“Its beauty is its mechanics”… or the importance of harmonizing the strategy and the tactics in the organizations

When I still was a boy, in Spain, a car manufacturer made a commercial of one of their models with the slogan “its beauty is its mechanics”.

It is obvious that the creative professionals in charge, being conscious that the rest of the attributes of the vehicle would not be perceived like beneficial – from a general point of view - by the potential customers, they used as fundamental impact of its campaign the attribute mechanics reliability; and I assure to you that they reached the goal in terms of sales.

They achieved the success because, at that time, the consumer was sensible to this argument because, in general, the mechanical reliability of other competing models was inferior, even equipped with more beautiful bodies and more complete accessories.

Could have been possible today a campaign like this?

Obviously not, because the today’s buyer takes for granted that the mechanical reliability and the safety are guaranteed in any vehicle; so, it is not possible to talk about that as a benefit for the client.

In addition, the person that is considering buying a car is looking for a balanced product in which they may find satisfaction to its needs and expectations, among other aspects, regarding the following attributes:

· Outer and inner design

· Performance

· Fuel consumption

· Dynamic behavior

· Safety

· Maintenance

· Price

No vehicle survives in the market if it does not present a suitable balance between these aspects.

In every organization it is also essential the right balance

In the organizations it is compulsory the right balance, because, otherwise, they could not be sustainable if they forget some of the fundamental aspects of the management and they are limited to the beauty of certain elements…

But, pay attention, I am not speaking about the strategies of differentiation- that continue being so valid, or even more, than years ago -; I talk about the necessity to balance and to give coherence, among others, to the following elements:

· Strategy and Tactics

· Mission, Vision and Values

· Policies

· Needs and expectations of stakeholders

· Deployment of strategic and operative plans

· Human team

If this balance fails, the organization will lack beneficial global attributes for the stakeholders, since it will be focused, in the best one of the cases, in “the beauty is in the tactics” - prioritizing, for instance, the control of very basic indicators of management, but ignoring where is going to, which are the future challenges; in definitive, walking without stopping, but without direction and clear evaluation of risks in the route and, in the worse one of the cases, it will finish devoured by changing inefficiencies, competitors, conditions of market, dissatisfaction of employees, suppliers or clients, etc.

By the opposite, if it is focused in “the beauty is in the strategy…” , but it is unable to transfer the strategy to feasible operative plans, will be committing the error to remain in the theoretical layer without any applied action plan, also leading to a failure in the midterm.

Is more important Excel or PowerPoint?

Along the last years I have had the opportunity to listen some directors affirming that “the secret of the success in these times consists of using more Excel and less PowerPoint…”

First of all, I have to admit that sentences of this type - and, much more, in the case of people managing companies - cause me some concern because, even trying to make a benevolent interpretation of the statement (supposing that the strategy, the policies, the plans and the great lines of performance are reflected in slides and that the operative actions, numbers and indicators are handled in spreadsheets), certainly they reflect a clear ignorance of the reality or, as my old professor used to say, a lack of management skills.

Or  would it be possible to affirm, for example, that in an opera the libretto is more important than the music? Or the music than the cast?  Or the libretto than the orchestra and its musicians?

Or, coming back to the first statement of this post, could it be affirmed that the beauty is in the mechanics…? Could it be said that a good pilot is that controls every light in the control panel of the car, but which approaches the race without strategy and without any revision based on the circumstances?

I am sure that most of the readers will agree: the answer to the previous questions is negative; the key issue, in all the previous analogies, is balance and coherence.

There is no organization who can survive without balancing all the aspects of management, starting with a good road to vision map: where it wants to go to, when it wants to arrive, how it will be done, how much will it cost and who will be the team members.

Therefore, it is essential to suitably handle all the keys that allow to ensure the success in the long term, for which it is necessary to start up strategies and tactics adapted, suitable and revisable in the short and midterm, using paper, computer, spreadsheet, slides, data bases, etc.; but mainly, and before nothing, with strategic analysis, boldness, common sense and… a lot of luck!

The final confession…

The first car that I could buy during the late '80s – a very old second hand one - was a fantastic Renault 4 and, yes, I must admit that its beauty was… its mechanics!