The continuous understanding of customers and evolving market conditions enables us to maintain our focus on value creation.
This week, I propose three key references to strengthen your competencies and those of your teams regarding strategy, innovation, and the use of AI.
Let's go.
Strategy: Training a Novice Strategist, Unlearning and Relearning (R. Martin)
In a recent article, Martin outlines four key skills that need to be developed for anyone interested in strategy.
He highlights what must be unlearned to become a better strategist. These elements may seem subtle, but they are essential to ensure that the strategy competence is embedded in the organization.
The lessons that can be drawn from the article are crucial for any leader and their teams. Martin reminds us that:
“Line managers make the strategy choices. As a strategist, the first thing you have to understand is that your job is different. It is to help line managers make great strategy choices.”
“Novice strategists are taught that strategy is primarily about crunching the data. It is a myth perpetrated by business schools and the modern world of business.”
“Young strategists must learn how to explore the logic of strategy choices. To do so, they need to become skilled in using the What Would Have to be True (WWHTBT) tool to reverse-engineer the logic of strategy choices.”
An essential and practical read.
Innovation: How to Uncover What Customers Want (Ash Maurya)
To understand what customers really want, entrepreneurs (and business leaders) should get close to them and explore their experiences with existing solutions, rather than directly asking them what they want.
Common approaches such as launching a minimum viable product (MVP) or questioning customers about their preferences often fail because customers are unable to express their needs effectively.
Instead, we need to focus on discovering their frustrations and pain points to identify valuable problems worth solving.
It is an interesting discussion that echoes Customer Development, exploring the jobs, pains, and gains of the Value Proposition Design or the value criteria of the Blue Ocean Strategy.
Remember: you have to explore the customer journey, the frustrations, and the desired benefits. There are several approaches, but in the end, you have to meet customers, observe them, and question their experience.
This exploration is rich in information and only requires a minimum of 10-15 exploratory interviews (the number may vary depending on what is to be explored).
It is applicable both in the context of innovation and in strategic reflection.
Again, everything starts with the customer!
AI: Google's 9 Hour AI Prompt Engineering Course In 20 Minutes (Tina Huang)
AI developments are progressing at an incredible speed. Pay attention to these because they’re going to affect us all.
I explored the importance of combining areas of expertise and AI possibilities here (The impacts of AI on strategy). To go further, it is important to develop a comfort level with AI.
Pay attention to this video, which establishes this common language and offers you the opportunity to elevate your use of AI.
By mastering the fundamentals, it allows you and your teams to confidently explore the latest advances offered, such as Deep Research and AI Agents.
Have a good week,
Eric L'Heureux
PS. When you are ready to move forward, here are two options to propel your leadership and your organization:
- Join our IAE-Pro Community to develop your strategic means of action (in French for now).
- Take advantage of our support to define a clear mobilizing strategy and establish priorities with your team.