Mighty Tools

Chapter 2: Strategy Tinkering at the Top

Mighty Tools Chapter 2 Assessment

Strategy tinkering at the top was identified as one of seven growth killers targeting midsized firms in Robert Sher’s book, Mighty Midsized Companies: How Leaders Overcome 7 Silent Growth Killers (Bibliomotion, September 16, 2014)

Chapter 2 describes the silent growth killer and examines the problems of midsized firms that seem to get distracted by shiny objects and squirrels, and lose focus on what was thought to be the core, most crucial initiatives. This is often caused by an overly-entrepreneurial leader who may be bored with the steady management required to scales a business, and instead tinkers (meaning changing the strategy with little analytical discipline).

This assessment is to determine if strategy tinkering is a problem at your company.

Our core business (production, incremental R&D, engineering, sales and marketing) has dedicated resources that are not drawn away into new, unplanned initiatives.*
Our longer term, strategic planning is done every year. At that time, we collect all the strategic ideas from the past quarters and comprehensively analyze and prioritize all of them.*
In between strategic plan cycles, we rarely introduce new strategies (I don’t mean new product) that was not flushed out in the past strategic plan session.*
Is an operating (or business plan) written each year, with clear targets and goals for the company, and for each function, and each department?*
Is progress on that operating plan reviewed by each team monthly, with results shared and course corrections made?*
As a part of the operations planning exercise, is there a budgeting exercise that carefully allocates resources?*
Are budgets, once allocated, left in place as planned unless the overall organization encounters unexpected financial challenges?*
Do leaders often feel like they must steal attention and focus from running the core business in order to analyze or test ad-hoc ideas coming from the leader they report to?*
The CEO’s strength is more innovation and not management.*
We have a member of the C suite who is strong manager and keeps the core of the business (not just operations) on track.*
Is the topmost leader of the firm also the owner?*
Is there a board of directors with strong, non-family board members that actively reviews the actions of the CEO and management, and can exert control if needed?*
Does the board play a functional part of the leadership of the firm?*