The Reality of Playing the Strategy Game

An associate (Mr. Dragon) who is a fan of the iptv technology, sent us this article that gave an interesting fact- 88% of all IPTV marketers don't have an strategy.

After a moment of message swapping, we all concluded that operating without a strategy is a habit of many people. Some of these people are in love with the notion of doing stuff from the seat of their pants. They loved to be inspired and having the feeling of grinding, grounding and pounding their way through the numerous obstacles. Finding the path of least resistance is not in their agenda. {There is a grand exception to this idealistic setting. Do you know what it is? ...}

In some cases, they over-exceed the expected timeline and the budget. Do you think that is the best way to succeed in one's goal?

A few years ago, we performed an inpromptu survey on how many organizations were operating without a real tangible strategic plan. Without getting into the deep specifics, the count was over 50%.

In most cases, some of these companies were operating on a quarterly basis. The life cycle of their projects usually averaged about three months. Most of their chief decision makers never took the time to think past the three to six months timeline. Their quarterly strategic plans resembled to the particulars of a "Things to Do" list.

Due to the current political-economic uncertainty, this tradition of "playing the quarterly game without a long term strategy" will still continue.

Our immediate solution for this type of short term strategic activity is the Compass script.

Failure to Plan is to Plan to Failure

Those who possessed the strong "political, economic and social" influences, are usually able to endure the err of not building a good long term strategy. It is one of the few exceptions to the "Failure to Plan is to Plan to Failure" rule.

Side Notes

In our strategy book project, we have modernized our listing of strategic and tactical principles. It is based on the Art of War (AoW) and the other components from the Seven Military Classics of Ancient China (Seven Strategy Classics). We are still debating on including a list of exceptions where certain tactical principles should not be in play regarding to specific situations.

Ask your local Sunzi reader/expert if he or she knows the exceptions to certain principles from the Art of War and other Chinese strategy classics.

Our current set of priorities does not include the publishing of this book for the next three to six months. We are currently too involved with our macro objectives.

Compass Trend (7): More Notes on Robotic Trends

We have not talked about robotic trends in a long time. Click here and here on the direction of our information society.

In this economy, achieving peak (operational) efficiency is the name of the game for those who could not innovate. They focused on cost-based efficiency. Depending on the industry, some of the solutions are robots and inexpensive labor. One should expect to see a gradual labor squeeze in certain service-based areas as technology slowly replaces human labor while health costs rise.

"Lean and mean" is the operational motto of the information economy.

To thrive in these times, one needs to focus on a relevant solution without getting overwhelmed by the irrelevant hypes of easy solutions.

The Compass Solution

Assessing the state of the Big Tangible Picture (BTP) and finding the un-mined mines that are not touched by automation sounds easy. Collecting the data takes a great deal of time and effort. Knowing how to do it is the challenge.

Summary

The successful participants of this hyper-motion information economy usually thrive by their ability to pre-positioning themselves ahead of their competition. The experience of comprehending the Big Tangible Picture enables them to decide on their objective, their approach, their means and their modes.

Our research tells us that " ... one's current understanding of the macro and micro details of their Big Tangible Picture usually leads to one's view of what the plan is. ..."

Poor understanding of the Big Tangible Picture sometimes leads to poor planning. Poor planning leads to many negative effects. The lesson is that one who fails to plan usually plan for failure.

So, do you plan by understanding the Big Tangible Picture?

Better yet, do you know how to build your plan?

The Practice of Scripting

It is football season again. In our case, we belong to to that unique group of serious fans who enjoyed the x's and o's of this great game. We also preferred to know what are the best practices that are being used to enhance a team's strategic performance.

One specific practice that we have adapted from the Bill Walsh's West Coast Offense system is the 25 Play (Starter) script.

Following are some of the objectives behind the 25 Play Starter script:

1. To test the tendencies and the possible weak points of the defense with various formations, shifts and motions;
2. To identify the defensive reaction to certain plays;
3. To recognize the decision process of the defensive play caller; and
4. To use the outcome of certain scripted plays to stage the opposition at a later part of the game.
5. To determine whether it is possible to impose one's will's onto the opposition's psyche.

The starter script is one of the most well-used tools in the game of football.

Some preferred to use a 15 or 20 play starter script to pursue the immediate weaknesses of their targeted opposition. This step requires the following: profound intelligence collecting process and implementation; deep strategic assessment skills, a good plan, a deep understanding of strategic fundamentals.

In summary, the script is more about choosing what plan to follow and less about developing a plan on the spot.

You can read more about it by clicking on this link, this link and this link .

From our experience, a script of tactical moves is a good tool to use in an unpredictable setting, . Why? Ask us.

Here is a list of questions that you should always think about:

1. Have you always assessed your competition before the situation begins?
2. How do you usually assess your competition?
3. Do you know how to integrate your intelligence gathering to your script?
4. Do you ever create a starter script of tactical plays against your competition?
5. Do you know the rules for building a starter script?
6. Do you know how to use the outcome of certain scripted plays to stage the opposition at a later stage of the situation?
7. Do you know when to change the order of the script?
8. Do you know when to exit from your script and when to reuse the script again?
9. Do you know how to use the script as a psychological tool?

Compass Rules:

• A specific process does not make a strategist. It is the strategist who makes the process effectively effective.
• Good strategic assessment is the 1st step to creating a predictable setting.

Q: Do you know the key to developing a very good script?

Final Notes

Based on our experience, our customized script process is a very good planning tool. The emphasis of this script is focused on being prepared for various contingency situations.

It can also be used for scenario modeling.

In most cases, we usually re-configured the format for various strategic projects. For the Chinese strategic fanatics, we have an experimental version that is based on Sunzi's (Sun Tzu) principles of efficient competition. If you are interested in learning about this tool, send us a message by clicking on this link.

Thanks!

Failure to Plan is to Plan For Failure (2)

This past weekend, I watched the San Francisco Forty Niners played the Seattle Seashawks. It totally amazed me to see that the San Francisco's offensive coordinator had a difficult time, relaying a play to their quarterback.

There were other operational snafus that are too embarrassing to talk about. I usually expect most professional strategists to plan and prepare themselves with extreme precision.

You can read more about this situation, here and here

When the news media offered various strategic and tactical suggestions to the professional coach It is time for someone to commit professional seppuku.

Here are some of their tips:

• Take offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye out of the booth and put him on the sidelines where he can transmit the play directly in to the Smith's helmet. Plays must come in from the sidelines and not the booth, so Raye relays the call to quarterbacks coach Mike Johnson who then sends it to Smith. Should Raye take to the sidelines, the middle man is eliminated.

• Put the numbered plays on a wrist band and instead of communicating a long play such as "X call, hustle 2, I right slot, two man counter easy," three times, Raye simply calls out a number that Smith cross checks on his wrist band with the play that's being called. So then Smith is the only one communicating the entire play, which saves time and confusion.

• Make a set time when Smith eschews the call coming in and simply calls his own play. "We've talked about that," Smith said. For example, if Smith doesn't get the play with 24 seconds left on the clock, he then calls the play himself.

• Putting the play-calling, at times, completely into Smith's hands. That's not something Smith would like to do all the time. "I have to do a lot already," he said. "That's why we have an offensive coordinator."

Post Updated: More on poor logistics

49ers coach Mike Singletary said "I smell a rat" as he stood by his offensive coordinator, Jimmy Raye. He just doesn't have time to weed out the unnamed sources of a Yahoo! Sports story that said Raye struggles to get plays called in and sometimes garbles it all up. ... Raye said this about the miscommunication that led to three burned timeouts and a delay of game Sunday:

"It's my responsibility. I bear all the responsibility for the way we operate on offense. I'm the leader. It's my watch. I have the responsibility for the things that occur where it concerns the offense."

"I think it's important that all of you understand that this game has a human element to it. Of the games that were played last week, I would dare say that there was anyone in the position I'm in that was flawless. So, what could I have done better? I could have maybe had a better plan. I could maybe have made some better decisions. Hopefully the ones that I made were the correct ones. You hope they play out that way. Because of that there are any number of things that you always think back on when you lose that you could have done better. And if you don't, then you probably shouldn't be in the game."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/ninerinsider/detail?entry_id=72480

Post Updated: More on poor logistics (09/27/2010)

In any economy, inadequate performance mean immediate execution.

49ers Fired Raye

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/09/27/SPNJ1FKBFO.DTL

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All championship bounded teams are usually properly organized and prepared to perform all of those above points with their eyes closed. ... Should the San Francisco Forty Niners have perfected that practice before the season began? ... Can anyone tell the Forty Niners fans what is wrong with this picture?

Compass Rule: Trust a strategist who carries more than enough lead in his pencil.

Compass Analysis: Returning to the drawing board means the strategic designer does not understand the big tangible picture from a top down view.

Any organization who thrives in this global economy, usually have a team of professional (process-driven) strategists who can stay focused on the current objective while understanding the state of the big picture.

Now, observe your team and identify who are the focused team team members. Ask yourself, are they getting the job done?