Llyr Johns Strategy in Complex Organisations

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Developing Strategy in Complex Organisations – Insights from a Global Company

Dr Llyr Jones

Former Head of Group Strategy, BAE Systems plc. Former Trustee, Strategic Planning Society Department of Strategy & Marketing University of Huddersfield Business School 21 February 2014

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My personal journey

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Agenda

• What is strategy? – A (very) brief summary • Three lenses • Strategy in BAE Systems • The Strategic Planning Society • Q&A

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Agenda

• What is strategy? – A (very) brief summary • Three lenses • Strategy in BAE Systems • The Strategic Planning Society • Q&A

www.sps.org.uk

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The term strategy has been so widely used for different purposes that it has lost any clearly defined meaning

“You can strategically add strategy to any strategic sentence, to give it any strategic meaning you strategically want it to have…”

Phil Jones

Communicating Strategy, (2008), Gower Publishing, Aldershot, UK.

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Over 85,200 returns on amazon.co.uk and over 100,600 returns on amazon.com

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Where does the term “Strategy” originate?

Strategy is derived from the Greek military word strategia – the “office or command of a general,” …from strategos “a general” …from stratos “multitude, army, expedition”

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It is about avoiding “the Christopher Columbus syndrome”

When he set off….

he did not know where he was going

When he got there….

he did not know where he was

When he got back….

He did not know where he had been

Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) Italian Explorer

….and somehow he managed to do it all on borrowed money!

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Some definitions of “strategy”

“A strategy is an integrated set of hard to reverse choices made ahead of time in the face of uncertainty.”

“… strategy is more than just a plan. It's a proprietary set of actions that serve customers better than the competition. It's...