Harvard Business Publishing on Strategy

A business strategy is a set of guiding principles that, when communicated and adopted in the organization, generates a desired pattern of decision making. A strategy is therefore about how people throughout the organization should make decisions and allocate resources in order accomplish key objectives. A good strategy provides a clear roadmap, consisting of a set of guiding principles or rules, that defines the actions people in the business should take (and not take) and the things they should prioritize (and not prioritize) to achieve desired goals.

The only question that falls out of this for me is, does the roadmap come after the strategy or out of the strategy? I am wondering if the roadmap is the communication vehicle for the strategy. I believe your roadmap communicates your strategy and therefore is your strategy.

The article then goes on to tie, through alignment, the mission statement (what will be achieved), vision statement (why people in the organization should feel motivated), value network (with whom value will be created and captured) and strategy (how resources should be allocated) together through alignment. This strikes me as the core of what product management is.

As a product management type who is likely bound by the strategy in place for your organization, do you think it is sufficiently defined for you to be successful or help the company be successful?

There are many comments attached to the article, you should read it.

Image source: Harvard Business Publishing