Formulating an effective strategy in the Sustainable development sector.

A Lawyer deep diving into an MBA-centric role.

When I got the opportunity to lead the strategic and legal vertical for a Corporate Philanthropy, I was beyond ecstatic. With no formal “education” in strategy, a law degree and armed with my instincts as my weapon, I embark on what is turning out to be an extremely challenging yet satisfying role.

With the current Indian Government heavily focusing on all water related issues and reinventing policies, we are witnessing some very encouraging sweeping changes in the WASH sector. With this novelty comes the freedom to “create creatively” and pierce the market with innovative technology, fresh business models and unique partnerships with financial, commercial, residential, institutional, local/international government bodies and foundations.

However, in the words of Antoine de Saint — Exupery : A goal without a plan is just a wish. The freedom of innovative creation comes with a responsibility to devise a responsible, effective and often highly detailed strategy. Here’s what I am learning as I foray into unknown territory.

1. Quantitative intuition: Logic, intuition and emotional intelligence come in handy when developing an overall strategic road map in the social development sector. The uniqueness of this industry is the freedom to become unbound from all formal education and apply your natural education and accumulated wisdom while devising the general road map. I’m fortunate to have a COO who likes to challenge the existing status quo and goes beyond text book knowledge of concepts and solutions.
2. Economics, Economics, Economics. Support your instinctive solutions with some fool proof economic tools to back up your execution.
3. Systematic specialization: Target a specific sector, then a specific sub-sector and then a specific sub-sub-sector. Blow it open and break down specific steps for the road ahead.
4. Predictive analysis: Challenge each assumption and further back it up with a solution. The best strategy is one which can effectively outline foreseeable challenges and provide preemptive solutions. The aim is to make bold decisions by asking the right questions. As a lawyer, I am trained to find the epicenter of an issue and fix it with creative solutions, and that training comes in handy here.
5. Prescriptive analysis: Test your finding by going out in the field and fearlessly failing. Then come back and rework parts that don’t work.
6. Resource efficiency: Resource efficiency is highly important for a philanthropic company which is not focused on profit making as much as earning revenue to keep its philanthropic operations functional. Targeting minimum resource input to achieve maximum results is your primary job!
7. Focus on drafting well and making presentations that are intuitive to the audience.
8. Most importantly, don’t make strategy dull. Have fun with it, research, read books, take inter disciplinary online courses and mix it up. You’ll be surprised at the interconnectedness of EVERYTHING!