As a starting point, let’s agree that doing strategy is aligning the company with its business environment, and even creating new environments to generate value for its different audiences. In this sense, being a strategist is a mental state of permanent orientation to the future, while being a leader is moving the organization towards the objectives defined in the strategic process.
The digital transformation that organizations are experiencing today has significantly reduced their transaction costs, both internal and external – between organizations and with their environment. One manifestation of this is the ease and speed of access to information –which is the key input for strategy-, and the reduction of communication barriers, at least the physical ones, between the various organizational levels.
This greater connectivity allows a more agile understanding of market requirements, as well as the factors that attract new customers so as not to lose relevance, one of the key purposes of strategy. It also facilitates the work of suppliers as strategic partners in the value chain.
Undoubtedly, technology is a strategic ally to generate sustainable value. This premise is valid for individuals and organizations as well as for the community and the planet. Thus, people are and will continue to be the center of economic activity. As members of an organization we must constantly learn and develop skills to remain relevant, finding in technology a means to carry out work with greater added value.
Almost counterintuitively, the increasingly accelerated development of technology and its application in current and emerging industries should lead us to have more human organizations. This means that the work will become increasingly intellectual, provide time for more reflection, allow more interaction between people and better decision-making.
In these organizations, the task of the leader is to be a trainer of other leaders and a facilitator of team work. Rigid hierarchical structures are no longer adequate in increasingly volatile contexts. The work is now more by projects and the leadership function will be in relation to the skills required to achieve the particular objectives of each activity to be developed.