“We need a strategy”.

24 July 2025

“𝗪𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆.”

It’s one of the most overused phrases in business.

Sometimes it’s code for “we need to look smart.”
Other times, it means “here comes a 50-slide deck.”
But more often than not, it’s a word that’s thrown around without a shared understanding of what it actually 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘴.

One of my favourite books, 𝘞𝘩𝘺 𝘉𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘗𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘓𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘐𝘥𝘪𝘰𝘵𝘴, talks about the 𝗼𝗯𝘀𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗽, where people use vague, lofty language to sound intelligent but end up hiding the meaning. “Strategy” is one of those words. It gets applied to everything and ends up meaning...… nothing.

But strategy isn’t fluff.
It’s not a vision statement.
And it’s not a 3-hour presentation.

If you want a clear and practical definition, 𝘎𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘺, 𝘉𝘢𝘥 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘺 by Richard Rumelt nails it. He breaks it down into three parts:

1. 𝗗𝗶𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘀 What’s the real problem we need to solve?
2. 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗰𝘆 What’s our approach to solving it?
3. 𝗖𝗼𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 What are we actually going to do?

But there’s a deeper point here too.

𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲.
No one has infinite time, energy, money or attention.
Strategy is how we focus those limited resources - on the problems that matter most, in the most effective way.

It’s not about doing everything.
It’s about deciding what 𝘯𝘰𝘵 to do.  So that we can do the few things that matter, really well.

So next time someone says “we need a strategy,” ask them:
“𝗚𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴.  𝗔𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀?”