Real Time Strategy

This is a piece I wrote in 2007 whilst at Y&R in New York. It appeared in February on Y&R's in-house thought leadership space online 'Spark'. Interestingly, Alastair Campbell seemed to fulfill the role of a real-time strategist in the work he did for Tony Blair. See here for a post on Campbells Diaries of the time.

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The last few years have seen a downturn in management consulting revenues. Has “strategy” had its day? Perhaps. For instance, Michael Eckstut, a former partner at strategy firm Booz Allen Hamilton, says flatly, “The pure-strategy, big-picture stuff is over.” Maybe client companies are getting wise to the ruses of the strategic consultants peddling business transformation.

My own view is that strategy is a vital as ever. But it is the way we do strategy and the type of strategy that we do that is causing a bit of a re-think.

Traditionally, strategy has been about the future. In the communications industry, where the strategists are called ‘planners’ the title even more clearly signals a function that is thinking about the future. But that title was coined in the late 1960s when things ran at the speed of a tortoise compared to the hare-like pace of today.

In the intervening years two big things have happened. Firstly, the world of business has speeded, and secondly, the ‘planning for the future’ mindset has replaced by an ‘action today’ mindset.

Perhaps strategic planning in communications agencies should drop the ‘planning’ title altogether. The act of planning years or even months out seems an increasingly futile notion to me as we see day to day changes in markets. The idea of planning communications campaigns for launches that will occur in 12 months time seems positively Victorian in today’s world.
However, more than ever clients need strategic counsel. They need an objective pair of eyes that can understand the strategic implications of decision-making on a day by day basis. This isn’t the strategy of sitting in a room with data and deep thoughts; it is the strategy of on the spot decision-making. I would call it ‘real-time strategy’. It is not planning for the future - which is going to be different from our prediction anyway – is planning for the NOW!

Of course, the old skills of a good strategist are the bedrock of the ‘real-time strategist’; the understanding of markets, insights into the consumer, how the business model works, etc. etc. Only in ‘real-time’ strategy, the strategist is the go to trusted advisor, the colleague whose opinions are sourced in brief and informal phone calls, a casual conversation by the water-cooler.
‘Real-time strategy’ is an ongoing strategic view of the day to day. Not a set piece, choreographed power point pitch. It is difficult to cost out but is incredibly valuable. It is without pomp or circumstance or ego or status. It shifts repeatedly and it recognizes that the right way today may not be the right way tomorrow. Above all it is intensely pragmatic but it is not devoid or rigor or thought.

The grand generals of business strategy, like their military counterparts that they are so fond of quoting, have to accept that asymetical warfare and guerilla tactics are the new norms in business, as well as military, warfare.

Strategists everywhere need to step up to the challenge. It is strategy on the front foot. Perhaps this shift is why the grand masters of traditional and process-centric strategy, the Big Three management consultants, may be having problems in today’s ever-changing business environment. In contrast we say “bring it on”.