Three strategy killers.
And what to do instead.
Hello again.
I had a client strategy almost go really wrong last week.
It reminded me to share my three biggest strategy killers here. They are:
Your strategy is unambitious (SMALL).
It is siloed to address only a portion of your company, like marketing or product. (FRAGMENTED)
It is boring. (BORING)
But number 2 - Siloed - is by far the biggest problem our clients come to us with.
So implementing a whole company strategy is the first and best way to gain an unfair advantage.
Meaning what you say, what you do, the product you build and how your company culture works - it’s all in line.
Implementing a whole company strategy is, of course, easier said than done because companies everywhere employ a factory model - where departments work in silos.
In fact, the entire business world is conditioned to work in siloes that force us to make false choices:
- Money or Purpose
- Product or Marketing
- Brand or Performance
But customers have zero time for silos. In their minds, it's one company, one story.
And if there is one thing you take from this newsletter, it is that the mind of the customer is all mighty. We category designers are merely following first principles of the mind.
The good news for you is that most people will fail to implement a whole company strategy.
A select few will take the road less travelled. (This could be you.)
And these holistic problem solvers are largely the ones that win.
How do we make it happen?
Before you embark on a big strategy initiative, get everyone on board. Your CEO and co-founders. Your CFO. Investors. Plus the heads of marketing, product, sales, and recruiting.
Make sure everyone, especially your CEO and CFO, are aligned on the business case for the initiative. Here’s an example of a business case:
Our goal is to double revenue in 18 months. Problem is, customers perceive us at parity with Competitor X, resulting in longer sales cycles and reduced pricing power. To shorten sales cycles and regain our pricing position, we need to clearly differentiate our offering - and make it compelling.
For this reason we will embark on a whole company category design initiative to level up our marketing and product and…
If you do not have a clear business case, don’t do it.
If you do, these are the basic steps in the strategy journey.
Do your research. Customers, competitors, features, trends, etc.
Hold 1:1 conversations with execs and customers.
Design and facilitate workshops with your CEO and department heads.
Work with your leadership team to find a compelling story of a category you can own.
Turn those agreements into a strategic narrative.
(Give it a little poetry - like a Steve Jobs product announcement.)And finally, tell your VPs of Sales, Marketing and Product to put everything they have into executing against your new north star story.
I hope that makes sense.
Once you get to the top of this mountain, you can look down at your competitors, toiling away in their tiny silos, and laugh smugly to yourself.
Or you can simply enjoy the fact that you’re on the path to delivering profits and customer happiness like never before.
Time to step away from the computer and go lift weights. I’m not as cool as that sounds.
See you next time!