Strategy and Digital Transformation

Lately I’ve been thinking about how much leadership is really about decisions, not the big dramatic ones, but the small everyday choices that quietly shape how an organization behaves. What gets discussed. What gets delayed. What gets ignored. What gets escalated. Most leaders spend time defining goals and initiatives, and that matters. But organizations are shaped far more by the thousands of small decisions people make every day than by any strategy document. Those decisions are guided by something simple: what people believe matters. If two people hear the same strategy and walk away with different beliefs about what matters most, they will make different choices. Both will feel justified. Both will feel reasonable. Both will believe they are executing. From the outside, it looks like inconsistency. From the inside, it feels like confusion. Over time, I’ve come to see alignment less as agreement and more as shared judgment. Do people evaluate situations in similar ways? Do they prio...

There’s something about audacity that makes the impossible seem inevitable. When Elon Musk first declared his vision for SpaceX, many laughed. Reusable rockets? A private company challenging the dominance of established space agencies? It all seemed too far-fetched. But Musk pressed on, driven by the conviction that radical ideas often need time to be seen for what they truly are: revolutionary. One of SpaceX’s most iconic moments came when they landed the Falcon 9 booster back on Earth—an achievement that redefined the limits of space technology. But what happened recently marks another step towards redefining the future. Just this past week, SpaceX successfully caught the Lower stage of its Starship rocket with “chopsticks”—a giant mechanical arm designed to capture the descending rocket. The feat, once planned for early 2025, happened ahead of schedule, showing once again that Musk and his team are constantly pushing beyond what anyone thought possible. The image of those massive ...

Business and busyness are somewhat similar. This means engaging in activities; the question for businesses in terms of outcome would be the productivity of the busyness. Almost every business owner or leader is busy, but are the business activities just measuring a KPI or delivering value for strategic vision and plan? It's easy to equate being busy with being productive. However, constant activity without clear direction can lead to inefficiencies and wasted resources. Leaders may find themselves and their teams engaged in numerous tasks that, while time-consuming, do not necessarily contribute to the overall strategic objectives of the company. To ensure that busyness translates into meaningful business outcomes, we must align daily activities with the company's strategic goals. This involves setting clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and OKRs that are directly linked to the broader vision and mission of the organization. That is why I highly recommend Trackboard.app to ...

Strategic planning and alignment are critical for the success of any organization. However, many strategic plans end up gathering dust on the shelves due to various reasons, including a lack of proper implementation, monitoring, and alignment with day-to-day operations.  To ensure that strategic planning remains active and effective, organizations can follow these steps: 1. Understand Your Goals Before diving into strategic planning, it's essential to have a clear understanding of your long-term goals and objectives. What does your organization aim to achieve? Aligning your strategy with these overarching goals ensures that everyone is moving in the same direction. 2. Organize and Circulate Objectives Once you've defined your goals, organize them into specific objectives. These objectives should be actionable, measurable, and relevant. Share them widely within the organization so that everyone understands their role in achieving these objectives. 3. Encourage Employee Participa...

When we embarked on the journey of creating Kinetic and developing the Trackboard.app, our vision was clear – to build a platform that truly catered to the needs of our customers. From the outset, we understood the importance of aligning our product with the real-world challenges faced by businesses. Our Minimum Viable Product (MVP) wasn't just a prototype; it was piloted with a paying customer. Initially, our goal was ambitious: to integrate program management, performance management, and talent management into one cohesive platform. However, the reality of being a bootstrapped company hit home, and we had to confront the luxury of time. Recognizing the need to prioritize and deliver value sooner, I engaged with potential customers and partners to identify where the pain points were most acute. To my surprise, and perhaps not-so-surprisingly, given my prior experience as a consultant, we uncovered a substantial gap in corporate strategy planning, programming, and execution. It was...

  Birds have a strange way of feeding their chicks. They pick food droplets directly into their mouth until they are ready to fly and get their food. Over the weekend, I saw a video of a chick that kept opening its mouth to a caterpillar, hoping for the caterpillar to jump into it. It ran after the caterpillar; instead of striking and picking it with its beak, It didn't know how to feed. Photo by Vincent van Zalinge on Unsplash This phenomenon resembles how some businesses run their operations by micromanaging their employees. Micromanagement naturally truncates innovation, a sense of ownership among employees and employee growth. It is why many organizations would bring someone from outside to take over a role instead of empowering the people within their organization. While Mircomanageemnt is not a new terminology, It's a big hassle for a team that wants to innovate. What is Micro Management? If you look at Oxford Dictionary, Micromanagement is the "control ...

I have been asked why organizations should take strategic mission alignment seriously. Here is my answer. Photo by Edz Norton Strategic mission alignment is a crucial aspect of organizational management. It involves aligning the organization's mission and goals with the actions and decisions of its employees. This alignment is vital because it ensures that everyone in the organization is working towards the same goals and objectives. This, in turn, can lead to several benefits for the organization, including increased productivity, improved efficiency, and tremendous success in achieving its strategic goals. Photo by Arjan de Jong One of the key benefits of strategic mission alignment is that it helps ensure that all employees work towards the same goals. It means increased collaboration and teamwork, directly or indirectly improving productivity and efficiency. Additionally, when employees work towards common goals, they are more likely to be motivated and engaged, leading to bett...

Strategic mission alignment is a crucial concept for organizations seeking to achieve their goals and objectives effectively. It involves aligning the organization's mission, vision, and values with its strategies and actions, ensuring that all efforts are directed toward achieving the organization's overarching goals.       One of the key benefits of strategic mission alignment is improved focus and direction. By aligning all aspects of the organization's operations with its mission, vision, and values, it becomes easier for employees to understand what the organization is trying to achieve and how their efforts contribute to this goal. This can help to create a sense of purpose and direction among employees, leading to increased motivation and productivity. Unsplash Picture by Paul Skorupskas Another key benefit of strategic mission alignment is improved decision-making. By having a clear understanding of the organization's goals and values, employees are better equi...

Opening Strategy!  In their work, Chesbrough & Appleyard (2007) discussed emerging anomalies that are challenging the traditional business strategy process. The conventional business strategy approach was based on Porter's forces whereby firms create barriers and closure against new entrants to maintain competitiveness. However, recent events concerning modern businesses show no sustainable competitive advantages in industries but a continuous need for proficient business innovation and strategy (McGrath, 2013). As technology, competitors, and customers’ needs changes, the competitive advantage erodes and disappears. However, to maintain or sustain competitiveness, organizations must innovate with agility and a dynamic approach to the strategy processes to meet varying market demands (Doz & Kosonen, 2008). To this end, firms are beginning to pattern their business strategy and innovation using the open strategy approach in value creation with some success (Teece, 2010; Lued...

When  Apple announced the upcoming buy now pay later(BNPL) product, in addition to apple pay, apple cash, and their financial product ecosystem, as expected, it immediately impacted companies operating BNPL. Several financial companies' shares lost a huge chunk of their value. But, is Apple by BNPL another hype? Reference Let's Look at the Data. While the Apple ecosystem is quite unique in North America with about 54% of the smart operating system market. The question is will apple BNPL disrupt the status quo?                                                                             Reference Apple is currently sitting on a huge pile of cash, which means they are able to run the BNPL and maximize the overall value. Apple mobile OS(=》Apple pay) is about 54% of the North American market but on...