Various researches have shown that the majority of organizations, especially in the developing countries, have more of operational thinking rather than strategic thinking at the core of its management approach. Strategy has become an overused and at the same time, misused world in management world where we take it as obvious statement for something important we say about our management and business. In the face of the competition and change that exists in today’s market, organizations and their leadership must take strategic thinking approach in order to move the organization forward toward a new and more successful future. This session starts with an exercise of test of strategic thinking level of the participants and thus explains the meaning of strategy and being strategic. It exposes the difference between operational thinker, strategic planner and strategic thinker. The disciplines, approaches, competencies, critical areas and personal attributes of strategic thinker will be introduced with along with the explanation of topic ‘what limits our strategic thinking’. The session ends with the explanation of the methods of developing strategic thinking among the managers and leaders of the organization and how we can utilize such strategic thinking in our business in order to achieve higher goals of the organization.

3. Sohan Babu Khatri - Introduction
Professional Engagements:
• CEO – Three H Management Pvt. Ltd
• Director of Board – White Space Pvt. Ltd. (Threadpaints.com,
Butta.us)
Adjunct Faculty:
• Ace Insititute of Management
• Ace International Business School
• Global College International
Background:
• Bachelor’s of Civil Engineering (BE Civil) - Pulchowk Campus, Institute of Engineering,
Nepal
• Masters of Business Administration (MBA - Finance and Marketing), Bangalore University,
India
• Certified Financial Manager (CFM), Centre of Financial Management, Bangalore
• Licensed International Financial Analyst (LIFA) - Charter Holder – International Research
Association, Cambridge, Massachusetts

4. Learn | Consult | Research
"Strategic ? Strategy ?”
... Are we Strategic Thinkers ?

6. What is common about all these statements
?
• “Our strategy is to be the low-cost provider.”
• “We’re pursuing a global strategy.”
• “The company’s strategy is to integrate a set
of regional acquisitions.”
• “Our strategy is to provide unrivaled customer
service.”
• “Our strategic intent is to always be the first
mover.”
• “Our strategy is to move from defense to
industrial applications.”

7. Strategy – Strategic
OVERUSED
AND
MIS-UNDERSTOOD

8. “Are you strategic?”
When the question is posed, it’s usually answered
by the following people in the following ways:
• Senior executives confidently reply “yes”;
• Mid-level managers squirm a bit with some
saying “yes” and others “no”, depending on
who else is in the room;
• Entry-level managers respond “no” so as not to
be seen as overconfident by upper
management.

9. ARE WE
STRATEGIC THINKER
OR
OPERATIONAL THINKER

10. When executives call
everything
strategy, and end up with a
collection of
strategies, they create
confusion and
undermine their own
credibility.

11. It is this operational or tactical
thinking that leads us, inevitably,
into the many complex crises
and convoluted relationships that
we are now facing.
We are overwhelmed with the
needs of the moment, and there
appears to be no relief in sight.

12. Operational Thinker Vs. Strategic
Thinker
?
What words come to your mind
when we say ‘Strategic Thinking’

14. Any difference between Strategic
Thinking and Strategic Planning
?

15. “… strategic planning is
analytical and convergent,
whereas
strategic thinking is synthetic
and divergent.”

16. Strategic Thinking is a higher level
approach to issue identification and
resolution. It enables a concurrent view of
the start line, the goal line, and all the
relevant features in between, and at the
same time. It's like looking at an aerial
photograph, or down onto a tabletop
model of a piece of terrain that we must
navigate. We are able to see the 'big
picture'.

20. Mintzberg describes strategic
thinking as a distinct way of
thinking that utilizes intuition and
creativity with the outcome being
“an integrated perspective of the
enterprise.”

21. Strategic thinking is thinking that
contributes to broad, general,
overarching concepts that focus
the future direction of an
organization based on
anticipated environmental
conditions

23. Learn | Consult | Research
Attributes of Strategic Thinking

24. 1. Systems Perspective:
• strategic thinking reflects a systems or holistic view that recognizes how the
different parts of the organization influence each other;
2. Intent-focused: s
• strategic thinking conveys a sense of direction and is driven by the
continuous shaping and re-shaping of intent;
3. Thinking in Time:
• strategic thinking is not solely driven by the future, but by the gap between
the current reality and the intent for the future;
4. Hypothesis Driven:
• hypothesis generation and testing is central to strategic thinking activities. It
asks the creative question “What if?” followed by the critical question “If …
then?”;
5. Intelligent Opportunism:
• strategic thinking invokes the capacity to be intelligently opportunistic, or
open to new experience, allowing one to take advantage of alternative
strategies that may emerge in a rapidly changing environment.

25. Learn | Consult | Research
Attributes of Strategic Thinker

27. Learn | Consult | Research
10 Strategic Thinking
Competencies

28. 1. Strategy—mastering the understanding of Strategy
2. Insight—generating new ideas about the business.
3. Context—matching competencies with opportunities.
4. Competitive Advantage—creating distinct offerings with superior value.
5. Value—determining the benefits/ costs of one’s offerings.
6. Resource Allocation—deciding where to focus capital, talent and time.
7. Modeling—visually capturing the essence of business issues.
8. Innovation—creating new value for customers.
9. Purpose—developing mission, vision and values.
10. Mental Agility—ability to improvise, adapt and excel through adversity.

29. Learn | Consult | Research
Four Critical Areas

30. PROBLEM-
SOLVING
ADAPTABILITY
SCENARIO
CONSTRUCTION
ALIGNMENT

31. Learn | Consult | Research
5 Personal Attributes

32. 1) HAVING AN
IMAGINATION
2) A BROAD
PERSPECTIVE
3) THE ABILITY TO
JUGGLE
4) THE ABILITY TO DEAL
WITH THINGS OVER
WHICH YOU HAVE NO
CONTROL
5) AN ADAMANT DESIRE
TO WIN

33. Experience Counts
PERSONAL
INTERPERSONAL
ORGANIZATIONAL
EXTERNAL

34. Learn | Consult | Research
What limits our Strategic Thinking

36. Paradigms – Once Upon a Time

37. Paradigm Shift Question

38. Killer Phrases

39. Learn | Consult | Research
Developing Strategic Thinking

40. Be Strategic Learner
1) Preparation, with an affective element (a reason and
the emotional readiness to proceed with learning) and a
cognitive element (information gathering to see new
possibilities, verify, test);
2) Experience, current situation
(view point), prior successful life
experience (the dress rehearsal),
application of previous experience to
new situations (seeing patterns),
and reflecting (transforming
experience into learning);
3) Reevaluation (critical and
evaluative) in order to begin the
process again

41. Staying Open Minded
• Strategic thinking skill development requires
examination of one’s own internal beliefs and
assumptions about how the world operates.
• One of the greatest impediments to adopting the
open-minded thinking and questioning style
necessary for strategic thinking is the tendency to
reject what isn’t tangible or isn’t already known.
• “turning the mirror inward; learning to unearth our
internal pictures of the world, to bring them to the
surface and hold them rigorously to scrutiny”

42. Start Practicing
• Instead of saying no, ask a question.
• Ask questions that dive deep.
• Record thoughts, feelings, and new questions in a journal
or log.
• Take time to write down the feelings attached to your
thinking.
• Reflect about things that provoke questions or strong
feelings.
• Draw or design your strategy ideas instead of writing
them.
• Diversify and upgrade the kinds of verbal engagement you
use.
• Write or tell parables and analogies that illustrate your
assumptions and beliefs about strategy issues.

43. Learn | Consult | Research
Strategic Thinking in Business
Context

44. Strategic Thinking Questions

45. The Elements of Business Strategy
Arenas: where will we be active?
Vehicles: how will we get there?
Differentiators: how will we win in the marketplace?
Staging: what will be our speed and sequence of
moves?
Economic logic: how will we obtain our returns?

47. IKEA’s Strategy

48. BPI’s Strategy

49. Testing the quality of your strategy
• Does your strategy fit with what’s going on
in the environment?
– Is there healthy profit potential where you’re
headed?
– Does your strategy align with the key success
factors of your chosen environment?
• Does your strategy exploit your key
resources?
– With your particular mix of resources, does this
strategy give you a good head start on competitors?
– Can you pursue this strategy more economically
than competitors?

50. ……
• Will your envisioned differentiators be
sustainable?
– Will competitors have difficulty matching you?
– If not, does your strategy explicitly include a
ceaseless regimen of innovation and opportunity
creation?
• Are the elements of your strategy
internally consistent?
– Have you made choices of arenas, vehicles,
differentiators, and staging, and economic logic?
– Do they all fit and mutually reinforce each other?

51. …..
• Do you have enough resources to pursue
this strategy?
– Do you have the money, managerial time and talent,
and other capabilities to do all you envision? Are you
sure you’re not spreading your resources too thinly,
only to be left with a collection of feeble positions?
• Is your strategy implementable?
– Will your key constituencies allow you to pursue this
strategy? Can your organization make it through the
transition? Are you and your management team able
and willing to lead the required changes?

52. Learn | Consult | Research
Strategic Tools for Business

53. New
Company
Scenario
Trend
Analysis
(PESTLE)
SWOT
Risks
Management
Change
Management
Scenarios
Planning
80/20
Principle
Strategic
Sales
Hedge-Hog
Principle
Balanced
Scorecard
Theory of
Change
Start Stop
Continue
Strategic
Group
Analysis
Industry
Analysis
Competitor
Analysis
Value Chain
Analysis
Resourced
Based View
POP and
POD
Brand Equity
Model
BCG Matrix
and GE 9
Cells
Strategic
Patching
Grand
Strategic
Moves

54. Learn | Consult | Research
THE END