G E N E R A T I V E
S T R A T E G Y
Strategy as a system
When strategy fails, the gap between strategy and execution often gets the blame, but the gap between strategy and reality is just as widespread and far more consequential. Whether flawed at the outset or overtaken by events, strong execution cannot save a strategy that is focused on the wrong things.
What is Generative Strategy?
Many common approaches to strategy do not produce strategy at all. Five-year plans, visions and missions all have their place, but they are not strategy and often do not identify the core challenges facing the business or determine a way of winning.
Even good strategy is only effective under the conditions under which it was conceived. All strategies age as the environment around them changes, and this is happening faster than ever before. The result is an organisation that loses relevance and gets left behind. In an accelerating world where pace and adaptability are prerequisites, catching up will become more costly and harder to achieve.
Generative Strategy moves companies away from plan implementation and towards "strategy as a system" that runs on intelligence, keeps pace with change and generates optionality to pursue outcomes based on a live appreciation of the environment.
Why Generative?
Generative Strategy differs from contemporary and purely adaptive approaches to strategy in several ways:
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Changing and unpredictable environments require continuous generation of new, up-to-date mental models of the world as it changes, discarding out-of-date assumptions and anticipating how the future might unfold.
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Linear and deterministic approaches to execution do not contend with the variety and pace of the challenges leaders face today. Continually generating flexible, dynamic and conditions-based options means the organisation makes progress and creates room for manoeuvre whilst adapting to change.
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Employing strategy as a continuous system whilst unlocking human initiative generates power and momentum, enabling an organisation to shape as well as adapt to its environment to achieve its objectives.
The Valion Generative Strategy System (GS2)™
Valion's Generative Strategy System (GS2)™ is derived from military operational planning, combining manoeuvre theory with business strategy, foresight practices and systems thinking into a single method. It is made up of seven integrated questions, creating a system designed to help leaders understand, shape, adapt and exploit changing circumstances faster than the world around them changes.
GS2 generates and continually updates an intelligence picture of the current and emerging situation faced by the business outside of its normal field of view. It helps leaders identify and anticipate where existing advantages are eroding and where new value propositions, capabilities and business models are needed.
AI already produces more information than humans can validate and consume effectively. GSS acts as an interpretation layer, translating swathes of artefacts and data into frames of reference and common language leaders can use every day.
Benefits of Valion's Generative Strategy System™
Valion's Generative Strategy System is designed to:
Effectively diagnose the situation facing the business
and surface opportunities and risks beyond the scope of current operations
Enable adaptation at three levels of the strategy
so the business remains coherent with changing circumstances
Provide a system that detects change
while continuously testing the diagnosis against market conditions and building momentum
Impact of the GS2: Client feedback
Faster Diagnosis
Diagnoses the situation faster than their existing approach
Broader Awareness
Enables the senior leadership team to look beyond their current operational situation
Sharper Focus
Frames the right conversations for the leadership team to have
Greater Clarity
Helps identify tacit assumptions and success factors not previously noted