By Katri Harra, Co-Founder, Grip Strategy When a company sets out for major renewal, the conversation usually turns to strategy work, and that’s often my own natural starting point too. Of course we need to analyze, understand and plan for the future, make clear choices and work towards our shared vision. But what if the […]
Which comes first: strategy or renewal? Read More »
Last week, Katja gave a guest lecture on strategic financial management to first-year business students at the University of Vaasa. The lecture explored how a strategic perspective changes the questions we ask in financial management. An investment, for example, is not only about expected returns, but about how it supports strategy – and what opportunities,
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By Katja Kolehmainen, CEO & Co-Founder, Grip Strategy A company’s management system has a profound impact on its competitiveness. At its best, it focuses management attention on what matters strategically, supports better decision-making and helps turn strategy into action. At its worst, it can make strategy execution more difficult – or even prevent the organization from recognizing
Your management system can enable strategy – or get in its way Read More »
In our recent client work, one question has emerged repeatedly in the context of strategy updates: how strong is your organisation’s capacity to achieve the strategic objectives it has set? The question spans both strategy and the organisation responsible for delivering it. It requires examining the strategic objectives and the assumptions on which they are
Does Your Organisation Have the Capacity to Achieve Its Strategic Objectives? Read More »
In June, Katri and Katja attended Copenhagen Future Days, joining designers, futurists, researchers and practitioners in conversations about the forces shaping the future. For us, one of the most valuable aspects of the event was its multidisciplinary perspective. Understanding the future requires more than following individual trends—it calls for connecting insights from technology, society, culture
Copenhagen Future Days Read More »
When organisations revisit their strategy, the discussion often focuses on objectives, strategic priorities, initiatives or performance metrics. All of these matter. Yet one question is asked far less often: what is it about our strategy that actually needs to change? The answer is not as straightforward as it may first appear. Strategy does not begin
What Really Needs Updating in a Strategy? Read More »
Much has been written about the increasing volatility and complexity of the business environment — and for good reason. They make strategic work more demanding. Whether the challenge stems from volatility, uncertainty or deeper structural complexity, the implication is the same: good strategy depends on clear, disciplined thinking. It requires judgement, focus and the ability to make
Good Strategy Is Rare — Because Clear Thinking Is Hard Read More »
This book addresses a fundamental question: Why is so much strategy ineffective, and what distinguishes good strategy from bad strategy? Rumelt argues that bad strategy is not the absence of strategy, but the presence of superficial substitutes for it—such as vague ambitions, buzzwords, growth targets, and overly complex frameworks that avoid hard choices. According to the
Rumelt: What is the difference between good and bad strategy and why it matters? Read More »
This article addresses a fundamental question: Why do some leaders consistently discover better strategies, even when facing similar information and constraints? The article claims that strategic success depends not only on choosing better actions, but on how leaders mentally frame the strategy problem in the first place. Managers’ mental representations determine which alternatives they see as
Csaszar & Levinthal: Why Do Some Leaders Discover Better Strategies Than Others? Read More »
This article addresses a fundamental question: What makes a question strategic? The article claims that decisions become more strategic due to their interdependence with other decisions along three dimensions: interdependence across decisions occurring within the same time period, interdependence with decisions of other actors, and intertemporal interdependence of decisions. The article draws attention to the
Leiblein, Reuer and Zenger: What makes a question strategic? Read More »