photo by llawiet via flickr

The first 30 days in a new job is stressful and it’s hard to be able to think quick and act even quicker.  I recently talked about some myths I always believed about corporate strategy jobs and ways to think about selecting a job.  What follows are thoughts on starting a new job off right:

The Fine Line Between Smart and Annoying

I always want to sound smart in initial meetings, however..I don’t want to be the guy who talks just to hear the sound of his own voice.  Here’s what has worked for me:

• Culture of Meetings  - Does the most senior person talk first?  If you’re concerned about something, do you ask a question… or make a statement?  Wait for Q&A… or chime in when needed?  
• 15 minute rule – I once received advice that said if you don’t speak within the first 15 minutes of a meeting, people have already forgotten about you.

Try for Personal Introductions

If your to-do list says, “Ask Greg about ___”, it’s tempting to want to send Greg an email.  You’ll probably save a lot of time… but is it worth it?  I’ve always respected someone who talks to me in person or phone before an email.  Seems much more real.

Read Everything You Can

It’s hard reading what you don’t “have” to read.  But I’ve found great nuggets by absorbing as much as I could find.

Internal Materials – There are going to be a lot of “decks” forwarded to you to “bring you up to speed.”  However, I’m always amazed at what you can discover by clicking on every link on your corporate internet.  It’s a great way to learn the initiatives and acronyms of other functions and how those all fit together.

External Materials – Over-subscribing to content and then weeding it down to the best seems to work here.  Here’s what I try to do:

• Subscribe to every blog covering your space.  Don’t know where to start?  Try AllTop for a directory
• Listen to what your customers are saying through a Twitter Search for your company and competitors
• Google News Alert works really well for keyword searches.  My  ”content strategy” search has turned up great stuff
• Forward the best your team – nothing beats being the first person to the link!

Photo by llawiet via Flickr

Do You Feel Like This Guy? Then read on...

In my last post, I covered some of the myths about working in corporate strategy.  Here, I’ll share what worked for me when I was last searching for a job.  Step One is to do a quick self-assessment to make sure you would be comfortable with the job.  Then I’ll talk about what you can be doing now to prepare yourself.  After that, I’ll cover tips for networking and surfacing the right opportunity.  In my next post, I’ll talk in more detail about the interview process as I’ve experienced it with various companies.

Check Your Gut – Do You Really Want This?

Great strategists can listen and rely on their gut instincts to a decision.  Ask yourself these 3 questions and listen really hard to your first reaction.

• “Am I comfortable with ambiguity?”  – This is the big one, if you’re the type of person who sees things as either black or white, right or wrong, then start looking for a more analytical job.  In strategy, you will never have the right answer, your goal is to get to the best reasoned answer.
• “Can I tolerate office politics?”  – Politics exist everywhere, and a key part of your job is using influence to change people’s hearts and minds.  If politics didn’t serve a purpose in large organizations, the market would have forced firms with political environments out of business.
• “Do I like creating and telling stories?” – The easiest and most effective way to deliver a message is to engage your audience with an interesting story related to your idea. If you stop at the “thought”, then people won’t internalize the story and be able to spread its message.

Start Preparing For a Strategy Job

• Strategic Thought Library – Start bookmarking, saving, and filing every framework, powerpoint model, and thought-piece you can.  While completing my MBA at Chicago Booth I did not do a good job capturing and organizing all the frameworks we used to analyze strategic decisions.    I wish I had because having a library makes your job easier.  You don’t have to spend valuable time recreating ways to approach a problem.
• Join Every Cross-Functional Team You Can – Try to become the representative from your function on as many projects as you can find the time for.  This does two important things for you:

1. Teaches you about how different functions operate and work together
2. Gives you powerful network connections which will one day end up benefitting you

Finding and screening available positions

• Exert Exhaustive Effort in your Search – Some of the best positions are more readily available than you think, you just need to be in the right place at the right time.  have to be in a position to find them.  Executive recruiters LOVE to crawl LinkedIn for good people, make sure your profile is up to date and contains keywords like “strategy”, “business development”, and “strategic” somewhere in your profile.
• Read the Job Description Carefully – The first few descriptions you read will sound very generic with words that consultants typically speak.  But as you view more opportunities, you can gain an advantage over other candidates by understanding the details.  Examples of what to look for are as follows:
  • How Strategy Aligns in the Organization
    
  • What the Time-Frame of Projects Typically Are
    
  • How Centralized is the Control of the Group
    

Be Selective In Companies You Choose

Of course, this is easier said than done, and I understand that a paycheck is better than no paycheck at all.  However, having to craft, explain, and defend a strategy that you don’t believe in will doom your career.  In other words, if you’re a vegan, you probably shouldn’t take a strategy job at a fast-food retailer.  Be patient…finding a position where you can argue effectively a strategy that reflects your passion will be rewarded.

Photo by Y via Flickr

Jobs in corporate strategy always attract the attention of eager MBAs and Undergrads.  I always wanted to go into corporate strategy because the group at my old company contained some of the smartest people in our business.  But what does it mean to “work in strategy”?  Here are some commonly held beliefs about corporate strategy positions, and my thoughts about how they are changing.

Photo by pshutterbug

Myth 1 – Ivory Tower

• The Myth – Corporate Strategists are an elite group separated from the organization like a think-tank
  
• Why The Myth Exists – It used to be that strategy functions would hire high price consultants to sit in all day meetings and talk about the future.  Frameworks describing the business in four boxes or less were compiled leaving all parties confident about the future.  Soon enough, you’d see the presentation quoted by the CEO and available on the intranet.
• The New View - Management is demanding thought leadership that can be executed by the organization.  This requires strategists to spend as much time on practical details of execution as they are on thinking.  The ability to recall facts become less important as the internet has compiled and organized the wealth of information once exclusive to large strategy firms.

Myth 2 – Consulting Rejects

• The Myth – People who work in corporate strategy couldn’t cut it in a big consulting firm
• Why the Myth exists – Large consulting firms pay employees a lot of money to travel the world and meet with Senior Leadership.  This money, experience, and network is desired by all potential recruits, therefore, the best work for Big Strategy Firms.  If you’re not promoted to partner, then you go corporate with a made-up an excuse about work/life balance.
• The New View– Simply put, some people don’t want to be paid for creating PowerPoint decks that sit in an corner office and are never used.  The best corporate strategist love seeing things created that they have helped to shape.

Myth 3 – Perfectionists Wanted

• The Myth – Your presentations and recommendations must look perfect
• Why The Myth Exists – Corporate strategy groups used to resemble big strategy consultancies.  These firms required their content and presentations to be perfect because it reflected on the quality of their work.  Corporate strategy groups assumed that attention to detail was just as critical for them.
• The New View – An unpolished presentation makes other functions feel more comfortable about adding input.  This makes it easier to gain buy-in from other functions which is critical to corporate strategy success.  Keeping it raw sends the signal that you are looking to build or shape the strategy.

Myth 4 – Cookie-Cutter Leadership

• The Myth – The leadership skills required for Corporate Strategy are the same as any other function
• Why The Myth Exists – Companies want strategy to “fit-in” with the rest of the organization, so they treat it like any other function.  Leading that function requires motivating a team, representing strategy as a Subject Matter Expert, and communicating a vision.  Therefore, firms wanted to hire great managers…not great analyzers.
• The New View – Most employees in corporate strategy are highly motivated by the work and require minimal direction.  Additionally, no one wants to hire a “Strategy Expert” so the role of Subject Matter Expert (SME) on cross-functional teams doesn’t apply.  The best corporate strategists are Subject Matter Questioners (SMQ) who possess a broad knowledge of business with the ability to link it together.

Photo by pshutterbug via flickr