project in process: what is strategy?
June 8th, 2010 • posts i've written
click any of the images in this post to see the full size graphic
I’ve been working on a little project … and I’d like your help.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what exactly strategy is, and though I have a few answers myself, I happen to know a pantsload of clever, strategy-minded people who might be able to help me answer the question (that’s you, silly) more thoroughly and set the record straight(ish) for a large swath of our combined social graphs. Think of it as partly codifying the term to yourself and also finally explaining to dear ol’ mum just what you do all day.
So what is strategy?
Here’s my first crack at it – but I do need your help to really attack the question (how to help is below).
How you can help:
Option # 1 – Drop your response to the question in the comments below. I’ll try to think up a clever image for every comment that lends itself to one (but don’t let that box you in).
Option #2 – Grab the blank card image and go to town. Upload your finished product to Flickr and be sure to tag it ‘whatisstrategy’ – in case you’re wondering, I’m using the Knockout family of fonts (but feel free to make your contribution in your own flavor).
Option #3 – If you’re stumped right now, you can still share this post. Go ahead, twitter to your heart’s content.
Related posts:
126 Responses (add your comment)
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What about “Surprise!” – on the back?
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strategy is the sign at the end of the road after you’ve passed several junctions
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Strategy is the art of sacrifice.
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Brendan Cole June 8, 2010at 10:19 am
Strategy is amplifying what you’re good at…….
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Strategy is intended and consistent behavior over time.
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Strategy is having the guts to follow your gut instinct
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Strategy is the application of that over which you have control to the problem over which you do not.
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Strategy is knowing where you’re going before you grab your keys.
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I can’t claim this as my own, but my colleague Rachel likes to define strategy as:
What To Do + What Not To Do
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Scott Brewer June 8, 2010at 10:34 am
Strategy is not planning in the sense of working through an established list, but rather requires quick and appropriate responses to changing conditions.
- Sun Tzu
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Strategy is putting an informed intuition to work.
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Strategy is subtraction.
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The articulation of something that you can do better than anyone else and that enough people want you to do at a price that provides a satisfactory return PLUS a general description of how you are going to provide it.
It’s also a misused word that the vast majority of people consequently have no idea about.
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Strategy is connecting with people in a way that provides value, engages emotions, and enhances interest.
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from point A to point B, it’s all that happens in between
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What You Do.
Why You Do It Best.
How You Do It. -
Bo Damgaard June 8, 2010at 10:51 am
The dirty little secret of strategy creation is that there is no theory of strategy creation. Strategy has to come out of a creative process conducted by thoughtful people.
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Strategy is something you should be able to disagree with.
Otherwise it’s just irrefutable common sense.
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…purpose in practice.
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It doesn’t matter what turn you take when you don’t know where you are going. The absence of strategy.
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Strategy = http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimwolffman/4682440782/sizes/l/
Knowing A, knowing B and knowing a whole lot of the arrow that joins the two.
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Dan Weingrod June 8, 2010at 11:07 am
Strategy is defining an environment that drives success, yet allows for accident.
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The idea
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strategy is constructing something unique from the same set of building blocks your competitors have.
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Strategy is painting with stories
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establishing a foundational idea for other things/ideas to be built on/from
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the job of strategy is to establish a foundation from which ideas and products can emanate from
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“Trust me, I am a strategist.”
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Strategy is not only knowing what you are going to do before you do it, but why.
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Figuring out the best way to get from here to there.
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Strategy stems from the economic concept of “leaving money on the table”.
Strategy is the combination of being able to accurately identify whatever is “on the table” paired with the smarts needed to know how to pick it up.
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Strategy is an educated guess of what’s around the next corner based on relevant collected data and astute observation.
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I’ve got three to pick from:
1) Training your gut.
2) Finding a new way in.
3) Adding value.
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the foundation from which everything else emanates
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Strategy is keeping the conversation or game going. Props to Princeton WordNet and their def of strategem.
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Strategy is answering the question: “Why should anyone care?”
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Justin Spohn June 8, 2010at 1:28 pm
Strategy is the constitution of the your project. It’s the founding, unwavering rationale that motivates what you’re doing. Concrete enough to provide guidance, flexible enough to be applicable for the lifespan of the project.
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Strategy is how you go about getting the stuff you want.
It’s also an inbuilt human capacity.
Watch a toddler who wants a cookie—“First I’ll ask, next I’ll act cute, finally I’ll have a tantrum.”
All strategic decisions.
1) What I want = Cookie
2) Strategy = Ask (and hit Dad first ‘cause he’s an easier mark).
3) Execution/Creative = Remember to say “please”.Another very simple way to think about it: strategy is the “what” and “why”, creative is the “how”.
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Jonas Persson June 8, 2010at 1:50 pm
Strategy is doing things today that you know you will benefit from tomorrow.
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Finding patterns in chaos
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Strategy is foresight (and knowing what to do with it).
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Strategy is knowing exactly where the problem lies and where the solution’s most likely to be found.
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strategy is the art of creating advantage
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Jeremyet June 8, 2010at 5:51 pm
Strategy is how we justify doing and making stuff.
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Strategy is not:
- a lofty mission statement
- simply a value proposition
- different from your other 15 department, communication and digital strategies
- only understood by the C suite
- incredibly confusing and complex
- only useful at townhall meetingsStrategy is/consists of:
- An OBJECTIVE (ends the strategy is trying to achieve and time frame for achieving it…specific, measurable and time bound). A SCOPE (the landscape you will operate in). And an ADVANTAGE (what you will do differently from others, competitive value prop – this will get you thinking about the cost elements of a business model).
- It can be readily communicated and internalized by all employees * this is where agency and consulting strategies fail
- Acts as a guiding light when making decisions -
JoRoan Lazaro June 8, 2010at 6:42 pm
Strategy is the difference between long, lazy S turns in deep powder VS jackhammer compressions through a bump run VS the adrenalized tunnel vision of riding through a dense glade of trees. It’s a given that you will get down the mountain, gravity is not meant to be fought. How you do it, and how well you do it, can be correlated to advanced preparation, practice and forethought. Understanding the landscape ahead. Making course corrections as needed.
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favorite so far is ‘finding patterns in the chaos’.
id add, strategy should be a bridge (or bridges) from problem to solution.
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Without the last minute, nothing would get done.
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Strategy is [re]drawing something out of a {always} imperfect future.
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Darrell Whitelaw June 8, 2010at 9:07 pm
Strategy is the new creative.
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Strategy is just theory until someone puts it into practice.
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Strategy is the end goal and all the steps you need to get there.
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Strategy is the critical path to building a solution.
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Strategy is over-rated.
Point A. Strategy. Point B. -
Strategy is navigating from a problem to a solution.
Efficiency is cutting through the bullshit to find the best path.
Creativity is veering off and then finding you way back.
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Strategy is “channeling serendipity”.
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Strategy is tapping into that 20/20 hindsight before you even get started.
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avinivini June 9, 2010at 5:52 am
Strategy gives you chance to have Plan B as well.
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dom boyd June 9, 2010at 8:13 am
Like a having a compass in fog.
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dom boyd June 9, 2010at 8:14 am
Strategy is like having a compass in fog.
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John Greene June 9, 2010at 8:25 am
Strategy is often thought of as deciding what to do, when it’s actually deciding what not to do. The best story I’ve heard that illuminates this is about Ted Williams. When asked how to be a great hitter, he responded simply: “get a good pitch to hit.” It’s the same with organizations. http://thennowsoon.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/ted-williams-kung-fu-panda-and-strategy/
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Strategy is identifying the right problem, the right opportunity and ultimately the right goal. And then showing the best way to get there.
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Strategy is to draw a new path.
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Strategy is being invisible in the forest and yet having an effect of being there.
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Vision is What you want you become.
Strategy is how you get there. -
AudioAndroid June 9, 2010at 10:00 am
strategy
/strattiji/
• noun (pl. strategies) 1 a plan designed to achieve a particular long-term aim. 2 the art of planning and directing military activity in a war or battle. Often contrasted with tactics (see TACTIC).
— DERIVATIVES strategist noun.
— ORIGIN Greek strategia ‘generalship’.
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Strategy, when you have one, is knowing fairly quickly if the answer is yes or no.
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Strategy is the art of selecting which stakeholders to disappoint.
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Thinking about what nobody wants to talk about.
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Strategy is a best attempt to beat Murphy
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Planning for success,
Preparing for failure,
Positioning yourself to know the differenceHere’s my (modest) creative: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mostlymuppet/4685596370/
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Aaron June 9, 2010at 12:02 pm
Strategy is finding that truth which makes you believe
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The art and science of planning for optimum results by effective and efficient implementation.
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Action, before it happens.
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In a new business in trying various things, whatever works eventually can retrospectively called as strategy.
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Marissa G. June 9, 2010at 12:22 pm
Making your client’s piece fit into the industry’s puzzle
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Do this, get that.
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Strategy is magnifying glass
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a calculated plan, spiced with daring and creativity to achieve what you need
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Here’s my definition: http://bit.ly/azmXvU
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Strategy is not about how to build the bridge, rather, it is about assessing the landscape and knowing where the bridge should end.
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dom boyd June 9, 2010at 4:16 pm
REMIXING.
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Strategy is doing what others are unwilling to do.
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Strategy is…
1. asking the right question?
2. creating a true difference
3. knowing how your brand helps people
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In a world of increasing noise and instant gratification, strategy is about being clear on the core values you stand for so people get a chance to remember you.
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Elroy June 10, 2010at 1:43 am
It is the best subjective plan of action to attain a desired end
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Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
Sun Tzu
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Strategy = Optimizing all relevant constraints/variables to reach a defined goal
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Strategy = Optimizing all relevant constraints/variables to reach a defined goal
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21646616@N03/4687362089/
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Strategy is evolving your USP in line with the principles of a light-speed version of natural selection.
(this is my own definition, adding my own twist to the standard Boston Consulting definition)
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Strategy is knowing what the right thing to do is and why. Strategy is knowing what not to do and why.
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Strategy is being able to fill out a game theory matrix and not pursuing the cells that say “0″.
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Brendan Cole June 11, 2010at 7:01 am
Strategy is applied foresight.
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Jennifer L Evans June 11, 2010at 8:13 am
Strategy = Using all your fingers and all your toes, as opposed to just the big, bossy index finger.
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schneho June 11, 2010at 8:59 am
strategy is to think before you do.
a good strategy helps you to reach your goal faster, easier or cheaper. -
Strategy is the ability to identify what is unique, meaningful and worth acting on amidst a plenitude of mostly vacuous information.
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Strategy is much like critical reasoning 101: who, what, why, when and how.
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Strategy = 1 + 1 > 2.
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Strategy is condensing the most complex of ideas, challenges and objectives into an equation that makes business sense.
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Strategy is having the courage to say NO.
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Eva Hasson June 12, 2010at 2:50 pm
Strategy is about framing the problem
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strategy is a filter to make any decision.
strategy is understanding what role each component plays.
strategy is… more fun when pronounced strategery..
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Strategy = Aim + Adjustable Action plan
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Strategy is what turns something complicated into something [much] simpler.
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Inspire
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putting your pants on BEFORE your shoes = strategy.
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Strategy is the creative insight that reality overlooks.
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colorblind frida June 16, 2010at 12:27 pm
Here’s where I use all the German I know:
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I don’t give a fuck about strategy, do it, if it works, do it again, if it doesn’t, don’t
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Andrew Gregoris June 18, 2010at 8:56 am
Tactic without strategy is the noise before defeat
Sun Tzu
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Strategy = Google Maps
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@ophil June 21, 2010at 6:52 pm
Strategy is conscious decision making
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Strategy is the blueprint of action.
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Strategy = Coherence
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strategy is to think about what you want to do in your holidays.
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Strategy is the plans you make to enable your vision
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Strategy is nothing without a mission (statement). Once you have a mission you have to work out the logical steps to achieve that mission. Strategy should also not have a defined length, it could be 2 lines or 20 pages, just so long as you have one.
Link – http://bit.ly/998Bi0