Directors need a shared perception of the future for their company, a perspective that summarizes their aspirations for the enterprise. Some call this a strategic vision. It reflects what the board wants to achieve; the direction they want the organization to take; where they want the enterprise to be in the future.
“When you don’t know where you’re going, all roads lead you there.” Information about strategic context is, obviously, fundamental to this process. One of the important developments in the provision of information at board level in recent years has been the creation of customer and competitor information systems. These monitor not what is going in inside the company, as most traditional management information systems do, but what is going on outside in the strategic environment.
Sometimes a strategic vision is articulated in no more than a general statement of overall aims; in other cases quantified aims or goals are determined. Of cause, strategic vision remains no more than a dream unless management can turn into reality.
The strategies of many entrepreneurial are hidden. The strategic success of business leaders such as Richard Branson (Virgin), Bill Gate (Microsoft) and Rupert Murdoch (News Corporation) often stems from emergent, unexpected and innovative strategies. They recognize strategic opportunities and are capable of reaching quickly.Such business leaders often create their boards of directors to give them support or to meet stock market expectations.
The directors’ contributions to strategy may be confined to providing information and give advice, as long as the company continues its strategic success. But, of course, not all strategic visionaries remain successful.
The board of a large public corporation is an inappropriate body for developing strategy, setting corporate culture and policy and initiating major decisions. Instead board should concentrate on the critical review of proposals, with management having the primary duty to formulate and then implement proposals. Hilmer Report, Strictly Boardroom, 1993.
Source: Bob Tricker, Essential Director, the Economist Newspaper Ltd, 2003
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