Articles—Issue 14, September 2006 Back to Article Index Focus Often Means "No" In an interview published in The McKinsey Quarterly (2006, Number 3) Paolo Scaroni--currently the CEO of the international energy company, Eni and formerly the head of a number of companies including turnaround experience—had this to say about strategy and focus:   “I normally try to find three or four strategic concepts that sum up the direction in which the company should be moving, build up an organization that believes in these concepts, and then repeat, repeat, and repeat them throughout the organization. I am convinced that communication is a very powerful tool for running large organizations such as this one. It works fine if people know exactly where they are going, but in order to know this they need to be able to grasp some easy concepts. If it takes more than one minute to explain a strategy, something is wrong. In my view, it has to be that simple. Successful things are simple; I have never seen successful things that are very complicated. You provide simple guidelines and repeat them throughout the organization.”   I have always found Italian to be a beautiful language. Grab a cannoli and re-read that quote a few times.   Out of desire to “do something”, many business leaders end up chasing so many things that their organization cannot follow them, let alone understand where the organization is headed. It is much more effective to clearly articulate the direction and Stay On Message. An important part of being focused is saying “No”.   Do you have a decision tool in your company to help you focus, make decisions and that allows you to say “No” for sound reasons? (c)2006 by Tood Ordal. You are welcome to share this informational article with others. Todd Ordal is a business consultant helping executives struggling with execution. Prior to founding the consulting firm Applied Strategy LLC, Todd spent over 25 years in management and executive roles such as President and CEO. You can contact Todd at todd@appliedstrategy.info