Ask any random person on the street what strategic management entails, and they are likely to delve into spreadsheets, charts, gap analysis, VRIO, the McKinsey 7S Model, etc. Strangely for me, I have learned many valuable lessons about strategic management from my morning runs.
Let me walk you through the practical application of these lessons in my role as a C-suite executive.
Planning and morning runs are inseparable twins. Your morning runs begin with route, distance, and time planning. You also consider potential obstacles to achieving your goals, such as harsh weather, fatigue, and human and vehicular traffic, among others. In strategic management and particularly planning, goals are set (e.g., increase sales by 24% in 6 months), the mode of achieving the goals (e.g., focusing on new clients), and the factors that may hinder their achievement (e.g., entry barriers such as tariffs into new markets and surpassed consumer purchasing power).
Morning runs require a lot of self-sacrifice. It is never simple to leave the warm embrace of your blanket on a Monday morning to pound the pavement. For you to implement a strategic plan, you need to have consistency, focus, and discipline.
Factors such as bad weather or time constraints may force you to modify your morning run on some days. In such cases, you have the option of either running indoors or going for shorter circuits. The trading environment is constantly changing in strategic management, necessitating adjustments. Competitors may also change tactics in response to your expected entry or scaling up. The government may alter policies that have a direct impact on your business.
Tracking your running progress is important because it helps identify areas for improvement. Lucky for us, there are many apps that help track the distance, pace, heartbeat, etc. We also need to monitor and evaluate strategic plans. Setting goals and objectives will aid in the creation of key performance indicators (KPIs). Examples of KPIs are return on investment (RoI), employee turnover rate, inventory turnover ratio, customer acquisition cost (CAC), etc.
The next time you hear whispers in the corporate world that C-suite executives are three times more likely to run or jog in the morning than the general population, you know why.
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