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Ten ways to tell a good strategy from a bad one - lessons from the world of cartography
27 Sep 2004
A Hungarian army patrol, after losing their way in a storm, faced certain death in the harsh wintry conditions of the Alps. Luckily, a soldier in the group found a map in a seldom-used pocket, and navigated them safely back to base. However, after perusing the map, their commanding officer stated: "This isn't a map of the Alps. It's a map of the Pyrenees."
The map did its job - it may not have taken them down the shortest route, or even accurately reflected where they were, but it provided the two outcomes of a good strategy.
Stephen Cummings and David Wilson (the editors of Images of Strategy, Blackwell Publishing), propose that the quality of a strategy depends on two effects: orientation and animation - the ability to show people where they are relative to other things, and the capacity to allow them to make whatever moves are deemed necessary.
The qualities of a good strategy and a good map are synonymous:
Vision and Mission Statements are the large-scale maps guiding corporate endeavour. However, they are often so similar and unimaginative, with statements such as: 'provide superior returns for our shareholders' or 'empowering our employees to be their best'.
These tools of corporate passion, being so pedestrian and distant, can be found on the walls of organizations that do provide better returns for shareholders and do empower employees to do great things. So maybe it's not so much what's in the map as opposed to what the map allows people to do: orientate and animate.
About Sid Peimer
Sid Peimer lives between Table Mountain and Table Bay, making on-foot navigation a cinch in hazy conditions. However, he finds his girlfriend attractive without a map. He can be located at www.stratplanning.com.
