Strategy Needs Creativity

我發(fā)現(xiàn)商學院學生在學習戰(zhàn)略時往往感到沮喪。他們學到的和想學的有落差。包括我在內(nèi)的戰(zhàn)略教授通常向?qū)W生講授嚴謹?shù)姆治龉ぞ?，幫助他們評估戰(zhàn)略問題，比如五力模型、繪制價值網(wǎng)、謀劃競爭地位。學生們知道這些工具的重要性，認真學習如何使用它們。但他們也意識到，這些工具更適合理解而非重塑現(xiàn)有商業(yè)環(huán)境。他們知道，改變游戲規(guī)則的戰(zhàn)略源于創(chuàng)造性思維——直覺的火花、不同思維方式之間的聯(lián)系，以及放手一搏。

I’ve noticed that business school?students often?feel frustrated when they’re taught strategy. There’s a gap between what they learn and what they’d like to learn. Strategy professors (including me) typically teach students to think about strategy problems by introducing them to rigorous analytical tools—assessing the five forces, drawing a value net, plotting competitive positions. The students know that the tools are essential, and they dutifully learn how to use them. But they also realize that the tools are better suited to understanding an existing business context than to dreaming up ways to reshape it. Game-changing strategies, they know, are born of creative thinking: a spark of intuition, a connection between different ways of thinking, a leap into the unexpected.

在本文中，我將探討構建突破性戰(zhàn)略的四種方法：1.?對比。戰(zhàn)略家應發(fā)現(xiàn)并質(zhì)疑對公司或行業(yè)現(xiàn)狀的假設。這是重塑企業(yè)最直接、最有效的方法。2.?組合。史蒂夫·喬布斯對創(chuàng)造力的著名說法是：“不過是連接的能力”；許多巧妙的商業(yè)舉措來自連接看似彼此獨立甚至沖突的產(chǎn)品或服務。3.?制約。優(yōu)秀的戰(zhàn)略家會研究組織的局限性，并考慮如何化局限為優(yōu)勢。4.?情境。如果你能夠總結出在完全不同的情境下類似難題是如何解決的，令人驚嘆的洞察就會浮出水面。?

In this article I explore four approaches to building a breakthrough strategy: (1)?Contrast.?The strategist should identify—and challenge—the assumptions undergirding the company’s or the industry’s status quo. This is the most direct and often the most powerful way to reinvent a business. (2)?Combination.?Steve Jobs famously said that creativity is “just connecting things”; many smart business moves come from linking products or services that seem independent from or even in tension with one another. (3)?Constraint.?A good strategist looks at an organization’s limitations and considers how they might actually become strengths. (4)?Context.?If you reflect on how a problem similar to yours was solved in an entirely different context, surprising insights may emerge.?

對比：

何種傳統(tǒng)智慧適合對比？

Contrast

What pieces of conventional wisdom are ripe for contradiction?

伊隆·馬斯克似乎深諳此道。他成立SpaceX，試圖推翻有關太空旅行的幾大假設：必須有固定時間表，必須由公眾埋單，以及必須搭乘一次性火箭。他正在開發(fā)私人資助且重復利用火箭的需求導向業(yè)務。

Elon Musk seems to have a knack for this approach. With SpaceX he is attempting to overturn major assumptions about space travel: that it must occur on a fixed schedule, be paid for by the public, and use onetime rockets. He may be on track toward a privately funded, on-demand business that reuses rockets.

在表述此類假設時，最好盡量精準，甚至緊貼字面意思。試想2000年時的視頻租賃行業(yè)，百視達（Blockbuster）是其中的龍頭企業(yè)，其商業(yè)模式中的假設不言自明：人們喜歡在住宅附近的零售店領取DVD。DVD的庫存應進行限制，因為新碟片很昂貴。由于供不應求，顧客如果逾期不還，需要支付滯納金（基本上與公共圖書館營業(yè)模式相同）。但Netflix仔細審視了這些假設。物理位置是必要的嗎？郵寄DVD更便宜、更方便。是否有解決新片產(chǎn)生的高額費用之道？如果影視工作室對收益分享協(xié)議持開放態(tài)度，雙方都可從中受益。這兩項變化使Netflix能提供更多電影、更長租期、取消滯納金，乃至重塑行業(yè)。

It’s best to be precise—even literal—when naming such assumptions. Consider the video rental industry in 2000. Blockbuster ruled the industry, and the assumptions beneath its model seemed self-evident: People pick up videos at a retail location close to home. Inventory must be limited because new videos are expensive. Since the demand for them is high, customers must be charged for late returns. (It was basically a public-library model.) But Netflix put those assumptions under a microscope. Why is a physical location necessary? Mailing out videos would be cheaper and more convenient. Is there a way around the high fees for new releases? If the studios were open to a revenue-sharing agreement, both parties could benefit. Those two changes allowed Netflix to carry lots more movies, offer long rental periods, do away with late fees—and remake an industry.

大多數(shù)情況下，對比戰(zhàn)略可能看起來不如Netflix（通過流媒體重塑自我，并成為內(nèi)容創(chuàng)建者）或SpaceX（如果成功）那么具有革命性。例如，任何組織都可以自問，能否可以有效反轉活動流程順序。零售業(yè)的傳統(tǒng)模式是從一家旗艦店（通常位于市中心）開始，并添加衛(wèi)星店（在郊區(qū)的位置）。再來看快閃店（Pop-up?store）：在某些情況下，它們符合舊擴張模式，類似小型衛(wèi)星店；但在其他情況下，快閃店首先成立，如果成功才會擴張。

Most of the time, strategy from contrast may look less revolutionary than Netflix (which remade itself again by streaming videos and becoming a content creator) or SpaceX (should it succeed). Any organization can ask whether it might usefully flip the order in which it performs activities, for example. The traditional model in retail is to start with a flagship store (usually in a city center) and add satellites (in suburban locations). Now consider pop-up stores: In some cases they conform to the old model—they are like mini-satellites; but in others the pop-up comes first, and if that’s successful, a larger footprint is added.?

另一種方法是考慮撼動價值鏈，在任何行業(yè)中，價值鏈的側重方向都是固定的，一些參與者是供應商，其他則是顧客。反轉價值鏈可能催生新商業(yè)模式。

Another approach is to consider shaking up the value chain, which in any industry is conventionally oriented in a particular way, with some players acting as suppliers and others as customers. Inverting the value chain may yield new business models.

在某些行業(yè)中，現(xiàn)狀已經(jīng)決定了產(chǎn)品或服務高度捆綁且十分昂貴，分拆它們是構建對比戰(zhàn)略的另一種方法。不同的市場細分可能更愿意以更合理的價格獲得捆綁中不同的子集。互聯(lián)網(wǎng)在一個又一個行業(yè)中推動了挑戰(zhàn)者的此類分拆：音樂、電視和教育是個中翹楚。在位企業(yè)必須從內(nèi)部進行重大改革才能與分拆者競爭，這使得這種方法特別有效。

In some industries the status quo has dictated highly bundled, expensive products or services. Unbundling them is another way to build a contrast strategy. Various segments of the market may prefer to get differing subsets of the bundle at better prices. Challengers’ unbundling of the status quo has been facilitated by the internet in one industry after another: Music, TV, and education are leading examples. Incumbents have to make major internal changes to compete with unbundlers, rendering this approach especially effective.

如何開始

1.?準確識別你所在公司或行業(yè)傳統(tǒng)思維上的假設。

2.?考慮通過證明其中一個或多個假設錯誤可能會帶來的收獲。

3.?故意擾亂正常工作模式其中的某一方面，以打破根深蒂固的假設。

How to Begin

• Precisely identify the assumptions that underlie conventional thinking in your company or industry.

• Think about what might be gained by proving one or more of them false.

• Deliberately disturb an aspect of your normal work pattern to break up ingrained assumptions.

需要注意什么

因為業(yè)務模式所依據(jù)的假設已經(jīng)嵌入所有流程中，并且穩(wěn)定的業(yè)務需要可預測性——所以改變方向并不容易。組織非常善于抵制變革。

What to Watch Out For

Because the assumptions underlying your business model are embedded in all your processes—and because stable businesses need predictability—it won’t be easy to change course. Organizations are very good at resisting change.

組合：

如何讓傳統(tǒng)上獨立的產(chǎn)品或服務建立聯(lián)系？

Combination

How can you connect products or services that have traditionally been separate?

組合是藝術和科學中典型的創(chuàng)意方法。正如安東尼·布朗特（Anthony?Brandt）和大衛(wèi)·伊戈爾曼（David?Eagleman）在《失控的物種》（The?Runaway?Species）中所說的那樣，通過組合兩種截然不同的想法?——乘坐電梯和太空之旅——阿爾伯特·愛因斯坦摸索出了廣義相對論。在商業(yè)中，富有創(chuàng)意和成功的舉措也可以通過組合獨立事物而產(chǎn)生。這些機會往往伴隨著互補的產(chǎn)品和服務。例如，產(chǎn)品和支付系統(tǒng)傳統(tǒng)上是價值鏈中的獨立節(jié)點。但中國社交媒體平臺微信（屬于騰訊）現(xiàn)在包含名為微信支付的集成移動支付平臺，使用戶能夠在其社交網(wǎng)絡中購買和銷售產(chǎn)品。騰訊和阿里巴巴正在擴展中國之外的生態(tài)系統(tǒng)，正在與海外支付公司協(xié)調(diào)，使其他國家的零售商能夠接受其移動支付服務。

Combination is a canonical creative approach in both the arts and the sciences. As Anthony Brandt and David Eagleman note in?The Runaway Species,?it was by combining two very different ideas—a ride in an elevator and a journey into space—that Albert Einstein found his way to the theory of general relativity. In business, too, creative and successful moves can result from combining things that have been separate. Often these opportunities arise with complementary products and services. Products and payment systems, for example, have traditionally been separate nodes in value chains. But the Chinese social media platform WeChat (owned by Tencent) now includes an integrated mobile payment platform called WeChat Pay that enables users to buy and sell products within their social networks. Expanding beyond the Chinese ecosystem, Tencent and Alibaba are coordinating with overseas payment firms to enable retailers in other countries to accept their mobile payment services.

有時競爭對手可以從聯(lián)合力量中獲益，將蛋糕做大。例如，寶馬和戴姆勒宣布計劃結合他們的移動服務——共享汽車、乘車服務、停車位、電動汽車充電服務和公共交通服務。據(jù)推測，兩大汽車制造商希望通過此舉有效反擊優(yōu)步和其他蠶食傳統(tǒng)汽車產(chǎn)業(yè)的參與者。

Sometimes competitors can benefit from joining forces to grow the pie. For example, BMW and Daimler have announced plans to combine their mobility services—car sharing, ride hailing, car parking, electric vehicle charging, and tickets for public transport. Presumably, the two automakers hope that this move will be an effective counterattack against Uber and other players that are encroaching on the traditional car industry.

在其他情況下，來自完全獨立行業(yè)的公司通過組合產(chǎn)品為客戶創(chuàng)造了新價值。Apple和Nike已經(jīng)開始行動，早在2006年就推出了Nike?+?iPod運動套件，使Nike鞋子能夠與iPod聯(lián)通來計步。最近，幾個版本的Apple?Watch與Nike?+?Run?Club應用程序完全集成。Nest?Labs和亞馬遜也相互補充：通過亞馬遜的虛擬助手Alexa部署語音控制，Nest的智能家用恒溫器變得更有價值。

In other instances, companies from wholly separate industries have created new value for customers by combining offerings. Apple and Nike have done so since the 2006 introduction of the Nike+ iPod Sport Kit, which enabled Nike shoes to communicate with an iPod for tracking steps. More recently, versions of the Apple Watch have come with the Nike+ Run Club app fully integrated. Nest Labs and Amazon also complement each other: Nest’s intelligent home thermostat becomes even more valuable when it can deploy voice control via Amazon’s virtual assistant, Alexa.

新技術是組合不同可能性的源泉。人工智能和區(qū)塊鏈自然結合在一起，以保護醫(yī)療和其他敏感領域中訓練算法所需的大量個人隱私數(shù)據(jù)。區(qū)塊鏈和物聯(lián)網(wǎng)以傳感器和安全數(shù)據(jù)的形式聚集在去中心化應用中，如食品供應鏈、運輸系統(tǒng)和智能家居，其智能合約中包含自動化保險。

New technologies are a rich source of combinatorial possibilities. AI and blockchain come together naturally to protect the privacy of the large amounts of personal data needed to train algorithms in health care and other sensitive areas. Blockchain and the internet of things come together in the form of sensors and secure data in decentralized applications such as food supply chains, transportation systems, and smart homes, with automated insurance included in smart contracts.

無論是通過連接產(chǎn)品和服務、兩種技術、上下游，還是其他成分，組合產(chǎn)生的戰(zhàn)略關乎尋找跨越傳統(tǒng)邊界的聯(lián)系。富有創(chuàng)意的戰(zhàn)略家必須質(zhì)疑現(xiàn)狀，這次不僅要跳出“一個盒子”的思維定式，甚至還要考慮“兩個或更多盒子”。

Strategy from combination involves looking for connections across traditional boundaries, whether by linking a product and a service, two technologies, the upstream and the downstream, or other ingredients. Here, too, the creative strategist must challenge the status quo—this time by thinking not just outside the box but across two or more boxes.

如何開始

1.?成立具有不同專業(yè)知識和經(jīng)驗的小組，頭腦風暴產(chǎn)品和服務的新組合。

2.?尋找與互補產(chǎn)品供應商（甚至可能是競爭對手）協(xié)作之道。

How to Begin

• Form groups with diverse expertise and experience; brainstorm new combinations of products and services.

• Look for ways to coordinate with providers of complementary products (who may even be competitors).

需要注意什么

企業(yè)通常在單一產(chǎn)品或活動層面管理和衡量利潤。但組合需要在系統(tǒng)層面進行思考和估量。

What to Watch Out For

Businesses often manage for and measure profits at the individual product or activity level. But combinations require system-level thinking and measurements.

制約：

如何化限制或負累為機遇？

Constraint

How can you turn limitations or liabilities into opportunities?

世界上第一部科幻小說《弗蘭肯斯坦》是瑪麗·雪萊（Mary?Wollstonecraft?Shelley）在一個異常寒冷和狂風驟雨的夏日，被困在日內(nèi)瓦湖時創(chuàng)作出來的。當時她在室內(nèi)無所事事，只能鍛煉自己的想象力。藝術家對限制有很多了解——深刻的，如生活中的嚴重挫折；結構性的，如寫出具有特定押韻格式的十四行詩。在商業(yè)中，創(chuàng)造性思維也能將限制化為機遇。

The world’s first science fiction story,?Frankenstein,?was written when its author, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, was staying near Lake Geneva during an unusually cold and stormy summer and found herself trapped indoors with nothing to do but exercise her imagination. Artists know a lot about constraints—from profound ones, such as serious setbacks in their lives, to structural ones, such as writing a 14-line poem with a specified rhyming structure. In business, too, creative thinking turns limitations into opportunities.

限制可能會激發(fā)創(chuàng)造性戰(zhàn)略，這看似是個悖論。解除限制，以及可行的操作，現(xiàn)在依舊可行。而且很有可能，解除限制后，選項變多了。但這忽略了人們在特定情況下想出多種方法的可能性，制約可能引發(fā)全新的思路。當然，金發(fā)女孩原則（源自童話《金發(fā)姑娘和三只熊》的故事，寓意凡事都必須有度，而不能超越極限?！g者注）適用于此：太多的制約會阻礙所有可能性，但完全沒有制約也會帶來問題。

That constraints can spark creative strategies may seem paradoxical. Lift a constraint, and any action that was previously possible is surely still possible; most likely, more is now possible. But that misses the point that one can think multiple ways in a given situation—and a constraint may prompt a whole new line of thinking. Of course, the Goldilocks principle applies: Too many constraints will choke off all possibilities, and a complete absence of constraints is a problem too.

特斯拉在進入汽車行業(yè)時并不缺財力，缺少的是傳統(tǒng)經(jīng)銷商網(wǎng)絡（被認為是汽車制造商商業(yè)模式的關鍵部分）。特斯拉選擇在網(wǎng)上銷售汽車，并建立類似蘋果的商店，以薪資制聘用銷售人員，而沒有建立經(jīng)銷商網(wǎng)絡。這樣做實際使特斯拉相對競爭對手處于有利位置，競爭對手的經(jīng)銷商可能因需要花工夫推銷電動汽車而非內(nèi)燃機車，感到左右為難。此外，特斯拉直接控制定價，而從傳統(tǒng)經(jīng)銷商處購買電動汽車的消費者可能會面臨高額差價。

Tesla hasn’t lacked financial resources in entering the car industry, but it doesn’t have a traditional dealership network (considered a key part of automakers’ business models) through which to sell. Rather than get into the business of building one, Tesla has chosen to sell cars online and to build Apple-like stores staffed with salespeople on salary. This actually positions the company well relative to competitors, whose dealers may be conflicted about promoting electric vehicles over internal-combustion ones. In addition, Tesla controls its pricing directly, whereas consumers who buy electric vehicles from traditional dealers may encounter significant variations in price.

如何開始

1.?列出組織的“缺陷”（而非能力），并測試是否可以化劣勢為優(yōu)勢。

2.?考慮刻意施加一些限制，鼓勵人們找到新的思維和行動方式。

How to Begin

• List the “incompetencies” (rather than the competencies) of your organization—and test whether they can in fact be turned into strengths.

• Consider deliberately imposing some constraints to encourage people to find new ways of thinking and acting.

需要注意什么

成功企業(yè)面臨的制約并不多；人們或許認為沒有必要研究新可能如何創(chuàng)造新機遇。

What to Watch Out For

Successful businesses face few obvious constraints; people may feel no need to explore how new ones might create new opportunities.

情境：

相距甚遠的行業(yè)、想法或?qū)W科

如何能夠解決你最緊迫的問題？

Context

How can far-flung industries, ideas, or disciplines shed light on your most pressing problems?

仿生學整門學科致力于從大自然中尋找工程學、材料科學、醫(yī)學和其他領域問題的解決方案。例如，牛蒡帶有毛刺的種子能通過小鉤子附著在動物毛皮上蔓延播種。喬治·梅斯特拉爾（George?de?Mestral）受其啟發(fā)，在20世紀40年代設計出了一種不會卡頓的（拉鏈很容易卡頓）搭扣，即威扣（Velcro）魔術貼。這是一種經(jīng)典的解決方案。從某一情境的問題開始，找到另一個情境中已經(jīng)解決了的類似問題，并移植解決方案。

An entire field, biomimetics, is devoted to finding solutions in nature to problems that arise in engineering, materials science, medicine, and elsewhere. For example, the burrs from the burdock plant, which propagate by attaching to the fur of animals via tiny hooks, inspired George de Mestral in the 1940s to create a clothing fastener that does not jam (as zippers are prone to do). Thus the invention of Velcro. This is a classic problem-solving technique. Start with a problem in one context, find another context in which an analogous problem has already been solved, and import the solution.

跨行業(yè)進行情境切換，甚至跨時間都是可行的。計算機圖形用戶界面（GUI）的開發(fā)在某種意義上是“退步”的產(chǎn)物：開發(fā)人員從陷于對基于文本的編程思考，轉向高度可視化，甚至連兒童都可以操作的手/眼環(huán)境。同樣，一些人工智能研究者目前正在探索兒童如何學習，從而進一步了解機器學習的過程。

Context switching can be done across industries,?or even across time. The development of the graphical user interface (GUI) for computers was in a sense the result of a step backward: The developers moved from immersion in the text-based context in which programming had grown up to thinking about the highly visual hand-eye environment in which young children operate. Similarly, some AI researchers are currently looking at how children learn in order to inform processes for machine learning.

當公司將研發(fā)職能設置在遠離總部的地方時，就會認識到進入他人情境的重要性。這不僅僅像科技行業(yè)將人才轉移到硅谷，或生物技術將人才轉移到波士頓那樣簡單。初創(chuàng)企業(yè)也應該把自己置于學習和成長的最佳環(huán)境中。位于深圳的硬件加速器HAX擁有來自眾多國家的硬件啟動團隊，使其能進入“世界硬件資本”的高速生態(tài)系統(tǒng)，在原型迭代過程中速度翻了兩番。

When companies locate R&D functions far from headquarters, they’re acknowledging the importance of jumping into someone else’s context. This is not just a strategy for large companies that move people to Silicon Valley for tech or the Boston area for biotech. Start-ups, too, should put themselves in the best context for learning and growth. The hardware accelerator HAX, located in Shenzhen, hosts hardware start-up teams from numerous countries and enables them to tap into the high-speed ecosystem of the “hardware capital of the world,” quadrupling the rate at which they cycle through iterations of their prototypes.

專注于情境的戰(zhàn)略可能涉及將解決方案從一種設置轉移到或多或少與之類似的另一種設定。這可能意味著，通過尋找具有遠見的先驅(qū)者來揭示對問題（或機遇）的全新思考。歸根結底，關鍵是不能被困在同一語境中。

Strategy focused on context may involve transferring a solution from one setting to another more or less as is. It may mean uncovering entirely new thinking about problems (or opportunities) by finding pioneers who are ahead of the game. At bottom, it’s about not being trapped in a single narrative.

如何開始

1.?向另一個行業(yè)的局外人解釋你的業(yè)務。來自不同背景的新視角有助發(fā)現(xiàn)新的答案和機會。

2.?與主要用戶和極端用戶互動，參與創(chuàng)新熱點。

How to Begin

• Explain your business to an outsider in another industry. Fresh eyes from a different context can help uncover new answers and opportunities.

• Engage with lead users, extreme users, and innovation hotspots.

需要注意什么

企業(yè)需要關注內(nèi)部流程以實現(xiàn)其當前的價值主張，但企業(yè)迫于壓力關注自身，可能會阻礙向其他不同情境中的行外人取經(jīng)。? ? ??

What to Watch Out For

Businesses need to focus on internal processes to deliver on their current value propositions—but the pressure to focus internally can get in the way of learning from the different contexts in which other players operate.

在管理咨詢領域，“戰(zhàn)略”和“創(chuàng)新”的各個方面已開始融合。例如，以設計和創(chuàng)新著稱的公司IDEO已轉向戰(zhàn)略咨詢，而麥肯錫則在其戰(zhàn)略咨詢中增加了設計思維方法。這種融合帶來了顯而易見的問題：如果戰(zhàn)略和創(chuàng)新之間的區(qū)別不像以前那么明確，我們是否真的需要仔細考慮創(chuàng)造力在戰(zhàn)略制定過程中的作用？

In the world of management consulting, aspects of “strategy” and “innovation” have started to converge. IDEO, the design and innovation powerhouse, has moved into strategy consulting, for example—while McKinsey has added design-thinking methods to its strategy consulting. This convergence raises an obvious question: If the distinction between strategy and innovation is less clear than it once was, do we really need to think carefully about the role of creativity in the strategy-making process?

我堅信答案是肯定的。戰(zhàn)略的核心仍然是通過差異化尋找創(chuàng)造和提出價值的方法。這是一項復雜而艱巨的工作?？梢钥隙ǖ氖?，它需要能識別傳統(tǒng)思維中令人驚訝、富有創(chuàng)意的部分。但它還需要用于分析競爭格局的工具，對所處環(huán)境形成威脅的動態(tài)以及公司的資源和能力。我們需要教會商學院學生和高管如何同時兼具創(chuàng)意和嚴謹。

I believe strongly that the answer is yes. At its core, strategy is still about finding ways to create and claim value through differentiation. That’s a complicated, difficult job. To be sure, it requires tools that can help identify surprising, creative breaks from conventional thinking. But it also requires tools for analyzing the competitive landscape, the dynamics threatening that landscape, and a company’s resources and competencies. We need to teach business school students—and executives—how to be creative and rigorous at the same time.

亞當·布蘭登伯格是紐約大學斯特恩商學院J.P.Valles教席教授，坦登工學院杰出教授，以及紐約大學上海創(chuàng)意創(chuàng)新項目教學主任。

劉錚箏 | 譯?? 劉筱薇 | 校?? 鈕鍵軍 | 編輯

本文有刪節(jié)，原文參見《哈佛商業(yè)評論》中文版2019年4月刊。