Live NOW Leg 8 Start: From Itajaí to Newport. ¡Preparados, Listos, Ya!
All the boats are already making their way to the start line. In less than an hour, we will be leaving Brazil. I am also heading out the water with all the teams. It is a beautiful day in Itajaí. It will be a wonderful beginning for Leg 8. I do hope we will enjoy this amazing journey up to Newport. Today we will lead off with the first of 6 topics to cover during this race: “Corporate Strategy, the Domain Selection of the Business Ocean”.
I have prepared a set of slides for today. Please take a look at them. If you wish to download them in PDF format, click below:
Click here for PDF slides: Eliescalante Leg 8 Corporate Strategy the Domain Selection.
After reading the slides, let me start. Corporate Strategy is definitely the art of deciding. Deciding what business to do. And the reason why corporate strategy is so crucial in any business is that many of us do not know how to decide. We don´t know how to decide. And this painful truth causes painful businesses. Many of us are used to follow trends, as in the fashion industry, and we set up businesses for the wrong reasons. For example, we start a business simply because we “expect” or have the “perception” this is the way the “business” trends are moving forward the future, and we expect to make revenues, and indeed profits. I hope to don´t hurt you by saying: That is not “deciding”. To follow the crowds has nothing to do with “corporate strategy”. Corporate strategy is not an act to follow trends for pursuing “money”. Corporate Strategy can´t end there. It can´t. Corporate Strategy is another thing… from my own point of view, it should be done with a holistic approach. Corporate Strategy with an integral sense of wholeness taking into consideration not just economic of financial returns, but also social, ecologic, private sector development or improvements, public sector innovation frameworks, public services enhancements, the communities quality of life advancements, particularly in the locations where our company operates. In addition, we also must include family heritage considerations. I also encourage to take the thoughtful examination of how will we improve our quality of education and moral values (at all employee levels, not just at the managerial level). This Leg 8 will be amazing. We will cover all these topics. We will have at least 16 or 17 days until we arrive in Newport to understand this.
My aim for today is to do a reflection. Whether we are owners, or founders of our firms; or whether we are starting our endeavors to become entrepreneurs, or we have been working in a company for more than 20 years, and we have been promoted to be part of the decision-making team (the Board of Directors), let me ask ourselves: Do we know how to decide?, Are we aware of how to make choices?, How do we decide? Who taught us to make decisions?, Our parents? Our teachers?, Or ourselves? In the latter case, we probably have traveled a long race of errors, and we will continue doing them. Have we made enough mistakes to learn how to decide by now?
On our next post, we will cover the concept of awe in corporate decision making, the importance of understanding who we are on this planet, and why do we have to learn to make decisions right at the corporate level. We will explore the basics, the two dimensions of awe when doing corporate strategy: perceived vastness and the need for accommodation or leaving our comfort zone. The nature of deciding with “awe” is based on those two aspects.
I will leave you with a video from National Geographic which has no relation with the seven seas, but I hope it causes you the sense of “awe” we must pursue when doing corporate strategy for our businesses. Thank you.
Inspiration Source References:
https://positivepsychologyprogram.com/what-is-awe-definition/
Disclaimer: All the presentation slides shown on this blog are prepared by Eleonora Escalante MBA-MEng. Nevertheless, all the pictures or videos shown on this blog are not mine. I do not own any of the lovely photos posted unless otherwise stated.
Eleonora Escalante Strategy 