Future

Think from the Future, not the present or the past. Hamel and Prahalad bring the idea alive powerfully in their classic article on Strategic Intent. Excerpts include:

Companies that have risen to global leadership over the past 20 years invariably began with ambitions that were out of all proportion to their resources and capabilities. But they created an obsession with winning at all levels of the organization and then sustained that obsession over the 10- to 20-year quest for global leadership. We term this obsession "Strategic Intent."

Although strategic planning is billed as a way of becoming more future oriented, most managers, when pressed, will admit that their strategic plans reveal more about today’s problems than tomorrow's opportunities. So plans do little more than project the present forward incrementally. The goal of Strategic Intent is to fold the future back into the present. The important question is not "How will next year be different from this year?" but "What must we do differently next year to get closer to our Strategic Intent?" Only with a carefully articulated and adhered to Strategic Intent will a succession of year-on-year plans sum up to global leadership.

That is, do not be guided by what's present in front of your eyes. Be Guided by the Future you Want.