I'm not alone in this, but when I think about strategy, it's about finding your place, space, and competitive edge.
It's about finding your something different to set you apart from your competition.
Not long out of university and early in my career, I was taken by Renée Mauborgne and W. Chan Kim's 'Blue Ocean Strategy'. Their concept of finding uncontested space and opportunity and the ways businesses could raise, eliminate, reduce, and create to find new value for the customer and the company struck a chord with me.
They spoke of differentiation, which another book that struck a chord, Byron Sharp's How Brands Grow, shows doesn't exist for the most part. Most brands in every category offer and say similar things; the most salient in mind and market will become the dominant players.
If you do the same things, you'll be another company offering the same thing, competing against companies much bigger, more salient, and with deeper pockets.
I was asked in a meeting this week, "I take it as you're Something Different; you want our marketing and ads to be different".
Sure, saying something different from your competition would help you stand out and garner greater attention, but THAT IS NOT where you should start.
You need to start at the top, your business strategy and the value you bring to the market and those who buy it.
In his recent HBR article, 'Keep Strategy Simple,' Dr Graham Kenny believes strategy should only exist at the business level, with departments playing their part in executing that business strategy.
AG Lafley and R. Martin, in 'How to Win: How Strategy Really Works,' say to focus first on finding and creating the field and space in which you will play and then on identifying how you will win.
Understanding the value you bring at a business level helps everything else fall into place much easier.
I recently read 'No Bullshit Strategy' by Alex M H Smith, which covers this beautifully and resonates with my way of thinking. For Alex, your business strategy should be the unique value you bring to the market. How you deliver that through your products and services comes next, with how you communicate about that clearly and compellingly following behind.
Many will say most businesses don't offer something unique, which is fair, but business leaders should still seek it out.
Finding something different in the value you bring to customers, something many of them will want and need, shapes the products and services you design, create, and build, the experiences you deliver, and how you communicate about what you do in new, compelling, and distinctive ways.
It starts with asking yourself what is our something different.
What value will we bring the customer that they couldn't get elsewhere?
