Business Problem-Solving and Strategy

4Reviewing and Selecting Options 3: The Intents and Expectations of the Parties Involved

Fostering Agreement and Understanding with “Face‐to‐face Discussions”

In this part, we have to narrow down the options. This is actually the most crucial step in building an effective and applicable strategy.

Systematically selecting options based on both rationality and feasibility evaluations alone will not result in an effective strategy. To build an effective and practical strategy, you need all parties involved to agree on one option that they can believe that they can and want to do.

The ones who will execute a strategy will be the people. As Takeda said, “People wouldn't want to do what they don't agree on.” A strategy that people involved can't agree on and commit to its execution is nothing more than a pie in the sky, even if the strategy itself is brilliant.

So it's not always about choosing the logically correct option. Not that it means you should select an option that's obviously wrong, but it is vital to settle on one that everyone will commit to, regardless of the shortcomings.

To do this, thorough discussions among parties involved, including executives, must be done to review options and evaluation results. We call this a face‐to‐face discussion, which is a direct meeting ...