A mindmap of the current version of the strategic thinking seminar. This will continue to be updated.
Open it here
Cheers
Dale
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Sunday, May 6, 2007
SWEPT AWAY BY STRATEGY
Several years ago I received an email from a manager at the Microsoft Corporation asking me if I was interested in delivering a seminar on strategic thinking at their subsidiaries in Egypt and Dubai. “Not a problem,” I replied. I felt that my familiarity with the people and processes at Microsoft, along with my years of strategic consulting at scores of other organizations, not to mention the 15 plus years I had been teaching strategic marketing to MBA’s would make this one of the easier requests Microsoft had ever made of me. Yet, there was something about the request that struck me as not quite ordinary. It took me approximately two days to realize that what was concerning me was that I had been asked to deliver a seminar on strategic thinking, not planning. Was the difference important, I wondered? Surely, they meant strategic planning; perhaps the author of the email simply used the wrong word. Despite every effort to forget about it, I finally sent back a short email seeking confirmation that the topic was strategic thinking, not planning. It was, and from that day forward I’ve never stopped trying to figure out exactly what strategic thinking is.
Those seminars in the Middle East never materialized, but I was hooked on the idea of strategic thinking. I developed a seminar entitled Strategic Thinking and delivered it gratis at first, just to be able to explore the topic with others. Now, several years later, the vague unease that I felt from that initial email has developed into a journey that takes me around the world 
and into continuous contact with organizations and other individuals who are as fascinated as I am by a concept that we can’t quite figure out. This blog is devoted to our ongoing flailing away at the topic of strategic thinking. I have as little idea where it might lead as I have understanding of why my strategic thinking “safari” started. As Bilbo Baggins observed, "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."
and into continuous contact with organizations and other individuals who are as fascinated as I am by a concept that we can’t quite figure out. This blog is devoted to our ongoing flailing away at the topic of strategic thinking. I have as little idea where it might lead as I have understanding of why my strategic thinking “safari” started. As Bilbo Baggins observed, "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."
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