Coaching Insights from Korea's Top Companies, Including Lotte, SK, LG, and Hyundai Motors
***Current CEOs and Executives Seek Organizational Culture/Leadership Advisory Professor***

Strategic thinking is needed for South Korea's leaders today!

The secret of the 1% leader who reads the world and creates new competitiveness.
Navigate the competitive world of business with strategic thinking.

Tesla, Samsung, Apple… How do the best leaders who have changed paradigms think and achieve results? This book is for leaders who strive to read industry trends and achieve overwhelming results for their organizations, their team members, and themselves.
In an age where technology advances at a rapid pace, where does the power to find new competitive advantages that will enable our organizations to survive lie? The secret lies in "strategic thinking."
"The 11 Laws of Strategic Thinking" defines strategic thinking as "the power to break out of deadlocks," "a perspective that approaches problems in a different way than before," and "the ability to foresee the future and create new competitive advantages."
The author, who has coached numerous corporate executives and studied leadership and organizational culture for many years, reveals, based on his experience, that there are 11 laws of strategic thinking.
Strategic thinking is not something you are born with.
By constantly training your thinking through acquired efforts, you can seize opportunities that others cannot see and gain a competitive advantage faster than anyone else.
This book will help you develop the strategic thinking skills to find a breakthrough in any situation.

Observing leaders struggling in the field has shown me that strategic thinking is not a tool or technique, but rather a state of mind and a habitual way of thinking.
Strategic thinking is the attitude, mindset, and thought process that strives to create greater utility to satisfy customers, maintain and develop identity despite fierce competition, and constantly consider and seek ways for the organization to survive and grow.
--- p.13

Second, strategic thinking is the process of exploring possibilities and figuring out how to develop them.
Eberhard and Tarpenning wanted to find an alternative to petroleum energy.
They explored various alternatives, and as a result, they turned to electric batteries.
Even when we first started, most people responded with, "Is that possible? It's impossible." or, "Even if it's possible, it's still a long way off."
However, as Tesla's founders explored the battery industry, they discovered the potential and advancements in battery technology.
Through strategic thinking, they realized that electric vehicles had a good chance of success, so they began to think about how to implement them, and Tesla ultimately changed the landscape of the automobile industry.
--- p.34

To develop strategic thinking, there are some things you must do first.
It's about securing time to plan and focus on strategic tasks.
To do so, you need to check where you are investing your time and effort among your many work tasks.
I should be able to choose for myself what kind of work content I fill my head with every day.
If you're caught up in the minutiae of trivial matters, and thus have no time to contemplate the future and direction of your organization, how can you develop your critical thinking? What kind of intellectual stimulation will you receive?
--- p.52

As we have seen, intuitive thinkers rely on touch and feeling rather than evidence and logic.
They are quick to change their thoughts, make quick judgments and decisions, and often take action right away.
But there is also a sad downside to this type of thinking.
It can be difficult to convince people around you because you lack sound logic and evidence.
Additionally, since many ideas come to mind at the same time, you may often end up talking without being able to organize your thoughts.
I also hear from those I work with, with some regret, that decisions are often reversed.
So, this type of person needs to be aware of the shortcomings of the thinking they like to do and be mindful of them.
--- pp.103-104

The process of understanding in what context people use specific words provides useful information to managers.
This is because I can look at the concepts that I have implicitly defined so far from the perspective of others and feel the gap between the meaning I use and the meaning that is conventionally understood.
Going through this process will help you choose and use clearer words when you want to convey your thoughts to your team members.
When you listen to your team members' thoughts and opinions, you can go beyond the dictionary definition and capture the subtle meaning they intended when a leader or team member used a particular word in a specific context.
--- p.133

To do this, you need to create your own meta-questions in advance.
It's also important to keep a list of meta-questions on your phone or computer, or keep them in your work notebook or on your desk so you can easily refer to them at any time.
So that you can refer to that list immediately.
When you hit a wall of doubt, you can spark your thinking by examining meta-questions like, "What are my assumptions about this problem?"
The list of meta questions is not fixed and immutable.
It can be updated continuously.
This may lead to new concerns or more meta-questions that are appropriate for the situation.
Isn't the increase in meta-questions evidence that our thinking models are expanding?
--- p.214

Game changers offer products and services that are completely different from existing ones.
Many of these are not understood until they are shown to the customer directly.
Customers may not know what they want from a completely new or unfamiliar product.
So, in addition to asking customers, we need to find out the rules of the game in other ways.
--- p.258

Next, Mintzberg recommends “Seeing Beyond.”
You might wonder how the advice to look 'beyond' is any different from the advice to look 'forward'.
He explains:
"A strategist needs to look not only to the side but also beyond.
That is, you must be able to see the world that will unfold in the future.
It may look similar to looking ahead, but it is actually different.
Looking ahead is the process of looking ahead and seeing what is expected by creating a framework based on past events.
On the other hand, looking beyond is creating a world that would never have existed."
--- pp.301-302

As a result, 36 common experiences that leaders can experience during their growth process were identified.
These unit experiences could then be categorized into ten broad categories: strategic change experience, difficult problem-solving experience and resource allocation experience, market- and customer-oriented experience, business process and system establishment experience, broad management experience, organizational structure and member change experience, internal/external relationship management experience, global diversity management experience, and experience working at headquarters and affiliates.
--- p.336

Developing strategic thinking with your organization in this way offers several benefits.
A broader range of information can be gained through the joint efforts of multiple members, rather than when the leader struggles and worries alone.
You can gain insights from various perspectives that go beyond the cognitive limitations of individual leaders.
It can also help raise the intellectual level and capabilities of the organization's members.
In the next chapter, we'll explore how you can grow with and benefit from your organization's support in developing strategic thinking.

--- p.393