The April issue of the Harvard Business Review carried an article entitled Can You Say What Your Strategy Is?
In short, the authors, David Collis and Michael Rukstad, describe a framework to create a sound statement of strategy that everyone in the company can internalize and use to guide their choices and priorities.
I can’t say I entirely agree with their “Hierarchy of Corporate Statements” since there are multiple interpretations of “vision”, “mission” and “values” around.
For my part, “mission” is more of an “elevator speech” about what exactly you do, and could hardly be above the broader “vision” statement about the future goals.
Nonetheless, the article provides some very useful advice about formulating a Strategy Statement that very specifically spells out your competitive game plan and its objective, scope and advantage.
The article isn’t free ($6.50 for a downloaded copy) but if you’re serious about your strategy, want some specific tips to clarify it and see the value of everyone in your organization being absolutely clear about it, read this.