Sentient Strategy

No pre-pandemic strategy is effective anymore. None. Not for organizations large or small, for-profit or non-profit, domestic or global. Claims of a "return to normal" or "the new normal" are ridiculous. What we’re facing is really a "new reality," and that reality is the need for agile strategic decisions and pragmatic views of the future. That means that strategy formulation can be reduced to a few days and the view of the future can only be 12–18 months. This is the antithesis of Peter Drucker’s approach to strategy, but his highly effective approach was developed at GM three quarters of a century ago. It’s time to move on.

Alan Weiss has developed an original and completely new approach to strategy which thus far has certified over 100 people globally, delivering this approach to scores of firms of all types in four countries. More than two dozen firms are using this approach.

Sentient Strategy is based on two modern dimensions: awareness of the environment in which the organization exists and has influence, and consciousness of the impact of actions being considered. The old SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) approaches are currently equivalent to riding down the freeway on a horse. We must drop the hubris that has led us to believe we can see years ahead and anticipate what’s coming. No one predicted the Internet No one predicted the latest pandemic.

It’s time to turn volatility and disruption on their heads and use them as offensive weapons in the marketplace instead of trying to protect ourselves from them. Imagine a strategy that an organization can formulate in just a day or so, revisit easily and frequently, and design a series of shorter-term, viable futures. "Sentient" means "perceptive" and "self-aware." It doesn’t mean "one size fits all" from a cookie-cutter firm’s approach to strategy.

Alan Weiss equips the reader to consider using this approach independently. These are new times—a new reality, a "no normal™"—hence, it’s ridiculous to use old approaches to strategy. There’s a clear reason why Sears didn’t morph into Amazon and why Hertz surrendered its number one spot to Enterprise.