Is it useful to have a strategy? Some studies in the United States and Canada have compared several companies, similar in all respects, but different in whether or not they have had a formal strategic planning system in place for a number of years.
The results seem to indicate that, indeed, companies with a formal strategy planning system obtain better financial and sales results, and have improved in different indicators of business success such as efficiency and employee satisfaction. This depends on many factors such as the size of the company, its stage in organizational evolution and the type of environment in which it operates.
The important question is whether or not the situation is strategic.
In companies, the situation may not be strategic and the outcome will depend on some crucial skills or on the good luck of the economic cycle. The importance of strategy in the company arises then after a truly professional, mature management is in place.
Some believe that in Latin American countries there are no well-managed companies, but simply good businesses or good alternatives, but such a view ignores the fact that in all business sectors there are companies with better results and, given the same opportunities and a consistency of results over the years, such results can be attributed to management and well-organized work.
If the situation is not strategic because the market is not mature or management is just beginning to become more technologically advanced, the strategic area concept serves to guide the general manager's long-term work. Strategic area is what a company, within a defined economic sector, must do extraordinarily well in order to be successful in the long term, the critical success factor.
The strategic area depends on the sector, and is generally specific to a particular juncture, although there are sectors within which the strategic area is permanent or structural. It was said that in companies that depend on fashion, the strategic area is design or the ability to anticipate the designs that will be preferred in six months' time.
That is why the company president must know it in detail: the strategic area is the central responsibility of the general manager, and determining which skills are to be developed preferentially constitutes the strategic decision.
Distinctive ability or capability is what a company does extraordinarily well and distinguishes it from others in its industry. Distinctive ability develops over the years and implies a certain expertise, or technique, and an advantageous competitive position within certain markets and types of products. Often the distinctive ability does not lie in one function or department of a company but in the effective combination of critical activities involving various actors.
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Excerpt from the book: "Manuel de Planificación estratégica. Siete modelos para hacer un plan estratégico", written by Professor Enrique Ogliastri, academic director of the program ¿Cómo hacer un plan estratégico? of INCAE
