Posts Tagged ‘strategy’
Doing more; Doing more of the same; Doing just a little different
I always read Seth Godin’s blog. They entries and short, direct, to the point, and always give me something to think about.
Here is a recent posting
“I’m making money, why do more?”
Because more than you need to makes it personal.
Because work that belongs to you, by choice, is the first step to making art.
Because the choice to do more brings passion to your life and it makes you more alive.
Because if you don’t, someone else will, and in an ever more competitive world, doing less means losing.
Because you care.
Because we’re watching.
Because you can.
There is a difference between doing more and doing different.
Sometimes, doing more of the same is your biggest liability - whether its your personal life, a for-profit company, a non-profit organization, or a government agency.
I always encounter people in organizations that are intent on “doing more”. This is their biggest mistake. They do more of same expecting to get promoted. The only thing “doing more” (of the same) in non-strategic job roles is going to get them is “more of the same” since few managers will promote someone who excels at being ”a workhorse”.
Doing more (of the same) didn’t keep most traditional booksellers from going out of business. Amazon did it different. Different beat more of the same.
For non-profits, doing more of the same when the social, economic, technological, cultural and other external realities are shifting under your feet is going to send you on a trajectory of irrelevancy. Traditional organizations like the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and the ARRL faces this challenge. Do more of the same when the external context has radically changed – or do different?
NASA essentially accomplished its biggest goal in 1969 by landing a man on the moon and returning safely back to earth. What happens when you do it 6 more times? Doing more of the same triggered some scrutiny by Congress with a report saying they needed a viable strategic plan, not to do more of the same, but to do more of something different – something that can engage the national vsion. How about the US Post Office. They would like to do more of the same (delivering physical postal mail) but seemingly most of the public doesn’t need more of the same. Customers do different and the Post Office is now in decline because they are not doing different – what customers really need, want, and are willing to pay for.
The Take
Do more? Ok. But sometimes, doing more of the same is really doing less.
Doing a little different may grant you the privilege to do more of the same… Then the chance to do different again… and the process repeats.
Read more
Doing more of the same. From one of the few books on the social history of amateur Radio “Why end this book as of the year 1950? It is because the story of ham radio’s development essentially takes place in the first fifty years of the twentieth century. Having been created, accepted, regulated, and achieved permanent status by 1950, the story after that becomes one primarily of repetition.” Read the posting – ARRL: Does the ARRL need a Strategic Plan?
NASA – more of the same. From the office of the Inspector General ” These problems are not primarily of NASA’s doing, but the agency could craft a better response to the uncertainty, for example, by developing a strategic plan that includes clear priorities and a transparent budget allocation process. A better response would improve NASA’s ability to navigate future obstacles and uncertainties. An effective agency response is vital, because at a time when the strategic importance of space is rising and the capabilities of other spacefaring nations are increasing, U.S. leadership is faltering….” NASA: What to do after mission accomplished
More of the same.. missing it all. Of Telegraphs, Telephones, Radios, and Organizational Momentum
Why? Group Think. The C-word: Consensus
Doing a little different – Stupid Survives until smart succeeds
ARRL: Does the ARRL need a Strategic Plan?
Strategy in the Corporate World
A few days ago, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave an interview to the UK Daily Mail. In that interview, Zuckerberg talked about Facebook’s greatest challenge and missed opportunities. “Facebook’s biggest challenge – and its greatest opportunity lies in mobile devices which is an area that the company did not pay much attention to until just last year.”
About a week ago I watched a Bloomberg video interview of Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland. In that interview she talked about the future of Yahoo and the concept of the “interest graph” to compete in search against Google and Facebook
A few months ago Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman appeared at the quarterly earnings call to talk about the HP turnaround. An extensive amount of material was presented detailing the turnaround and how all levels of the company will become aligned to the new strategy.
Everyone has one…
Needless to say, every public company has a strategy. Strategy is driven by the recognition (diagnosis) of challenges and opportunities. The nature of the challenges and opportunities sets the stage to formulate an approach to best address the situation. The approach translates into the development and execution of a coordinated set of actions across the enterprise along with metrics and measure to assess progress. You can see this clearly played out in HP’s multi-year turnaround strategy made public at the recent quarterly earnings call.
In general, you can look in just about any quarterly report or annual report of a public company and find the strategy. They differ in degree consistent with the diagnosis of the extent of the perceived challenge and opportunity in the external and competitive environment in which they operate.
Strategy in government agencies and charities
So why is it that NASA and the ARRL have such difficulty when it comes to formulating a strategy?
NASA
In late 2011, the Congress directed the NASA Office of Inspector General to commission a “comprehensive independent assessment of NASA’s strategic direction and agency management.”
In part, this is what it said:
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is at a transitional point in its history and is facing a set of circumstances that it has not faced in combination before…
Other than the long-range goal of sending humans to Mars, there is no strong, compelling national vision for the human spaceflight program, which is arguably the centerpiece of NASA’s spectrum of mission areas…
Although gaps in U.S. human spaceflight capability have existed in the past, several other factors, in combination, make this a unique period for NASA. These include a lack of consensus on the next steps in the development of human spaceflight, increasing financial pressures, an aging infrastructure, and the emergence of additional space-capable nations—some friendly, some potentially unfriendly…
These problems are not primarily of NASA’s doing, but the agency could craft a better response to the uncertainty, for example, by developing a strategic plan that includes clear priorities and a transparent budget allocation process. A better response would improve NASA’s ability to navigate future obstacles and uncertainties. An effective agency response is vital, because at a time when the strategic importance of space is rising and the capabilities of other spacefaring nations are increasing, U.S. leadership is faltering…
The ARRL (American Radio Relay League)
The ARRL as an organization is nearly 100 years old. Below is their self-diagnosed position on a strategic plan
Posted on the ARRL web site regarding CEO David Summers K1ZZ findings (emphasis mine)
Mr. Sumner reported on his research into “state of the art” strategic planning by large membership associations. Perhaps because of the negative impact of the financial upheavals of 2008 and the revolution in electronic publishing, at this time there appears to be no consensus among associations as to the value of strategic planning or the best way for associations to go about it. The ARRL Board last updated the organization’s strategic plan in 2009 and normally would conduct an in-depth review three to five years later. The committee discussed the perceived shortcomings of past strategic planning efforts along with possible improvements. Without taking a formal decision the committee concluded that while strategic planning remains important to the ARRL, planning for a successful Centennial celebration in 2014 is the current priority. A fresh approach to strategic planning should be taken immediately afterward.
Challenge and Opportunity
What NASA and the ARRL have in common when it comes to the difficulty in strategic planning revolves around the assessment of challenge and opportunity. This has many dimensions. Partial considerations are suggested below.
In a sense, for NASA, it’s a case of “mission accomplished”. It’s fair to say that NASA’s biggest challenge and accomplishment was putting a man on the moon and bringing him safely back to earth. This was the challenge that President Kennedy set for NASA on May 25, 1961. NASA accomplished this goal in July 1969 with Apollo 11. NASA repeated this accomplishment five more times with Apollo 12,14,15, and 17.
NASA Mission accomplished - six times over. Now what?
For the ARRL, in a sense, just as in the case of NASA, for the ARRL it’s also “mission accomplished”. I will have to rely on Richard Bartlett’s assessment in his book The World of Ham Radio, 1901-1950: a social history.
In the epilogue of the book, published in 2007, Bartlett provides an answer for those who would ask him the obvious question: If you published the book in 2007 then why end the history of amateur radio and the history of the ARRL in 1950? What happened in Amateur Radio and the ARRL over the past 57 years which is not accounted for in the book?
Why end this book as of the year 1950? It is because the story of ham radio’s development essentially takes place in the first fifty years of the twentieth century. Having been created, accepted, regulated, and achieved permanent status by 1950, the story after that becomes one primarily of repetition. The one great exception is in the area of technology, and save for minimal descriptions necessary to the story, that has not been our concern.
ARRL Mission accomplished – back in 1950. Now what?
NASA and the ARRL – Sources of identity
NASA and the ARRL have something else in common of a deeper nature.
The identities and goals of both organizations was set externally.
The Congress and the President of the United States created the national Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on October 1, 1958. Amateur Radio was first governed by the U.S. Department of Commerce (the U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor until March 1913), then by the Federal Radio Commission, and finally (in 1934) by the FCC.
The broad missions of each organization was set by other agencies
For NASA, the preamble to the act of congress was, “An Act to provide for research into the problems of flight within and outside the Earth’s atmosphere, and for other purposes.” For Amateur Radio, the definition of the Amateur Radio Service was set in Part 97 Amateur Radio Service Subpart A–General Provisions §97.1 Basis and purpose.
If an organization gets its identity and goals outside of itself, then how much latitude does the organization have (or, think it has) when it senses that its basic purpose or goals need to evolve to stay relevant as the external environment changes?
Engineering and operations, not Strategy
The third aspect that the ARRL and NASA have in common is based on the combination of the two commonalities mentioned above.
Insofar as the identity of each organization was set externally outside the organization. And, insofar as the goals of the organization were set externally outside the organization both organizations developed a culture of, what could be called, engineering and operations. There was no need for either organization to develop the capability to re/define identify and or re/establish strategic goals. The operating model of such an organization has a focus of delivering preestablished goals and sustaining ongoing operations.
In the corporate world this is never the case. Corporations are constantly challenged to re/define their identity and re/position in the context of the ever-changing environment of challenges, opportunity, and competition. The job of assessing and diagnosing the environment, framing an approach, and then aligning execution and resources is the job of the Chief Executive with oversight from the Board of Directors. So, it’s no wonder that analysts, on a quarterly basis, will badger Zuckerberg, Mayer, Whitman, and every other CEO of a public company into articulating their latest strategy.
The Take
What are the legitimate reasons for any organization to not have a strategic plan?
Well, probably the most obvious reason based on what is written above is that an organization without a strategic plan does not recognize any challenge or opportunity in the context in which it operates.
If there is no new challenge and no new opportunity and you are satisfied with the organizations current performance then there is no need of any strategic plan. One simply operates in a state of sustainability by repetition - for as long as you can maintain it within a budget, or for as long as you continue to not recognize a challenge or opportunity in the external environment, or for as long as you can get away with it until stakeholders commission a “comprehensive assessment” (as in the case of Congress and NASA above) to find out why you don’t have a compelling vision of the future that can engage a national interest.
The last page on the last chapter of Richard Bartlett’s book ends with this:
Time passes on, and the old guard gives way to the newcomers. In November 1948 death came to Kenneth Bryant Warner, who for nearly thirty years was secretary and general manager of the ARRL. “It was Maxim who conceived our League, it as Warner who breathed into it life and energy and vitality, whose balanced judgement and clear vision ensured its growth and success,” reads his obituary. “With his passing we suffer the loss of a great leader, an untiring servant in the cause of amateur radio. p. 230 The World of Ham Radio 1901-1950
The way Bartlett ends his book begs the question as to why he thinks Amateur Radio and the ARRL entered a state of 57 years of unremarkable repetition. Was it because every ounce of value was developed from Amateur Radio’s pre-defined identity and purpose? Or, was it because in 1948 Amateur Radio and the ARRL ran out of great leaders like Bryant who “breathed into it life and energy and vitality… [ that] ensured its growth and success.” .
Bartlett does not give an answer – one way or the other.
Related Reading
NASA: What to do after Mission Accomplished
ARRL: Reaping the Whirlwind
The Boy Scouts recently celebrated its centennial
Read the intro to the Strategic Plan from Chief Executive Robert J. Mazzuca
As our first century of Scouting comes to a close, I am delighted to share with you our 2011–2015 National Council Strategic Plan. This document represents the confluence of our vital mission with a clear corporate direction and will be the cornerstone for our second century of Scouting. I am particularly proud of the grassroots support and feedback given by Scouters throughout the country that provided guidance as we developed objectives and goals that are in direct support of local councils. This investment made in setting our course may well be one of the most significant accomplishments in the history of our movement.
The National Council is committed to following this strategic direction with a very formal process; allocating manpower and financial resources appropriately, and setting course corrections as the environment dictates.
The stakes are simply too high to put forth anything but our best effort
And then read the 2011-2015 Strategic Plan
It’s amazing how many opportunities CEO’s get to differentiate themselves.
The Future of Satellite Radio: What Satellite Radio can learn from Motorola Iridium
The Future of Satellite Radio: What Satellite Radio can learn from Motorola Iridium
Related Articles:
Postscript: Who is the audience for Shortwave Radio?
Global Internet Distribution of Cultural Media: How Internet Radio was oh so 5 minutes ago
Terrestrial Broadcast Radio: The end of an era?
This is a follow-on to a number of posts on this site on the subject of terrestrial and internet radio. See references above.
On a Tear
I am on sort of a tear regarding terrestrial radio and internet radio and what might be the future for both. Looking over some past issues of Fortune magazine there was an article in the March 13′th issue on Satellite Radio.
It begs the question – What is the positioning of satellite radio in the context of conventional terrestrial radio and Internet Radio (Streaming media)? How does Satellite Radio fit into the picture? What can Satellite radio learn from similar endeavors?
The state of Satellite Radio today
The March 13′th issue of Fortune on Sirius is mostly about CEO Mel Karmazin and his attempt to rescue XM Sirius from bankruptcy with a $350 million dollar injection of capital. The Sirius XM stock price has fallen by 98% trading at 20 cents per share. In addition XM Sirius is saddled with $995 million of maturing debt.
How is Sirius XM Satellite Radio doing these days?
Over the years Sirius and XM have been absolute horror shows for investors. The duo rang up $3 billion in debt, tallied cumulative operating losses in excess of nearly $10 billion, and since 2004 lost shareholders a combined $15 billion in stock market capitalization. As recently as March 2 – before all the i’s were dotted on the Liberty deal – Sirius XM issued an ominous warning. Explaining the reasons it would be late filing its 2008 annual report, the company said it had not yet completed “its evaluation as to whether substantial doubt exists relative to the company’s ability to continue as a going concern.”
Ok, and regarding the up front costs and when investors will see a profit?
The Fifth Pillar of Amateur Radio: hiding in plain sight
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The Fifth Pillar of Amateur Radio: hiding in plain sight
Today, we are naming ‘technology’ as ARRL’s new fifth pillar.” ARRL’s other four pillars, the underpinnings of the organization, are Public Service, Advocacy, Education and Membership.
“For hams, expanding the four pillars to include technology will reinforce one of the organization’s guiding principles — that ham radio is state-of-the-art, innovative and relevant,” he said.” – The ARRL Letter Vol. 27, No. 19 May 16, 2008
Here comes everybody – http://eham.net
The ARRL (American Radio Relay League), and Amateur Radio by collateral damage, took a beating in http://eham.net on the above release from the ARRL You can read the comments for yourself.
ARRL President Joel Harrison, W5ZN, tipped his hand (revealed a secret) when he made the statement “that ham radio is state-of-the-art, innovative and relevant”. Of course, as observed by one writer in http://eham.net, if one has to publicly assert that amateur radio is relevant, state-of-the art, and innovative – then there exists an underlying perception to the contrary.
At least the threat of irrelevancy would be credible enough that it would motivate an organization to make such a statement. What’s more, if an organization takes an action to mitigate what they say is not true in the first place then this demonstrates that the threat of irrelevancy is credible in their assessment.
Relevancy is only part of the solution
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Written by frrl
May 31, 2009 at 3:23 am
Posted in Commentary and Opinion
Tagged with amateur radio, ARRL, strategy