Deciding What NOT To Do

Effective strategy execution requires that the resources of the organization are aligned to its purpose.

"The essence of strategy is deciding what NOT to do."

Unless your priorities are clear enough that you know what not to do, or what not to allocate resources to, you don't yet have "strategy."

One way to test how committed the organization is to your Vital Few Objectives (VFOs) is to get agreement on the projects and priorities in the organization that can be stopped.

BOTTOMLINE: The forces of business and human nature cause programs and projects to continually expand, resulting in an ever-increasing misalignment of resources. An organization must have the self-discipline to free up resources and reallocate them to higher-value projects and to deliver competitive profitability at the same time. If an organization doesn't discipline itself to do this - our free market - will.