AVENTIS BUSINESS LEADERS TALK

16th November 2010 | Time: 9..00am to 12.00pm

Speaker: Dr Trish Gorman Clifford

Dr Clifford was the Director of Global Strategy Learning at McKinsey & Company and currently helps mid- and upper-level managers strengthen their strategic capabilities through consulting and other learning experiences. She currently serves as adjunct professor at London Business School and Duke Corporate Executive Education She has held full-time faculty positions at the University of Connecticut and at Columbia University Executive Education, and was Academic Director of the Global Consulting Practicum at Wharton. She has published articles in Harvard Business Review and the McKinsey Quarterly and has conducted hundreds of workshops on strategy development, option generation and evaluation, organizational alignment, and related topics.

What I Didn’t Learn in Business School :

How Strategy Works in the Real World

Aventis School of ManagementPatricia (Trish) Gorman Clifford, MBA, PhD

November 16, 2010

What Do People Learn in Business School?

• Top 5 Answers

Financial Analysis 5 Forces Team Building Doing Cases Networking

What do People Learn in Business School?

• The things most associated with Business School by those who did not attend

• Top 5 Answers– General Management Skills– Marketing– Finance– Cases– Networking

Perception v. Reality?

Overlap in Top 5 Answers– General Management Skills– Marketing– Finance– Cases– Networking

Today’s Agenda

• The Book: A Strategy Story• The Problem • Strategy in the Real World • Never Stop Learning

Today’s Agenda

• The Book: A Strategy Story• The Problem • Strategy in the Real World • Never Stop Learning

The Book: A Strategy Story

• Consulting team at elite firm

• Haven’t worked together before

• New and potentially important client relationship

• The Team – Justin Campbell, Jr. Associate– Livia Chambers,AP– Vivek Chatterjee, Sr. Associate– Gordon Lee, EM– Ken McCombs, ED

The Book: A Strategy Story• The Client: HGS, global plastics and packaging materials

firm

• The Researchers – Jerry Tucker, Lead Researcher and “inventor of Plastiwear”– Leonard Kibrick, leader of Development Team

• The Decision Makers– Carl Switzer, CEO– Scott Beckett, VP Oil and Gas Products– Bob Hutchins, VP Packaging– Shirley Rickert, CFO– Walter Albright VP R&D– Bill Dixon, Corporate HR

The Book: A Strategy Story

• Narrative with Beginning, Middle and End• Engaging and memorable• Characters with motivations and emotions• Tools are applied in context • Messy, incomplete data• Ability to reflect complexity in topics• Ability to iterate and selectively reveal

information• “Like a long and winding case”

Why a story?

Today’s Agenda

• The Book: A Strategy Story• The Problem • Strategy in the Real World • Never Stop Learning

The Problem

• The Client stumbled upon an innovative compound

• They haven’t yet converted this innovation to a marketable product…in 3 years

• Characteristics of fabric made with this compound– Stainproof– Wrinkleproof– White– Nice drape and hand feel– Virtually indestructible

What’s the problem?

The Problem

• Lack of courage• Lack of direction• Lack of funding• Lack of focus

What’s the problem?

Who to sell to How to create value Whether they’ll make money Competitive advantages When to start

Strategy

Leadership

The Problem

• Unclear who should make the decision

• Uncertain outcome• Questions about the

future

What’s the problem?

Differences of opinion Where (in the firm) will the new

business be Who wins and who loses What is success

Organizational Dynamics

Risk and Uncertainty

Today’s Agenda

• The Book: A Strategy Story• The Problem • Strategy in the Real World • Never Stop Learning

Strategy in the Real World

Justin is in a team room with a stack of materials to read and a full email queue

• He applies many Strategy and Management Tools

Net Present Value Analysis Industry Analysis (using 5 Forces) Market Sizing Estimates Value Chain Analysis Stakeholder Analysis VRIO Option Evaluation Worksheet

Strategy in the Real World

Justin…

Sets priorities by a priori workplan Relies on 5 Forces – done by the client Wants NPV to give him a clear answer –

and it doesn’t

Expects data to be available and conclusive

Seeks a quick, definitive answer

Poor assumptions block his progress

Strategy in the Real World

• Wrong tools get you wrong outputs

• Asking the wrong question gets you the wrong answer

• Even the right tools can result in sub-optimal outcomes

– Tools can be an excuse to stop analyzing ..to stop thinking

– Tools can end a conversation

– Tools and approaches give outputs, not strategies

Strategy does not flow from analysis !

Today’s Agenda

• The Book: A Strategy Story• The Problem • Strategy in the Real World • Never Stop Learning

Never Stop Learning

Justin is least experienced on a diverse team with a tight deadline

– He believes there is an answer, and he will find it

– Justin thinks he needs to make a good impression

– He is less interested in framing the right question than in pleasing senior people

– Justin doesn’t take the time to consider other perspectives on the project

Never Stop Learning

What Justin didn’t learn in business school:

• Rushing to the wrong answer is a big time sink

• Some activities take time, but make time

• Working independently from the team can be very inefficient

• Some activities are path dependent. Others can be opportunistic

We spend much of our time describing Make meaning from what you observe:

What’s happening? Shifting to Why? Questions changes the

strategic conversation What matters most?

Ask Why?

Never Stop Learning

Key Takeaways

• Strategy does not flow from Analysis• Avoid correctly answering the wrong

question• Let a Hypothesis lead you into the Data• Humans are not Human Resources• Look at Strategic analyses through an

Organizational lens

Key Takeaways

• Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should

• Just because you’ve finished school, doesn’t mean you’re done learning

Contents

Chapter 1: A Simple Problem Chapter 2: A New Shirt Chapter Three: A Moving Target Chapter Four: A Working Lunch Chapter Five : A Valuable Chain Etc.

Each Chapter advances the story and contains strategy and organization tools and approaches

What I Didn’t Learn in Business School: How Strategy Works in the Real World

By Jay Barney and Trish Gorman CliffordHarvard Business Press 2010

Trish CliffordTrish@managetolearn.comwww.whatididntlearn.com

Questions? Comments?

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