9 Ways Folks Are Challenged By Strategy

Hey!

Last week, I put together a quick list of questions to help guide your strategy thinking.

This morning, I’m going to give you a few challenges that people face when they are thinking about setting their strategy or that jam people up when they are making a strategy.

1. Confuse planning for strategy: Strategy isn’t planning. Planning isn’t strategy. Strategy is choosing a direction and figuring out the steps you’ll take to make that choice a reality.

2. Strategy has a finite ending: Strategy never ends. You choose. You focus. You act. You learn. You adjust. You repeat.

3. Telling your strategy isn’t enough: Strategy shows up in your actions, no matter what you say.

4. Strategy needs to touch all areas of the business: It isn’t a top down affair.

5. Strategy isn’t just marketing: Marketing matters, but strategy is more than that. It is marketing and more.

6. Strategy takes time: You need a lot of white space for an effective strategy.

7. Strategy isn’t a 5 year plan: C’mon man. At most, you may have an ambition for a few years down the road, but these 5 year plans are outdated.

8. A good strategy needs to be sold: Everyone needs to know the strategy and be willing to take action. A strategy that sits with a strategy committee is a strategy that is going to fail.

9. A good strategy doesn’t discourage change…it encourages it: What does the customer want? How does the customer define value? What does the customer need? You stay close to these questions, you’ll be forced to change consistently. That’s also good strategy.

Lots of strategy notes in the notebook.

Let me know where your thinking is right now.

I’m doing a FREE session on pricing on August 15th at 1 PM Eastern.

Dave