Me, I'm also an engineer and have also veered into forms of philosophy by way of strategy. The hard part is that all of this, ontology and epistemology, is so important for genuine strategy and yet if you say that in an executive room you only get eye-rolls in return 🫠
In practice, though, I've learned to at least become *really strict* with concepts and definitions. Not by insisting they always remain the same in every argument (I'm no platonic), nor just to be "an asshole", but I've come to realize that the **biggest** problem of strategy discussions in firms, companies, orgs (and countries) is *loosely defined concepts*, which allow people to shift definitions and hide behind ambiguity at will. (Which also does preserve power and even some forms of coordination, a discussion for another day.)
Well, one of the biggest. Failures of proper logic are also unfortunately common!
Yep. Imagine you entering a meeting with a team of top execs of a foundry company (no prejudice!) to discuss their strategy - and those eye-rolls 😂 you mentioned.
Well, of course I hope this stuff ir more useful for strategy practioners…
A question: do you think that Boards would be more interested?? I was thinking about interviewing some board members and put together a paper about it.
Looking forward to your book, Tiago.
Me, I'm also an engineer and have also veered into forms of philosophy by way of strategy. The hard part is that all of this, ontology and epistemology, is so important for genuine strategy and yet if you say that in an executive room you only get eye-rolls in return 🫠
In practice, though, I've learned to at least become *really strict* with concepts and definitions. Not by insisting they always remain the same in every argument (I'm no platonic), nor just to be "an asshole", but I've come to realize that the **biggest** problem of strategy discussions in firms, companies, orgs (and countries) is *loosely defined concepts*, which allow people to shift definitions and hide behind ambiguity at will. (Which also does preserve power and even some forms of coordination, a discussion for another day.)
Well, one of the biggest. Failures of proper logic are also unfortunately common!
Yep. Imagine you entering a meeting with a team of top execs of a foundry company (no prejudice!) to discuss their strategy - and those eye-rolls 😂 you mentioned.
Well, of course I hope this stuff ir more useful for strategy practioners…
A question: do you think that Boards would be more interested?? I was thinking about interviewing some board members and put together a paper about it.