The Essence of Strategy: Simplify, Articulate, Execute

In my jour­ney through the realms of strate­gic plan­ning and exe­cu­tion, a rev­e­la­tion has trans­formed my perspective.

I used to view them as an intri­cate labyrinth demand­ing unwa­ver­ing atten­tion. But, over 25 years of col­lab­o­ra­tion with hun­dreds of clients and bril­liant minds, I have come to real­ize that the most effec­tive strate­gies are aston­ish­ing­ly simple.

True mas­tery doesn’t live in com­plex­i­ty. It lives in uncov­er­ing the sim­ple ele­ments that cap­ti­vate your cus­tomers and pro­vide your com­pet­i­tive edge.

Con­sid­er these sim­ple, yet effec­tive thought frame­works for good strate­gic planning:

• The Hedge­hog and the Fly­wheel: Cre­at­ed by Jim Collins, this mod­el guides focus and ignites pos­i­tive momentum
• The Fourth Option: Pro­posed by Kai­han Krip­pen­dorf, this frame­work explores over­looked strate­gic con­cepts to invig­o­rate your strategy
• Blue Ocean Strat­e­gy: A cap­ti­vat­ing approach that maps your unique val­ue and avoids commoditization
• Can You Say What Your Strat­e­gy Is?: A Har­vard Busi­ness Review arti­cle that encap­su­lates strat­e­gy in a con­cise Venn diagram
• The Five Forces: Michael Porter’s mod­el for assess­ing com­pet­i­tive forces in your industry.

If you think you already pos­sess a flaw­less strat­e­gy, the true test lies in run­ning it through one of these models.

And when it comes to exe­cu­tion, the One-Page Strate­gic Plan, from the book Scal­ing Up (to which I had the priv­i­lege of con­tribut­ing), is an ele­gant, sim­ple frame­work to bring any strat­e­gy to life. It also helps to iden­ti­fy who, on your team excels at exe­cu­tion, and who doesn’t.

Your strate­gic plan isn’t worth any­thing if you can’t exe­cute it well.

The Chal­lenge

• Can you artic­u­late your com­pa­ny’s strat­e­gy in under 30 seconds?
• Which of the mod­els above would help you to have a more impact­ful strate­gic plan?

Addi­tion­al Podcasts

• Five Things that Lead to a Bad Strate­gic Plan
• Get the Most from Your Strate­gic Plan­ning Framework
• Prof­it = Intel­li­gence + Discipline

Addi­tion­al Blogs

• The Ben­e­fits of the One-Page Strate­gic Plan
• Pre­serve Your Strate­gic Think­ing Time
• Front­line Exe­cu­tion Strategy