German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche wrote, ‘He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.’ I would add ‘what’ in addition to why to live or what should be done apart from why it should be done; the ‘how’ part can be discovered surely. The question is about the direction; the question is all about what to do and what not to do; the question is about the strategic thinking in decision making. Entrepreneurs are portrayed as passionate people who relentlessly pursue their dream or whatever they believe in. Some literature also talks about the speed of doing things and making things happen. However, an entrepreneur will have to decide about the speed as well as direction. Higher speed in the wrong direction could be fatal for the new enterprise. Strategic thinking in terms of direction and what to do and what not to do takes the front seat over the speed. This is the point where the doing and being part of entrepreneurship should be combined with the thinking part of business.
The question is how do entrepreneurs develop the strategic thinking and work in the right direction. How entrepreneurs think about the platforms and not just the products? How entrepreneurs develop the sense of urgency or speed coupled with the sense of direction? Especially, during the start up phase of any enterprise it is often said, that entrepreneurs should not think about the strategic part of the business; whereas, in reality it is completely different. Limited resources make it imperative to make the most of whatever the entrepreneurs have. In such situation what matters is the direction- the strategic thinking.
Taking the base from Harvard Management Update ‘Corporate Strategy: A Manager’s Guide’, three questions for a strategist are: Where should we put our efforts (and why)? What do we bring to the table? And the third question, do our capabilities suit our position? These same three questions even entrepreneurs also need to ask themselves. Strategic thinking is not about the complexity. It is all about the clarity in thinking about what an entrepreneur is proposing to do and what he would abstain from doing. And if think about very basic but important matter like value creation process, the underlying strategic thinking needed is; who am I? (What is my value proposition?), for whom am I? (The segment or the beneficiaries) and why am I and not others? (Competition and differentiation). Even this basic strategic thinking also has potential to shape the other strategic part in the business.
Dr. Rajiv Joshi
Associate Sr. Faculty, EDI
One more important question a strategist needs to answer is what is the outcome of all the efforts that he is putting in. It just seems to complete the circle of this thinking process.
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