Make strategy great again

Strategy may be one of the most overused and misunderstood words in corporate America.  Words like mission, vision, plan are often ambiguous too, but not as bad as strategy.  Strategies’ meaning has not only changed over time, it has also collected many competing definitions and uses.  It’s a mess.

It’s sad to see strategy in such a state.  Its unique ability to unify leaders, animate plans, and inspire a vision has been weakened.  Here is a humble suggestion for making strategy great again.

Strategies are the ideas that you believe will bring success.  They are often the same ideas and ideals that have made you successful in the past coupled with new beliefs to make you successful in the future. 

If you are talking about what you want to become then you are casting a vision. If you are articulating your core function, then you are describing your mission.  If you are outlining what you will do, then you are building a plan.  If you are talking about what you believe will bring success, then you are defining a strategy.  A well-articulated set of strategies will inspire your vision, clarify your mission, and animate your plan.  Let’s give this great word a little help and clarification.  It will reward us for it.

Bonus Tip: Developing a strategy should not be outsourced and follows a simple process.  A third party can conduct the strategic analysis or facilitate the process, but developing the strategy is for the leadership team.  The ideas are better articulated when done by those who will live them and own them, not to mention the unifying esprit de corp it will bring. If you have never tried this or don’t know where to begin, try googling “strategic analysis.” It is a unique analytical exercise that can smoke out those beliefs.

There is much left unsaid about this important subject of strategy.  I hope you add your comments to it.