“Strategy” And “Operations” Are NOT The Same Thing

But so many executives get confused by this.

Here’s a story from a couple of years ago. I was talking to a guy I used to work with, and he had just come back from a conference related to his company. The conference had one of those motivational speakers who also has a consulting firm and, beforehand, senior executives at the company had asked employees to read one of his books. Then, there were discussions on the book before the conference. It all got a little bit heated in parts, as you might expect — for example, the book talked a lot about transparency and managing down as opposed to managing up (spending more time with people that report TO you, instead of those you REPORT TO). As you might imagine, none of the senior leaders were really doing that; people are notoriously bad at managing any relationship except the one that insures their own ass survival (i.e. the one above them).

A couple of brash employees had called out the senior guys on the inconsistencies in the book, and things had been awkward, etc.

I’m sitting having lunch with this guy and he starts to lose it a little bit. This senior management team, always running around meeting with each other… (voice rising) … so you got the goddamn director level running the company without any context … (eyes shifting) … and…