Book Review

BIG THINK STRATEGY

by
Bern H. Schmit

Reviewed by
Saeed Akbar
 About the Author
writen by Bernd H. Schmit (Professor of International
Business at Columbia Business School)
Published by Harvard business School Press in 2007.
Schmit advises senior executives on strategy, creativity, and
innovation, consulted for clients in B2C and B2B markets,
including consumer package goods, automobile, electronics,
software, financial services, pharmaceuticals, beauty and
cosmetics, hospitality, telecommunications, media
industries, and the arts.
Also a frequent keynote speaker at conferences and
corporate events worldwide.
 General Overiew
How to bring bold thinking into your business
by sourcing big ideas and executing them
creatively.
Overcome institutionalized small think the
inertia, the narrow-mindedness, and the
aversion to risk that block true innovation
 Big Think vs Small Think
The story of Trojan Horse
 How Do We Create Big Think Strategy?

Sourcing New Ideas

Evaluating New Ideas
Turning New Ideas into Strategy
Executing Big Think
Leading the Big Think
Sustaining Big Think
 Sourcing New Ideas
Combining the incompatible
Northwest Airlines-and health and wellness
Outside industry Benchmarking
Killing the sacred cows
Stepping out of your time frame (past, future)
strategy stripping
 Evaluating New Ideas
Which ideas are really big?
creativity, business impact, and communications
impact
Which big ideas really work?
feasible, defendable against your competitors,
and fit the internal culture.
 Turning Ideas into Strategy
The four Quadrants
 Turning Ideas into Strategy
The Four Strategy Types
The opposition strategy: This type of strategy is the
opposed strategy to the existing business strategies.
For example, the do-it-yourself concept which is the
opposite of the serving customer strategy.
The integration strategy: This strategy is about
bringing the seemingly inompatible concepts together.
High-quality products can be produced at fast speed
by moving from handcrafting objects to producing
them with precision instruments and machines.
 Turning Ideas into Strategy
The essence strategy: The term essence refers to
the indispensable, essential parts of an entity, taken
to an extreme. For example, Wal-Mart, the largest
discount retailer in the United States, is the essence
of a low-priced retailer, squeezing out cost
wherever possible.
The transcedence strategy: The term transcendence
is associated with "surpassing" and "being above
the ordinary range of things. e.g. Grameen Bank
 Executing Big Think
Hurdles
overcome inertia and resistance among your
employees, environmental changes, get people
outside the organization excited about your Big
Think
Tap into their dreams (Having a passionate
project manager)
Plan for milestones and quick wins (as big think
strategy needs time to implement fully)
 Executing Big Think
Organize flexibly: competitors will respond,
customer preferences and trends will change,
and soon your Big Think will not seem so big
any more. Organizational leaders often fixate
on "aligning the entire organization" perfectly
around a new strategy. Businesses leaders
must be prepared to reorganize their teams
flexibly.
Make a big splash: Bold communication
 Leading the Big Think
Guts: values, commitment, and responsibility
Passion:
Preservence: sticking to it when resistance arises,
when failure looms. Not giving up when it gets
hard.
Have an Agenda
Move in Different Circles: move around in
different circles in your professional and social life
to find people who inspires you
 Sustaining Big Think
Organized stimulation: deliberate and planned process that
exposes employees constantly to exciting new information
and new environments that are relevant to the project
Work/play Balance: the right mix of work and playful
activities: work that is play, and play that produces work
results.
Entrepreneural Spirit
Organizational Silos: The Ultimate Evil: multiple
perspectives must exist, be respected, and be developed
through collaborative work