How to validate your strategy
Two one-way signs on a street, pointing in different directions.
When helping clients define their values, we always try to steer them away from “table-stakes” language. You know, values like “Honesty” and “Integrity”, which represent the bare minimum required of any business.
Recently, we’ve been helping a client articulate their business strategy and have noticed a similar thing applies. If your stated strategy is something any business would sign up for, it’s not a strategy.
One way we help clients identify table-stakes values is by applying what we call the “as opposed to” test (as in “Honesty, what, as opposed to Dishonesty?”). No sensible organisation would ever cite “Dishonesty” as one of its values. The exercise exposes “Honesty” as a value that’s vapid to the point of meaninglessness.
Similarly, management thinker Roger Martin encourages leaders to ask of any strategy “Is the opposite stupid on its face?”.
For example, if your IT strategy talks about ensuring the “suitability” of the IT system for its users, it’s not a true strategic choice.
That’s because no business would strive for unsuitability in their IT solutions. The opposite of “build suitable IT systems” is, what Martin calls “stupid on its face”.
Similarly, says Martin, being “customer-centric” or “operationally effective” are not strategic choices. You need them to stay in business, but they won’t give you a competitive edge.
True strategic choices involve making decisions competitors might not make, like entering or exiting a particular market or expanding into a new product line.
So to validate any aspect of your strategy, ask:
Is this a choice that some (or even all) of our competitors would reject? (If so, congratulations: you’re making a strategic choice.)
Is the opposite of this choice stupid on its face? (If so, it’s back to the drawing board.)
And remember, whatever your strategic choice, be sure to express it in simple language that makes it clear what you’re expecting from your employees. Here’s a tool to help you nail your strategy down in words everyone can understand.
