Welcome to the Noosphere!

Higher cerebral functions resides in the frontal cortex in the human brain. That is were associative thinking, contemplation and scenario thinking take place.

In an organization, higher thinking functions reside with the strategy class. That is where an organization defines its strategic direction and clarifies its strategic objectives. Corporate strategist are, in their own way, the organization’s aristocrats.

The ultimate goal of these organization aristocrats is to choose, or create, an environment friendly enough to the long term survival of the organization. Like water in a river, membership in this community is constantly changing.

Strategists are autonomous agents, and thinking strategically is a state of mind that can be exercised at any level of the organization. All one needs to do to join this elite class of change makers, is to assign himself or herself the status of a strategist, as opposed to the status of a manager.

The main difference between a strategist and manager is that a strategist always searches for better ways to co-evolve of the whole organisation-environment field. A managers, on the other hand, seeks to maintain the status by trying to do things better and in a more efficient way.

Pharmaceutical Strategists function at the level of the specialized business unit, that is where real strategy decisions takes place. For them, the mother company is seen as a source of low cost finance where they can competes for resources.

Specialized pharmaceutical outfits, whether independently owned or are managed as part of a multinational pharmaceutical company portfolio, compete for resources among other business units within their mother company.

They also need to compete for market share or an enduring competitive advantage against other specialized outfits out there targeting their same audience with similar propositions.

In his book, the “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”, author Steven Covey recounts a story that is very telling of the difference between a strategist and his executive managers.

In Steven Covey’s story, a group of lumberjacks enter a forest armed with chainsaws. Their leader climbs the highest tree, scan the environment, takes the lay of the land, and as he looks from above he shouts at the lumberjacks on the ground. His voice is barely audible over the roaring sounds of chainsaws:

Strategist: Wrooong Foreeest!
Lumberjacks: Shut uuup, we are making progreess!

I am sure every strategist you would meet might be able to tell you a similar story specific to his field of specialization. :-)

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