Sharing experience: A light-hearted moment on the premier panel of the Global Transformation Forum comprising former heads of governments (from left) Helen Clarke, Goh Chok Tong, Jorge Quiroga and Kevin Rudd.
I MAKE no bones I particularly dislike one word loosely bandied about in corporate speak, and that word is “strategy”. As much as talk is cheap, to some extent, so is strategy. I would go as far as to say that if organisations want to see results, it is certainly not in the belaboured hours spent in “strategic brainstorming” where one tends to walk away with a gilded view of objectives and approaches and very little of anything else. I can quite imagine the impassioned executive, mulling in between workshops, “I like what I heard but I don’t know what to do about it.”
Governments especially run afoul when it comes to implementation. It is commonplace for bureaucracies worldwide to announce elegant strategies and ambitious high-level blueprints, bound in leather and destined for failure.
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