Strategy: Theory vs Practice!

I used be a ‘Straight As’ student from elementary school. The schools at the time used to actually stack rank students based on the total marks - I used to get the first rank in my class for several exams/years in a row.

But, sometime in my 5th grade, I don’t know what behavior change my grandmother noticed in me (that all of this “got” to my head) - she warned me that the top grades I’m getting in school were useless. She used to drive home the point with an old Tamil saying:

It roughly translates to “We cannot use paper vegetables (vegetable drawings) for cooking.” I didn’t quite get what that saying meant at that time! But, I learned a costly lesson in just a few weeks…

Table of Contents

• My first scar tissue!

• The Different Interpretations

• Strategy vs Execution

• What is your management system?

• The $21 Billion Dollar Mistake

• Book Recommendations

My first scar tissue!

Here’s what happened - I got scammed! The daily English Newspaper that we subscribed to, came with an insert (typically advertisements inserted by the local newspaper distributer)… It was a difficult math puzzle and if I were to solve it within a particular date, I’d qualify for the first prize of a beautiful CASIO watch shown in the prize list.

I solved that puzzle in a couple of minutes (remember, all of this is happening pre-Internet, in India). I had to pay a “small processing fees” of 30 Rupees (which was a lot for my parents, not just me) to get a CASIO watch worth thousands of rupees. What a deal!, I thought!

But, what I ended up getting was a cheap plastic watch (made in china) that didn’t look anything like what was in the ad insert. To rub salt in the wound, it was also dead on arrival.

At that instant, I realized how the scammer took advantage of the geeky side of me - the very specific knowledge and skills that made me SO proud of myself - he used that to lead me into falling for his trap.

At that instant, I understood the meaning of that Tamil Saying! That day, I felt like truly receiving my grandmother’s message.

This scar tissue made me deeply skeptical of “knowledge” from schools. I continued to be a ‘Straight As’ student - but, decided to take matters into my own hands. I started shifting from reading fiction books to more non-fiction books and became more curious about human behavior in general.

When reflecting back, I suspected that she might have detected the fraud early on and yet allowed me to make that mistake and lose some money, because of the profound lessons I might learn from it.

At various stages of my life, I have tried to reflect on that saying and it has given me more perspectives, layers and connections over the years.

The Different Interpretations

A few years later the saying got formulated into a version like this: “Theoretical knowledge (say by reading books) about some phenomenon is fundamentally different from learning from our own practical experience”.

For example, you can read a hundred books about how to ride a bicycle. But, nothing comes close to actually riding one.

But even you’ve learned how to ride one and/or have taught it to others, it doesn’t mean that you have fully understood it. You can become successful without understanding why - we are all easily fooled by randomness. Watch this video and reflect on it:

Theory and practice have to be integrated. Each on its own separately isn’t as valuable as them together.

Strategy vs Execution

Now, how do all of these ideas fit together when it comes to formulating a strategy - to build a new product or a new business or even drive an internal re-organization? Leaders and Entrepreneurs often grapple with these interventions.

The first version of anything is also its worst version. A strategy is no different. A plan is no different. We can see many ideas, strategies and plans succeed in theory, but in practice, very few do!

It is with interaction with the environment does your strategy actually take shape - the proverbial rubber meeting the road. With each interaction and iteration, you have to be ready to change your original ideas and perspectives. This in turn, helps you shape a new “reality” by adapting your path forward.

From this lens, strategy and execution are not different things. They should be seen as one. Roger Martin, one of the leading management thinkers of our time, drives home the point with this observation about the Navy Seals:

I’ll now discuss strategy from the lens of complexity and systems thinking and discuss a real-world example👇🏾

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