For the past couple of months I’ve been posting strategy insights on Twitter. You can follow me at https://twitter.com/stuart_cross.
Just in case you’ve missed them, here are the first 50 insights:
- Many companies fail because they’re great, not bad, at what they do – it’s just no longer valued, eg Kodak.
- Don’t let planning kill strategy. Focus on the what, not the how.
- Raise the bar and focus on your real priorities. What 3 things will really drive your long-term performance?
- Innovation is more valuable than problem solving. How do you split your time and effort?
- Don’t be mindlessly customer led. Innovation means that you must lead not follow the customer.
- Nothing fails like success. Even the best strategies erode, so you need to refresh it constantly.
- The #1 reason for top entrepreneurs’ success is the ability to ‘experiment fearlessly’. How fearless are you?
- Strategic success happens when you’re the first to profitably exploit a change in your external environment.
- The essence of great strategy = informed choice + timely action.
- Separate objectives from tactics. Be fixed on the vision, but flexible on the route.
- Your ability to deliver your strategy is directly proportional to the quality of your relationships.
- Who owns your growth agenda for the next 2-5 years? If no one, then you’ll always have incremental plans.
- Strategy is as much about what you’re not as it is about what you are. Are you clear what’s off-strategy?
- Avoid developing strategy within your annual planning process. It only leads to incremental change.
- A great strategic vision is specific, focused on outcomes, and gives a sense of how it will be made real.
- The top 3 threats to ongoing success? Arrogance, defensiveness and inertia. Focus on the future, not the past.
- If you’re not leading, you’re not succeeding. In what ways is your business a market leader?
- Successful strategies rely on serendipity as much as analysis. In what ways are you open to opportunity?
- A great strategy process starts with these two words: “What if…..”
- The 3 characteristics of sustainable business success: distinctiveness, operating excellence and agility.
- Which of these do you lead on – Best Product, Low Cost, Most Convenient, Best Service or Bespoke Solutions?
- The secret of great strategy is action. Only when you are doing stuff can you learn, grow and succeed.
- It’s better to be great in a poor market, than poor in a great market. Focus on your advantages.
- Ideas are the currency of strategy. Be a big spender in giving your ideas away to others in your business.
- When it comes to strategy, disruption is mandatory. Be bold. Sometimes you need a little dynamite.
- Having an effective organisation is more important than a great strategy. How capable is your organisation?
- The best strategies tend to be pretty simple. A simple solution is easier to understand, explain and deliver.
- Strategic success is far more about dogged, persistent action than it is about brilliant thinking.
- Failure is inevitable in any new venture. The secret is to fail quicker and cheaper than the other guy.
- A good strategist is a good storyteller. You need to tell a great story over and over again.
- Expect to communicate your strategy 6,000 times: 3 years x 200 working days per year x 10 meetings per day.
- Many busy, successful executives resent the time they spend on strategy. Find ways to engage, not bore them.
- Strategy is about choices and trade-offs. These require useful data, not ungrounded opinions.
- You can only succeed if you focus on a few – say 3 – key areas of the business. Dabbling drives failure.
- You must face into the real issues. Challenge assumptions and conventional wisdoms, and tell it straight.
- Always develop more than one possible solution. Robust alternatives give you clearer choices and trade-offs.
- Avoid long strategy reports. Instead of pages of analysis ask, “What are the five key issues we need to focus on?”
- Profitable growth is the benchmark of strategy. Don’t just fix current problems; deliver new growth.
- You must bring your “high level” strategy down to “ground level”. What specifically do you want to achieve?
- The 3 characteristics of great strategic leaders: passion, rigour and persistence.
- It’s fine to use opinions to develop strategy, but be rigorous in testing that they’re valid.
- Don’t fear competition. You need competition to create a market. Even Apple needs competitors to reference against.
- Shop your business. What does it feel like to be a customer of yours? What frustrations do you have?
- Don’t just ask customers, observe them. Customers are poor predictors of their own future behaviour.
- Ask different work groups to develop their ideal strategy for your business. What ideas do you get from new starters, retirees or suppliers?
- Discuss companies you admire in other sectors. What excites you about them, and how could you translate their benefits for your business?
- What will happen if you carry on with your current strategy? In the next 5 years, 2 years, 6 months?
- What are your internal barriers to growth? The biggest one is fear, masquerading as intolerance, of failure.
- Be prepared to cannibalise your sales. If you don’t do it your competitors will. Look at Gillette for inspiration.
- Invest in strategies, not initiatives. Ryanair could profitably add first class seats, but it ruins the strategy.
© Stuart Cross 2010. All rights reserved.