Strategy questions every leader should make time for

Being extremely busy all the time is problematic when you’re in charge of your company or unit’s strategy, because it doesn’t leave you many opportunities to think and reflect. Force yourself to have regular and long stretches of uninterrupted time just to think things through. When you do so, here are four guiding questions to help you reflect on the big picture.

1. What doesn’t fit? Do the various activities and businesses that you’ve moved into make sense together? Individually, each of them may seem attractive, but is the sum greater than its parts?

2. What would an outsider do? Firms often suffer from legacy products, projects or beliefs. Some of them can be the result of what’s known as “escalation of commitment”: We have committed to something and determinedly fought for it — and perhaps for all the right reasons — but now that things have changed and it no longer makes sense, we may still be inclined to persist. Ask yourself: What would other, external people do if they found themselves in charge of this company?

3. Do I understand why we do it this way? If the answer is simply “That’s how we’ve always done it” or “Everybody in our industry does it this way,” then there may be a better approach.

4. What ARE the POSSIBLE long-term consequences? Often we judge things by their short-term results and, if those look good, persist in our course of action. However, for many strategic actions, the long-term effects may be different.

Strategy, by definition, is about making complex decisions with substantive, long-term consequences. Therefore, it requires substantial periods of careful, undisturbed reflection and consideration. Leadership isn’t just about taking action; it’s also about thinking. Make time for it.

(Freek Vermeulen is an associate professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at the London Business School. He is the author of “Business Exposed: The Naked Truth about What Really Goes on in the World of Business.”)