How Many Times Can You Say The Same Thing?
February 18, 2022
Late last year, this chart was doing the rounds on social media:
Bloody hell.
I mean … seriously, bloody hell.
Don’t get me wrong, strategy is important – but the amount of people who continue to think it is more important than what it makes happen, is insane.
Almost as insane as this chart.
Because as much as there are nuances in strategy … and as much as they’re are a vast amount of frameworks you can follow … the basic premise remains.
- Where are you?
- Where do you want to be?
- What’s stopping you from getting there?
- What is your strategy to achieve that?
That’s it.
It’s been pretty effective for more years than anyone doing strategy has been alive and has worked successfully across every category – from adland to zoo management.
I worked at an agency who LOVED making strategic frameworks.
It’s not that they were bad, but they were basically the same 4 things I’ve listed above – just given different headings and placed inside a nice box so it looked like it was some sort of academic approach.
It wasn’t.
Oh I get why companies do it.
They love the idea of having their own proprietary strategic system.
Not only does it let them pretend they have a truly unique offering for the market – which enables them to charge clients a premium for following – it also ensures that if employees leave, the impact is lessened because the emphasis is on the proprietary strategic system rather than the talent of the individual.
In essence, it exists to lessen the importance of the employee.
It’s the same approach that McDonald’s have for their kitchens.
And the same reason Din Tai Fung manage the process of staff compliments.
But here’s the thing …
Clients who truly get strategy can see what they’re doing.
It’s not that they won’t – or don’t – value what these companies can do for them, it’s just they don’t blindly believe all the claims of uniqueness they say.
Which is why when clients ask me “what’s your strategic approach to solving problems?” … I respond pretty much the same way every time.
That there is nothing really that different between the process we follow and the process everyone else does. The key difference is the people we hire, the questions they ask and the people they ask them to.
Still stand by that.
Because even if there was a framework that was an amalgamation of all the strategic approaches listed on the photo above, all it really does is ensuring you’re achieving a minimum standard … because the most powerful strategies are developed by individuals who see where they can be, not where a box tells them to go.
