Product Strategy for High Technology Companies
Shortsightedness
Michael E. McGrath • Product Strategy for High Technology Companies
Clarity If a core strategic vision is too ambiguous, then there is a danger that different managers within the company will have different interpretations, and execution of the vision will not be aligned. Some additional explanation or interpretation might be required in order to clarify the vision.
Michael E. McGrath • Product Strategy for High Technology Companies
Some companies, on the other hand, tend to be too shortsighted, not seeing far enough into the future. They may be very good at the immediate tactical issues of management, but they don’t see opportunities in time to take advantage of them, or threats in time to defend against them.
Michael E. McGrath • Product Strategy for High Technology Companies
A core strategic vision can be changed in several ways. It can be clarified, as the company moves closer to achieving its original vision. It can evolve, as the company learns more about itself and its markets. Technology may change enough that the original vision is no longer exciting or profitable. Whatever the reason, eventually all high-technol
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Developing a core strategic vision is not a static process.
Michael E. McGrath • Product Strategy for High Technology Companies
Completeness A good core strategic vision must be complete. We have found that completeness means that the vision can answer three questions: Where do we want to go? How will we get there? Why will we be successful?
Michael E. McGrath • Product Strategy for High Technology Companies
Other strategically blind companies may think they have a strategic vision, but what they really have is a statement of how they would like to feel, not where they are going. It’s as if someone said he or she wanted to be where it is warm and the sun always shines,…
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Michael E. McGrath • Product Strategy for High Technology Companies
Some companies appear to be blind or at least sleepwalking. They just keep moving along contentedly until they hit a wall without ever seeing it coming. Because they lacked a vision to show them what was…
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Michael E. McGrath • Product Strategy for High Technology Companies
Who’s Responsible for Vision? Our hapless CEO is a good example of another recurring problem at high-tech companies: the question of who is responsible for the strategic vision. Is it the board of directors, the CEO, or the executive team? After six months on the job, Lou Gerstner, CEO of IBM in 1993, was pressured to give his vision for IBM. He wa
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