In his article, Tod Zenger seeks to teach his readers a key lesson, which is the manager’s need to follow the original strategy of the company that provides its value. The author insists that in order to ensure a business’s long-term prosperity, it is not necessary to sacrifice the original strategy in favor of the one that is supposed to bring in the fast money. The main idea is that the true secret of a company’s success lies in consistently following its strategy, even if in the initial stages it brings in modest money. Nevertheless, it is this way that reflects the true purpose and value of business in society, and therefore, sooner or later, will lead it to success.
It can be difficult to recognize a company’s true strategy. It is even harder to follow the ground rules that will allow you to adjust the firm and its ideas to changing realities. In order to accomplish these two tasks, the author offers a theory. It consists of focusing on three sights, which are insight, cross-sight and foresight. All these parameters are related to each other and reflect the essence of the functioning of any company. The author defines foresight as beliefs and expectations about the development of the industry to which the firm belongs (Felin & Zenger, 2017). This component of the strategy connects the company with the future, the development of ideas and needs of society. Foresight should provide business in a changing world.
Insight is the part of the strategy that makes the firm unique among its competitors. Several companies can develop in the marketplace with the same vision of their industry prospects. This phenomenon is normal, so a good manager should clearly define the points that make his company unique among competitors with a similar foresight. Cross-sight is responsible for selecting the necessary assets that will allow the enterprise to provide its value. In fact, it is part of the strategy that ensures the functioning of all internal mechanisms within the business.
In this article, after detailing all the three points a manager must adhere to in order to lead his firm to success, the author stresses that this is not enough. The main condition for a strategy to work adequately is to ensure that all its components are interconnected. A manager must track how cross-sight reflects foresight and how the latter affects insight. In this case, the activities of business mechanisms will be balanced, will be able to maintain its value, and therefore, the demand and competitiveness. If a company’s theory lacks strategy, it will sooner or later lead to a decrease in its importance in the market and, later, to a loss of income. The author leads the reader to the idea that long-term business development is impossible to imagine without a strategy based on the three aforementioned components.
References
Felin, T., & Zenger, T. R. (2017). The theory-based view: Economic actors as theorists. Strategy Science, 2(4), 258–271.