New Year resolutions! Do they make sense? Do we actually put any stock into them, and perhaps more important do we limit resolutions to the personal life of also to the business life? Think the difference between the personal and business life is we call it “strategy” when we think it is business. But, see sometimes a fair bit of companies quite relaxed when it comes to strategy. Is that a bad thing? No, definitely not.
One of the most important (starting) companies need to realise is that strategies are not set in stone, and more important the world around us changes fast. Things we assume to be there forever are more and more subject to rapid and unpredictable change. We see that actually on a micro level via individual consumers; there is no longer employment for life, loyalty to let’s say a bank or a telco is no longer assumed, peoples voting record has changed dramatically and unpredictably. But we see this also on a macro level when it comes to countries; who would have guessed 5 years ago that Euro countries would openly challenge the benefits of the euro?
That realisation needs not only to be incorporated in every company’s DNA, it more important needs to be addressed. Apart from that, a strategy or resolution shouldn’t be made because others expect us to do so, or the calendar simply indicates it. In my view no longer “just” make a strategy and rigidly life by it, but shift to entrepreneurship by experiment. There is nothing wrong with trial and error. Strategy is dead; experimentation is the new strategy.