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Strategy Camp

As a young boy, all my friends went to abeautiful wooded summer camp where theyswam, shot arrows and frolicked. Beinghighly allergic to frolic, I was sent to strategycamp instead. One night around a bonfireroasting spinach and tofu on sticks, the

strategist-in-training camp counselorwearing a tan short-sleeved dress shirt, plaidshorts, black socks and Cordovan wingtipstold us this horror story:

"Years ago, two managers were hiking inthese very same woods when they becamelost. Night settled in and they wanderedaimlessly from one project to the next, withno awareness of what was the key driver of

their business strategy's success. Suddenly,they heard a strange noise coming from theforest around them. It was the sound ofcustomer's voices, but they paid no attentionbecause they didn't want to go through thehassle of updating their plan.

Gripped with the fear of having no strategicdirection, the two managers franticallyleafed through their sixty-five slidePowerPoint deck in search of a way out. But,

in the pages of eight-point Arial font and clipart, there was no mention of the corecompetencies and capabilities that couldhave saved their strategy from impendingdoom. Their screams were eventuallydrowned out as they were buried alive bythe laundry lists of strategic objectives,critical success factors and tactics that looked

good on paper but had no real effect on theirlong-term success."

Needless to say, after that terrifying tale Icouldn't do a good SWOT Analysis for aweek. However, it did drill into me the

importance of understanding just whatdrives our strategies. We often spend somuch time working through a marketanalysis, goals, objectives, strategies, tacticsand metrics that we lose sight of exactlywhat will make or break our strategy. A ten-year study of 103 companies with at least$1 billion in enterprise value showed thatstrategic blunders were the cause of thegreatest loss of shareholder value, an

astonishing 81 percent of the time.

As strategy is "how" we're going to achievegoals and objectives, core competencies andcapabilities are what will drive our ability tosuccessfully fulfill strategy's potential. Let'stake a closer look at these two criticalconcepts.

Core CompetenciesA core competency is a primary area of

expertise. It is your collective learnings builton knowledge and skills that lead todifferentiated value for your customers andcompetitive advantage for you. One of thereasons companies lack competitiveadvantage is because they don't have a corecompetency. If a core competency hasn'tbeen identified and developed, the resulting

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