My unofficial definition of strategy
Most definitions of strategy are vague. Strategy is a set of insights you believe will win, making the tactical decisions easy or obvious.
Kevin C. Whelan
There’s a lot of definitions of strategy.
None of them are particularly clear or obvious. So here’s the way I think about it:
To me, strategy is about having one or more insights that you believe will give you a competitive advantage if applied, making many of the tactical decisions easy or obvious.
How you get to those insights is a story for another day. It might be a combination of research, data, knowledge of the market factors, product-related, instinctive, or any combination thereof.
The key is that when you have these insights, it’s easy to recall them and use them as a lens to make tactical decisions. They should also make a self-evident case for how they might help you win.
That’s a good a definition of strategy as any, in my eyes. It’s not the “right” definition, but it works in practical terms for the strategy work I do with my clients.
So what conscious (or unconscious) insight (s) drive your business and marketing tactics?
What’s your strategy?