The inaugural SPS Strategy Club event at Strathclyde University on 7 February saw a full house of captivated students and local business people who are alumni. Dr George Burt, Full-time, Part-time and Flexible Learning MBA Course Director, introduced Kim Warren, Teaching Fellow at London Business School and creator of the Strategy Dynamics Approach, who gave a talk exploring the broken relationship between strategy and finance and the urgent need to fix this.

“We had nearly 80 people attending the event. It was a great success,” Burt says. “Kim raised contentious issues about cash flows, asset flows and strategy, breaking the traditional positioning-based mode of thinking about strategy.” He calls the subject matter “very thought provoking”.

Cooperation with the SPS was natural given the significant focus on strategy in the Strathclyde Business School (SBS) and the Strathclyde MBA, Burt adds. “Our academics publish in the leading journals, and also apply their expertise in consulting with large and small organisations. SPS, like SBS, has a history with strategy and they are keen to create a community that share that interest to exchange ideas, practices and so on. They are also interested in developing strategy as a profession, and that is appealing.”

As regards the importance of strategy, he says: “There are a wide range of views about strategy and we have an obligation to be a voice in the community to help everyone understand the challenges and opportunities that arise from the wide range of views.  Events like this are important to enable an activity community to come together, share experiences and enrich each other through mutually beneficial discussion – the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”