What is the essence of a strategist? This question is the focus of the first episode of season 2 of The Innovation Muse Podcast. A strategist is obviously one who creates a strategy. Great war heroes like Napoleon and Alexander the great were great strategists. In the world of business, leaders such as Jack Welch, Michael Dell, and Howard Shultz are examples of great strategists.
But what does a strategist do? What does strategy have to do with business? What skills are needed to become a strategist and how can you become one?
These are the questions we discuss in this season of this podcast. The objective of this season is to help you chart a path to becoming a more effective strategist.
Who is a Strategist?
Every CEO is the strategy chief of a company. But beyond the CEO, a large number of people work on creating a strategy. The chief strategy officer often leads a team involved with strategy development. This team often has deep expertise in strategy development and execution. The same skills play a key role at a regional level, business level, and country level. A C-suite officer whether at a corporate level, a country level, or a business level, needs to be a strategist.
Yes, even functional leaders need to be a strategist. For example, a human resource leader or an IT leader who lacks strategic skills will find it hard to go far in a business career.
Why do you need a strategist?
You need a strategist to chart the most effective path towards your most important goals. Without an effective strategist, you will find an organization firing many shots and hitting a small number of targets. With an effective strategist, the business will not pursue many targets and will use the most effective guns to fire the shots.
What is the essence of a strategist?
At the core of a strategist are three critical skills. Without these skills, one cannot be an effective strategist. People are rarely born with these skills, and they need to build them over time. This episode will detail these capabilities and show a path to building them in this season.
Key Take Aways
This episode focuses on explaining what is a strategist. By unpacking the essence of a strategist, you will learn out how to become an effective strategist. The takeaways of this episode are
- What is a strategist?
- How did one strategist turn around New York City? This is the fascinating story of William Bratton as the NYPD chief.
- Three critical skills needed to become a strategist.
How to Listen?
This audio is now available as a part of a complete online strategy program called Becoming a Strategist. You can listen to it in the course here
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