| One aspect of strategy, crucially important, is actively, and continually deciding what not to do. It is necessary to not do great projects and not pursue great ideas, because of scarcity of resources: the organization cannot undertake all of the good and great ideas it encounters. There is nearly no organization that is not over-committed in its operations. This is constant, challenging, and avoidable problem. Actively deciding not to do a project, or not follow a particular line of effort...instead of failing, by default to give enough resources or effort to an idea or project aids the organization to focus and excel in particular well-chosen areas. And avoid being mediocre in multiple areas and spread thin as an organization, by actively choosing to do less. What great project will you abandon, to focus on the other great projects you're already doing? Mission statements fail to inform about what the organization will NOT do. A strategy does. * Stuck: Why It’s So Hard to Do New Things in Old Organizations (recorded lecture, December 6, 2007) By Rebecca M. Henderson, (now at Harvard Business School) formerly Eastman Kodak LFM Professor of Management, Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Video lecture (skip the first 15 minutes) (total time one hour)
http://video.mit.edu/watch/stuck-why-its-so-hard-to-do-new-t... |