Defining a strategy requires making forecasts, and forecasting is a complex and risky task. The safest model is to make an extrapolation (and assessment) of the future using statistical data from the previous period. Another frequently used alternative is to explain the future on the basis of an analysis of what are considered good business practices.
The author explores a different alternative, based on the development of a framework for reflection that takes into account those issues of greatest concern to those ultimately responsible for the design and implementation of industrial strategies and the supply chain. For once – not that this should serve as precedent – the starting point for this reflection lies not in approaches to corporate strategy, which the operational departments should always be based upon, but rather in those questions and answers that can facilitate an alignment of objectives and a shared vision of the paths toward achieving competitive excellence.
The proposed framework for reflection illustrates a will to develop a useful common language for industries, sectors and companies of all sorts.
Carles Roig
Lecturer in the Department of Operations Management and Innovation. Director of the
international edition of the Programme for Management Development
- Lisboa, Thursday, 10 February, 2011
- Oporto, Thursday, 10 March, 2011
