Any business strategy is a living entity. Why? Because the underlying business itself is a living entity which changes quite often on a daily basis.
In a world where the average tenure of a Fortune 500 CEO is down to 5 years and the peak marketing life cycle of new consumer technology is a short 12 months, little can remain fixed. Nearly half of all CEOs of the world's largest companies have held their jobs for less than 3 years and within the past 5 years nearly two-thirds of those companies have installed new CEOs.
Ten year strategies are dinosaurs and depending upon the industry (e.g. high tech design and production, such as semiconductors or even in retail clothing) even 5 year strategies may prove misleading. We are in a world where time ticks ever louder -- a world where through a concept called "passing the book", you competitors may be gaining on you on a 24 hour a day schedule.
Business strategies must be built upon the best available assumptions and then updated at least quarterly for the life of the contained thoughts. Often the underlying assumptions must be structurally changed on a yearly basis and the strategy continuously migrated to reflect those changes.
Strategic options should be built into the strategy. More about this in a later posting.
Business life is not easy, but it sure is interesting.
