The Strategy Book

Understanding what can go wrong

There are lots of things that can go wrong with your strategy. You may have picked the wrong positioning, product or combination of cost, differentiation or focus. Just as often, the path from strategy as an idea doesn’t succeed in becoming strategy as a reality.

Frequency – Understand once and then review.

Key participants – You and your team.

Strategy rating ****

The most famous example of a company understanding what could go wrong with its strategy is Shell. They used the power of scenario thinking to prepare themselves for a range of possible futures which included an oil supply crisis. When this happened – in the 1970s – Shell were prepared intellectually (and practically) to adapt.

Yet many other organisations ...