aventis ceo breakfast talk on what i didnt learn in business school by Dr Clifford, Columbia University and former McKinsey Director of Global Strategy
2. Speaker: Dr Trish Gorman Clifford
Dr Clifford was the Director of Global Strategy Learning at McKinsey
& Company and currently helps mid- and upper-level managers
strengthen their strategic capabilities through consulting and other
learning experiences. She currently serves as adjunct professor at
London Business School and Duke Corporate Executive Education
She has held full-time faculty positions at the University of
Connecticut and at Columbia University Executive Education, and
was Academic Director of the Global Consulting Practicum at
Wharton. She has published articles in Harvard Business Review and
the McKinsey Quarterly and has conducted hundreds of workshops
on strategy development, option generation and evaluation,
organizational alignment, and related topics.
3. What I Didn’t Learn in Business School :
How Strategy Works in the Real World
Aventis School of Management
Patricia (Trish) Gorman Clifford, MBA, PhD
November 16, 2010
4. What Do People Learn in Business School?
• Top 5 Answers
Financial Analysis
5 Forces
Team Building
Doing Cases
Networking
5. What do People Learn in Business School?
• The things most associated with Business
School by those who did not attend
• Top 5 Answers
– General Management Skills
– Marketing
– Finance
– Cases
– Networking
7. Today’s Agenda
• The Book: A Strategy Story
• The Problem
• Strategy in the Real World
• Never Stop Learning
8. Today’s Agenda
• The Book: A Strategy Story
• The Problem
• Strategy in the Real World
• Never Stop Learning
9. The Book: A Strategy Story
• Consulting team at elite firm
• Haven’t worked together before
• New and potentially important client relationship
• The Team
– Justin Campbell, Jr. Associate
– Livia Chambers,AP
– Vivek Chatterjee, Sr. Associate
– Gordon Lee, EM
– Ken McCombs, ED
10. The Book: A Strategy Story
• The Client: HGS, global plastics and packaging materials
firm
• The Researchers
– Jerry Tucker, Lead Researcher and “inventor of Plastiwear”
– Leonard Kibrick, leader of Development Team
• The Decision Makers
– Carl Switzer, CEO
– Scott Beckett, VP Oil and Gas Products
– Bob Hutchins, VP Packaging
– Shirley Rickert, CFO
– Walter Albright VP R&D
– Bill Dixon, Corporate HR
11. The Book: A Strategy Story
• Narrative with Beginning, Middle and End
• Engaging and memorable
• Characters with motivations and emotions
• Tools are applied in context
• Messy, incomplete data
• Ability to reflect complexity in topics
• Ability to iterate and selectively reveal
information
• “Like a long and winding case”
Why a story?
12. Today’s Agenda
• The Book: A Strategy Story
• The Problem
• Strategy in the Real World
• Never Stop Learning
13. The Problem
• The Client stumbled upon an innovative compound
• They haven’t yet converted this innovation to a
marketable product…in 3 years
• Characteristics of fabric made with this compound
– Stainproof
– Wrinkleproof
– White
– Nice drape and hand feel
– Virtually indestructible
What’s the problem?
14. The Problem
• Lack of courage
• Lack of direction
• Lack of funding
• Lack of focus
What’s the problem?
Who to sell to
How to create value
Whether they’ll make money
Competitive advantages
When to start
Strategy
Leadership
15. The Problem
• Unclear who should
make the decision
• Uncertain outcome
• Questions about the
future
What’s the problem?
Differences of opinion
Where (in the firm) will the new
business be
Who wins and who loses
What is success
Organizational
Dynamics
Risk and Uncertainty
16. Today’s Agenda
• The Book: A Strategy Story
• The Problem
• Strategy in the Real World
• Never Stop Learning
17. Strategy in the Real World
Justin is in a team room with a stack of materials to read and
a full email queue
• He applies many Strategy and Management Tools
Net Present Value Analysis
Industry Analysis (using 5 Forces)
Market Sizing Estimates
Value Chain Analysis
Stakeholder Analysis
VRIO
Option Evaluation Worksheet
18. Strategy in the Real World
Justin…
Sets priorities by a priori workplan
Relies on 5 Forces – done by the client
Wants NPV to give him a clear answer –
and it doesn’t
Expects data to be available and conclusive
Seeks a quick, definitive answer
Poor assumptions
block his
progress
19. Strategy in the Real World
• Wrong tools get you wrong outputs
• Asking the wrong question gets you the wrong answer
• Even the right tools can result in sub-optimal outcomes
– Tools can be an excuse to stop analyzing ..to stop thinking
– Tools can end a conversation
– Tools and approaches give outputs, not strategies
Strategy does not flow from analysis !
20. Today’s Agenda
• The Book: A Strategy Story
• The Problem
• Strategy in the Real World
• Never Stop Learning
21. Never Stop Learning
Justin is least experienced on a diverse team with a tight
deadline
– He believes there is an answer, and he will find it
– Justin thinks he needs to make a good impression
– He is less interested in framing the right question than
in pleasing senior people
– Justin doesn’t take the time to consider other
perspectives on the project
22. Never Stop Learning
What Justin didn’t learn in business school:
• Rushing to the wrong answer is a big time sink
• Some activities take time, but make time
• Working independently from the team can be very
inefficient
• Some activities are path dependent. Others can be
opportunistic
23. We spend much of our time describing
Make meaning from what you observe: What’s
happening?
Shifting to Why? Questions changes the strategic
conversation
What matters most?
Ask Why?
Never Stop Learning
24. Key Takeaways
• Strategy does not flow from Analysis
• Avoid correctly answering the wrong
question
• Let a Hypothesis lead you into the Data
• Humans are not Human Resources
• Look at Strategic analyses through an
Organizational lens
25. Key Takeaways
• Just because you can do something doesn’t
mean you should
• Just because you’ve finished school,
doesn’t mean you’re done learning
26. Contents
Chapter 1: A Simple Problem
Chapter 2: A New Shirt
Chapter Three: A Moving Target
Chapter Four: A Working Lunch
Chapter Five : A Valuable Chain
Etc.
Each Chapter advances the story and contains
strategy and organization tools and
approaches
27. What I Didn’t Learn in Business School:
How Strategy Works in the Real World
By Jay Barney and Trish Gorman Clifford
Harvard Business Press 2010
Trish Clifford
Trish@managetolearn.com
www.whatididntlearn.com
Questions? Comments?
28. Aventis School of Management is a leading Graduate School which is an affiliated
member of the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) and
European Council for Business Education (ECBE). Unlike most business schools which
rely heavily on academic research, Aventis’s rich industrial heritage sets it distinctively
apart through its unwavering commitment towards delivering practical driven
curriculum.
29. One of the only 5 business schools in Singapore that is registered with
European Foundation for Management Development.
An institutional member of the European Council for Business Education.
A full member of the Prestigious Executive MBA Council of over 250 top
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UCBE, Cornell, Helsinki School of Economics, NUS and NYU.
An accredited Study Centre of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, UK.
An academic participant of the United Nations Global Compact (UN-GC),
the world’s largest corporate social initiatives
A registered Business School members of the American Academy of
Financial Management (AAFM)
Memberships & Accreditations
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