Strategy has become corporate wallpaper. It's become meaningless corporate slang. The first to really identify this was advertising practitioners who began to lament the proliferation of "strategists". It seemed like suddenly there was one for everything. Brand strategist. Social media strategist. Digital strategist. Media strategist. Retail strategist. Corporate strategist. It was the beginning of a problem that would consume all of the corporate world.
As consequence, we seem to have forgotten what Strategy actually means and does. Every plan is a strategy. Every target is strategic. Every technology purchase is transformation. Every collection of initiatives becomes a roadmap. Strategy has been reduced to language used to make activity sound important.
Strategy begins with a problem that must be solved. Therefore, it begins with and requires a diagnosis of what is actually happening, a choice about what exactly to do about it, and a coherent set of actions built around that choice.
Many organisations today want growth without choosing a source of advantage. They want differentiation without trade-offs. They want innovation without sacrifice. They want to prioritize without de-prioritizing.
So they produce ‘plans’ in which everything matters: Every customer. Every market. Every channel. Every business line. Every opportunity. And then they sit in a boardroom and wonder why nothing is working and everything remains the same. It's comedic.
Porter warned that operational efficiency is not strategy. Rumelt warned that ambition is not strategy. I add my voice and warn that aspirations aren't either. Yet businesses still present these as evidence of strategic intent.
Organisations now largely describe the activity of movement without direction as strategy in the same way we have begun to equate busyness to effectiveness.
A real strategy should make people uncomfortable because it closes doors. It should identify what the organisation will not pursue, which customers it will not serve, which capabilities it will not build and which attractive opportunities it will leave to others.
Southwest's decision to focus only on cheap flights was not born out of a sense of low self esteem or the poverty if it's target market. MTN's decision to close all operations outside Africa, Hyundai's decision to buy Boston Dynamics, Standard Chartered's decision to sell its retail business here, Barclay's' decision to pull out of Africa, China's decision to run a closed eco system, the UAE's decision to look away from oil as a means of sustainable development were all difficult decisions.
Those decisions however, are the evidence by which we know there is a strategy driving these organisations and nations.
Now analyse your own organisation/nation and you may realise they currently function solely on insha'Allah and vibes.
We've replaced the art of making hard choices with impressive vocabulary, difficult diagnosis with workshops, and competitive advantage with lists of things to do. We've found comfort in operational efficiency and best practices. Under what logic can companies actually compete if they utilise the same best practices? How do you differentiate yourself in a herd of best practices?
This is why so many companies are busy, modernising and yet slowly becoming identical. They're doing the same things and launching the same products and targeting the same customers, and somehow calling that a “winning strategy” at the same time.
One of the first questions I ask in most product meetings is "how does this compare to what's on the market already?" Many times the answer starts with "well, actually..." and spirals into an essay of why it's not differentiated but also why “the demand is there”.
Yet these same organisations are quick to mention they want to be as aspirational as patronised and as uniquely differentiated as Nike, Apple, Mpesa and Monzo. As if these brands became what they were by implementing best practices. This phenomenon repeats across industries from FMCG to Telecoms to Banking.
And then, at every Exco, the topics are "why are we not meeting revenue targets quickly enough?" "Did we implement the strategy correctly?" "Is it the right strategy?" "How can we revamp the strategy for this quarter?"
They haven't failed to execute their strategy.
They never had one.
What's happened to the hunger of wanting to be differentiated? Where has the blood-thirsty desire to stand out and win gone? What happened to wanting to be the most revered name in a category? Feared, even? What happened to the panic of fearing defeat?
Sometimes I think it's disappeared into the stability of earning rewarding salaries and bonuses based on very little to do for it. When you don't have to fight for food, you don't need to know how to stalk prey.
Gladly, no one's noticed. Just me. So the secret's safe. But maybe, just maybe… It might be time to go back to basics. I'll let you decide that.
Onwards.