocean Strategy authors second book Blue Ocean Shift, we explore how strategy that is produced in a separate silo than execution is doomed to fail. We must incorprate and include the elements of and leaders who will be responsible for executing the strategy in the creation phase of the strategy.

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