What a pity that Lucy Kellaway’s piss-take on Deloittes’ Little Blue Book of Strategy is behind the FT paywall. Here’s a bit of what you might be missing:
On the second last page there is a check-list of 10 points to see if you are “living the strategy” including “I reach high” and “I make things happen” and “I fuss over the grey areas”. Only this last did I tick with conviction, thinking we were back on hairdos again. But then it turned out to be referring to an obsession with integrity which I don’t suffer from quite so badly.There is much to marvel at in the Little Blue Book but the pièce de resistance is the page entitled Our Pledge. “The promise of our brand. To that we pledge allegiance,” it says.
To pledge allegiance to the US flag and to “one Nation under God” may have become a bit un-PC, but at least one can understand the history of it. To pledge allegiance not just to a brand, but to a promise of a brand, you’d have to be utterly daft. And if you were that daft, I wouldn’t want you anywhere near my audit.
You have to wonder about the quality of the conversations that led to this being published. Still, at least they’re not asking us to sing along.
Hat tip (for the article): Dave Snowden.
