In his blog yesterday Guy Kawasaki suggested one should never hire a person who claims to know all the management tools shown on the 'MBA on a page'.
Fair enough. Anyone who claims to know all those theories is probably guilty of 'terminological inexactitude'. And some of the items on that page probably aren't worth taking out for a run at the best of times, let alone to solve a problem.
The biggest problem is people don't pay attention to the basics. Core strategic planning tools like PEST, and SWOT can tell so much about what's going on inside and outside the organisation.
As long as they are done properly.
I've had clients protest long and loud when I tell them we'll do a SWOT together in a workshop. They demand the latest from HBR, not that old chestnut. Thirty minutes later they beam when a proper SWOT exercise reveals a hidden gem - in one client's case, a strategic gem so powerful the workshop stopped there and then so the team could immediately deploy the new found initiative.
7S? 7P? BCG, Anshoff or GE/McKinsey? Sure, in their place.
But a good, solid, well thought-through PEST and SWOT... Those are my kind of management tools!
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About Me
- Chris Blackman
- Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Chris Blackman is a Melbourne, Australia based management consultant with over two decades of corporate general management experience across a wide range of industries and disciplines. His firm, ASVP Group helps small, medium and large organisations improve their results across the board.
1 comments:
A good SWOT can make good things happen -- if you let them, right? I was first introduced to proper strategic planning working at an institution of higher learning, where incidentally, I was a webmaster -- doing some web design (ha ha -- couldn't resist! Sorry!); ended up as director of publications before I left for Georgia. The hardest part about the SWOT-ing was when we were working on it with people who didn't care - who didn't want to try, who didn't want to change. They wanted their cheese to sit. Sit, cheese, sit!
I am almost embarrassed to admit, I'm a fan of a good SWOT. You know what would make a good post? SWOT How To for a 99.9% virtual business. I'd like to read that if it tickles your fancy.
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