Cook’s Coaching Corner: STRATEGY
Covering the Corners: Unpacking my top level coaching framework - corner by corner. First up - the Strategy Corner.
“Hey, Jim. What’s ISN’s Strategy?”
Scott Cook, Intuit’s founder, CEO, and Board Chairman was asking me this question in my 1:1 exit conversation after my first 5 years in Silicon Valley (1991-1996). I had been in the room(s) with Scott and the other exec team members in nearly all of Intuit’s critical early financing moments [1st private round (Kleiner), 1993 IPO, critical mergers like Chipsoft (TurboTax; 1993) and each of the 18 quarterly conference calls as a public company (1993-1996)].
I didn’t have a crisp answer. Scott quickly replied, “You need to figure it out fast!” I was just hired to my first VP role - VP of Finance at ISN in 1996 - and Scott was still coaching and mentoring me in my exit interview. This was a seminal moment in leadership for me. My learning(s) as a newly minted executive were just beginning.
My new company, the Internet Shopping Network (ISN) was literally the very 1st e-commerce company to make an online sale (Oct, 1994), shortly after Netscape’s first browser release and IPO. Several Intuit colleagues and I needed to get back to our entrepreneurial roots after the last three years of being a public company. We began heading to other hot startup companies in the mid-90’s like Netscape, Pointcast, Yahoo!, eBay, Excite, and that other unknown e-commerce company… Amazon. It was an incredible time to start a career in Silicon Valley. This was all before we started Netflix in the fall of 1997.
Definitions: In this and many future posts, I’ll be using a consistent framework to communicate my “Best Ofs” for Cook’s PlayBooks - continuing my “Business as a Sport” metaphor.
GAME PLAN: (a.k.a. Mental models, 1st Principles, Situational Context)PLAYBOOK(s): (various “plays” or options which many times will include the Roles/Positions needed to execute the “play”)CHALKING THE FIELD: (the rules to play by; Dos and Don'ts; Key Lines on the Field of Play which help define inbounds/out of bounds and how to score)SCOREBOARD: (Key Milestones; Metrics; Benchmarks)Top Level Coaching Framework (Last Week’s Post)
Cook’s Coaching Corner: Let’s Unpack - Top Left
Personal Note on the Game Plan; PlayBooks; and Chalking the Field below. I’ve sent a version of this post in email to all@___ from my CFO seat during nearly every planning cycle since that Scott Cook lesson on “Strategy” in 1996. I came to realize many others hadn’t fully learned these critical strategy lessons. Ultimately, my goal then, and now, is to ensure we all start with Strategy and then align it to Structure, and Execution. I encourage each of you in your similar leadership seat to communicate these lessons and to add a few of your own “Best Ofs” and “PlayBooks” to design your own winning Game Plan.GAME PLAN:
(a.k.a mental models, frameworks, situational context)It’s critical to truly understand, define, and align everyone in your company to what STRATEGY actually means (vs. what they may think it means).
What is Strategy? What is Strategy not? How do we win with Strategy? How to lose?
Let’s answer these questions in this installment of Cook’s Coaching Corner:
Specifically, Strategy IS:
an integrated set of choices and decisions
that uniquely positions your company within your industry
in order to create a sustainable competitive advantage
& provide superior value to your customers
Strategy is the practice of figuring out the best way to get from here to there. From current state to future state with “past state” informing your choices and future path decisions.
A great analogy, many of you have likely heard, is worth repeating here:
Imagine you have a car and want to go on vacation where it’s warm. Do you drive North? South? East? Or West? There are so many directional choices. The answer also depends on where you are now! Where you are starting from? Is any warm place good enough? You probably need to define warm as “Beach?" or “Desert?" These are vastly different choices of “Warm.” What are the best routes to get there? Do you have a map? Do you need to create a planned itinerary? Your journey likely depends on what kind of car you have? How many stops will you have to make? (Depends on gas tank size) Where will you sleep on this multi-day journey? How will we pay for stuff along the way? Do we need an emergency kit?
In all of these examples, there are several key aspects that are fundamental to all forms of strategy.
1) Clear vision of where you want to end up
2) An understanding of where you are now
3) An assessment of what stands in between
4) Clear decisions of how to approach the challenge
5) Specific choices, decisions, courses of action to take.
If your Strategy doesn’t address these aspects of the challenge of actually choosing your future path in some way – then you don’t really have a Strategy.
FIVE STEP STRATEGIC GAME PLAN SUMMARY:
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