Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Strategist needed - Who would you choose?

SITUATION

You have just started your company. You need the "best" minds to pan out a good strategy that will drive your company for centuries to come. After all, if you do not put it on paper properly, chances are that your company is doomed even before you have even come up with a name for it. Atleast, that's what these "strategists" say.

So, what kind of people would you choose to be your CSO, or Chief Strategic Officer, for your burgeoning organization?? Here are a few of my choices.

AUTHOR

By far, my first choice for an effective strategist role in my company. Ever seen Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings"?? He has gone into so much detail that even Frodo Baggins would be surprised at how he has been described in the book! Pages and pages of detail, describing everything from the colour of the shoe lace to the number of ticks on the head of the person, really makes you think "Yes. He can strategise for me!!". 

Now, watch this interview by a very famous author. Notice the size of the book. Notice the jist of the book given by the author. Also, notice the answers he gives to all of the questions. All these point to classic strategist tendencies!

The kind of answers that an author gives to each and every question is just the kind of strategy I would want to implement in my company. This person will be able to come up with bookloads of strategies which you will conveniently give your suboordinates to read, interpret and implement.

NEWS CASTER/TV SHOW HOST

This, I came up with, after watching the video above. These are the people who come in direct contact with the authors/screen players/my first choice of strategists. A lot of wisdom is gained by listening to other people. These people will most definitely learn the fine art of strategizing, and thus will be able to implement it to near perfection in my company.

AIR HOSTESS

Simple. They are cute and hot. People listen to cute and hot women.

TRAVEL SHOW HOST

These are the people who would have gone to the remotest locations in the world. They would have seen some places that you would never have heard of. Some of the places would be such that you would never understand that it was a place that they were talking about. In short, these place names become perfect strategic words, which could be used to compile any good strategy for any organization. 

PIMPs

Last but not the least, who can forget those fresh "Premier Institute" MBA Post-grads (or for short, PIMPs)? It's the PIMPs who will be able to come up with the most creative of strategies. After all , in their 2 years of Post Graduate "studies", they get to learn the art of "developing" "core" strategies for any organization, which, on paper atleast, will drive the organzation for millions of years. PIMPs also come up with, again on paper, the best solutions to any problem faced by any company.

After all, I fall in this category. I would most definitely appoint myself to be a strategist in my company!

PIMPs also have a good eye for other strategists. They will be able to easily decipher a strategist from a..... non-strategist, and will immediately involve these people in driving core values and competencies in the main strategy of the organization. (If you have not understood that last sentence, then I have proven myself to be a great strategist)

These are the main people I would look at as a possible candidate. Any other person would be rejected on the spot. All this though, if and ONLY IF, I do start my organization. Otherwise, all you other budding entrepreneurs, use these people as your main strategists!!

3 comments:

Unknown said...

So simple... pick me :)

sid said...

Nice post. Loved the term PIMP. Would be copying it in the future

Aalok said...

If you have not understood that last sentence, then I have proven myself to be a great strategist

Loved this line.

It's not a simple choice you give my friend. If I'm starting a company, more than strategy, it's the basic stuff i'll need for survival initially. I'll not trust my company in anyone's hands before it is at least self sufficient.