Dean Lehman's top 10 takeaways from Strategic Management 355

Our Strategic Management course came to a close Thursday and Dean Lehman (wearing his professor's cap this time) left us with a fantastic list of takeaways.  I was so engaged in the discussion I didn't have time to take them all down, so he was gracious enough to email them to me after class.

It was one of those moments when I was sitting there thinking "this is why I went to business school". When one gets the opportunity to hear someone like Dean Lehman, seasoned veteran from the business and academic world, speak from his heart and share some of his most important life lessons...  it's the kind of thing you experience just a few times in your life.  Great, great, great way to end a class.

So here's the list; I'm only going to share the first 5 for now;  you'll get the rest of the list later, so stay tuned!.

 

10. The world really is flat!

If you aren’t thinking about the impact of globalization on your business now, you will be.

9. Good strategy requires a leap of faith.

It takes time to determine if your strategy will succeed. I takes guts not to change course too soon.

8. Strategies need to be simple to understand and easy to articulate.

A successful strategy is one that everyone in the company can understand. The most elegant can be described in only a few words. If it takes too long to explain, it’s probably not a great strategy.

7. Truly sustainable advantage is an elusive goal.

Most every strategic move can be emulated by your competition, very little is truly sustainable. You need to constantly work hard to stay ahead.

6. Strategies must be internally consistent.

All of the operating levers of a strategy need to reinforce each other. If one area of the company is out of synch, it will have severe ripple effects across the company.

5. There are many potentially successful strategies even in the same market.

There is no “perfect strategy” for any given market. If executed well, there are many ways to succeed.