On Strategy *

And a Chief Marketing Officer who held a DVD against her bosom said, “Speak to us of Business Units.”

And he said:

Your BUs are not your BUs. They are the BUs and subsidiaries of strategy’s longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your money but not your policies,for they have their own thoughts.

You may feed their employees but not their strategies,for their strategies dwell in the house of tomorrow,which you cannot fathom, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you, for market goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

*: With apologies to the fans of The Prophet