The Strategy Book

Create a Strategic Mindset and Future-Proof Your Business

John Hale

• Publisher: Hale Consulting Group
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN: 9780648659013
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Leadership
• Index: Business

The Strategy Book will help you re-think this digital planet and the process of strategy creation. It contains twenty quick-to-read notes on how to create a strategic mindset by applying six steps. Following each step are activities designed to future-proof your business.

FROM DOZENS OF ILLUSTRATIONS, INSIGHTS, AND IDEAS, YOU WILL:

• Appreciate the strengths and limitations of the human brain

• Excel in business by applying the six-step Strategic Mindset Process

• Compile your best ideas and answers to empowering questions

• Better sense your environment and see beyond the next horizon

• Connect with stakeholders to create and capture future value

• Combine focus, speed, and influence to deliver strategy successfully

• Cultivate the ability to manage the present and lead the future

Conclusion

At this moment, you and others reading this book will be in one of 193 countries around the globe, or you may be switching between countries via boat or plane, outside the exclusive economic zone of any country. If you purchased this as an audiobook or e-book, you might have downloaded it via the Internet from the World’s largest data center – the Citadel. A Critical Success Factor in most industries, including the Data Storage Industry, is an ability to scale. At the time of writing, the Citadel is a 17.4 million square foot mega-facility in the wide-open spaces of Nevada, with plans to build three additional centres across the United States. The Citadel’s Claim to Fame includes being powered exclusively by renewable energy. The Citadel’s domain is global. The Citadel’s objective includes cloud computing and is a powerful example of Michael Porter’s concept of Horizontal Integration. The Citadel’s unfair advantage is that it enjoys breath-taking snowy mountain views and equally breath-taking economies of scale, along with access to some of the world’s most creative minds, both onsite and from nearby Silicon Valley, who help the Citadel’s parent company triangulate real-world decisions.

The Industry Attractiveness of the Data Storage Industry the Citadel operates within is high, with no real substitutes. There are high barriers to entry in cost and regulatory approvals, so the threat of new entrants is low. The bargaining power of both suppliers and customers is moderate. The degree of competitive rivalry appears moderate to low. Benefits from complementary players are favourable and should only increase with time. So, in summary, the Citadel enjoys a Blue Ocean with favourable conditions. This means Value Building should be easy. Regardless of the forces at work, knowing the attractiveness of your industry should always be a priority for your business.

The Citadel is the Core Business of a company called Switch. Rob Roy, Switch Founder, has a Vision that includes the BHAG-like Mantra of ‘Powering the Future of the Connected World’ with a set of values that includes cultivating a unique client-oriented culture at every level of the company. Rather than over-relying on his status or charisma, Rob Roy appears to embody trust, quiet confidence, determination and expertise. Rob believes in his people, communicates strategy clearly and aligns people with it.

Under Rob’s leadership, Switch has embraced a culture of diversity and equality and is a technology company where women represent more than half of its senior leadership team. The leadership team’s motivation and drive aim to produce the absolute best results for clients with unparalleled client value and the data storage centre industry’s best customer service. Switch understands the global forces at work, that many have been slower to appreciate. Switch Sensed the Environment and Saw Beyond the Next Horizon to jump in quickly and create the Citadel.

On the same site as the Citadel, Switch has placed bets and hedged against any weaknesses in their Strategy by co-creating an Innovation Ecosystem. In the Ecosystem, creative collaboration takes place between students, entrepreneurs, businesses, investors and non-profits, some of which are competitors, who end up co-operating in select parts of their respective Value Chains. The Citadel is also home to the Nevada Advanced Autonomous Systems Innovation Center (NAASIC), funded by the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. NAASIC hosts innovative programs to commercialise stationary robots, advanced manufacturing systems, unmanned aerial vehicles, autonomous cars, underwater robots, AI and the Internet of Things. Good strategy requires creativity and a willingness to learn from others.

Switch’s ecosystem programs explore options, migrate opportunities and enhance value. The Innovation Ecosystem is a diverse, capability building and expert-driven hive of activity which Connects with Customers and Stakeholders; Plans Future Value Chains, Creations and Combinations and sells licenses for leading-edge technologies to the World. With over 500 IP patents issued or pending, Swit...

Table of contents

• CREATE A STRATEGIC MINDSET
• SENSE THE ENVIRONMENT
• SEE BEYOND THE NEXT HORIZON
• CONNECT WITH CUSTOMERS & STAKEHOLDERS
• PLAN FUTURE VALUE
• FOCUS ON A CHOSEN TARGET
• MOVE FASTER WITH INFLUENCE
• FUTURE-PROOF YOUR BUSINESS
• Six Questions
• Conclusion