Strategy & Organization

Hi there, ✋

I’m Miguel, living in Barcelona, nice to meet you! As they say “sharing is caring” and following this value I give my amateur perspective on the topics that I find the most interesting. 😝

Btw: Maybe you like to read weird stuff too. I have other small, quick to read, and curious posts on my profile that may interest you ➡️ Miguel Parente

In the last couple of weeks I have been hooked to jason podcast This Week in Startups, and the All-In Podcast with his besties Chamath Palihapitiya, David Stack and Dave Friedberg. I always loved to find the gap opportunity within the balance between quality vs cost, and you can be sure that you will have a huge return following these content streams (e.g. veterans inside stories, best trend analysis, extended UX market overview, etc).

I was doing a little Run-it-Back, watching one of the best past interviews lead by jason and with Peter Thiel (one of the most known modern entrepreneurs) as his guest… and there was a really funny moment, where Peter Thiel alerts for the danger attached to people that like to make simple things seem more complex.

Peter Thiel - "If I say that I'm building a mobile platform for SaaS enterprises to do big data in the cloud, it's just like a proliferation of buzz words."
jason - "Can you present me to that company ahahah" 😂😂

Here the full interview, and funny moment at min 34:

A light bulb went off in my head, because indeed most of the time when defining strategic roadmaps within an enterprise — the key skill is to actually simplify what at a first glance seems very complex. 💡💥

Strategy by Richard Rumelt

With this simplification mindset as a framework, I came across the Richard Rumelt practical strategy handbook — Good Strategy, Bad Strategy.

FYI, I actually saw it mentioned on the Not Boring substack written by Packy McCormick. Also, huge obsession of mine nowadays!!

Richard Rumelt, in my perspective, as one of the most simplified and pragmatic approaches to Strategy Plannification:

1. Diagnosis - identify the one or two key pain points in a situation.
2. Guiding Policy - outlines an overall aligned approach for overcoming the obstacles highlighted by the diagnosis.
3. Coherent Actions - the set of constant actions that the company focuses on to carry out the guiding policy and find potential solutions.

There is no rule without exceptions, and for sure there are situations that other models better fit. However, in my personal experience, I can say that this process as helped us to scale at a very fast pace with an alignment sentiment among every unit. 🚀

To employ a strategy, you first need a well function organization.

Irresistible Organization by Josh Bersin

In the few years of working experience that I have under my belt, one of the most clear learning takeaways that I have gathered is that the culture and organization are the ground blocks that support any type of enterprise.

Without neutering them you can have a couple of years of success, but eventually the bad habits will catch back to you. 🌱

Josh Bersin, makes a very strong point of simplifying and highlighting the main traits for an Irresistible Organization:

1. Meaningful Work— the job must be doable and well managed. People, must be clear on roles, be in the job appropriate for them.
2. Good Management — the altruism is that people leave managers, not companies. Number one issue is clarity of expectations or clear goals.
3. Being a Coach — employees could be given a direction and empowered to decide how to work.
4. Work Environmet — the workplace, the sense of inclusion, belonging, fairness, and recognition.
5. Growth — people come to work to make progress, they want to get a career direction, and an improvement in earnings over time.
6. Trust & Mission — role of top leadership is to create a sense of purpose in the organization.

Applying these concepts as a feature in an enterprise will for sure help to boots employee engagement in a positive sustainable way. 🙌

Happily ever after?

First of all, thank you for reading this far… and hopefully I was able to show how to simplify what seems complex helps to overtake big pivotal moments or milestones (professional or otherwise).

Please, let me know if you feel the same way and if you have some experience with similar concepts under the umbrellas of Strategy & Organization.

Thanks! ❤

IMPORTANT: most of the images I use are from Muzli, and are used without any monetization purpose.