Strategy is throught to be critical for planning and budgeting but is often misunderstood as a ‘discription’ of elements or ‘categorization’ of goals when really strategy is the set of ‘guardrails’ or rules for making choices within functional departments so their operations (tactics) align. A decision tree is therefore a daisy chain of strategic choices that link information flows across the functions.
Basic Idea
Wherever you hear about the word “strategy” you also hear a multitude of definitions or explanations that talk around what the ‘noun’ of strategy is, often using abstract terms but never as clear as terms like “plan” or “roadmap”. Some strategies have earned their own unique names and back stories, (eg: Trojan Horse, Fabian, Conbined Arms, etc.) or been labeled by their category of strategies (eg: positioning strategy, differentiation strategy, go-to-market strategy etc.). You might have been told to use the word as a kind of ajective (eg: strategic plan, strategic roadmap). Where all these approaches to define and explain strategy fall short is that they over use a single word to mean several things across difference contexts.
Alternative Idea
For “strategy” to not be “a smart or clever plan” is must be different than what a plan entails – which is often a list of sequential steps, committment of resources and timeline, and assigned stakeholders responsible for its execution. A strategy, or ‘several strategies,’ would be the ‘rules (aka policies) that govern choices that go into the Plan. For example, the plan to grow revenue must choose which manner in growth… that choice can be organic (sales) versus inorganic (aquisition). When the ‘strategy’ is to Penetrate the Market, not Aquire Existing Businesses, then the Plan must reflect that choice with appropriate steps, timeline, resources, and stakeholders. But “Penetration” is only the category of strategy and doesn’t say anything about how YOUR penetration would be distinct from any others, like those by your competitor, and you aren’t trying to copy the herd. So the way you will penetrate the market matters, such as how employ a market-driven penetration or a product-driven penetration. The first implies investment into greater competencies and capabilties of the marketing orgnaization to stimulate demand with education and reach while the other invests into the product organization to serve existing demand with greater fit. Two separate paths where limited resources may force a trade-off choice between the two. Your strategic dilemma is to pick between the two Penetration Strategies and then align all your plans for execution along the guardrails of the strategic option chosen. To depict a Product-Based Penetration Strategy so your leadership and heads of teams can derive further plans is a great place to engage a strategist whose focus is on diagraming the distinction between options and mapping out their chain of consequences so you can confidently rally stakeholders for strategic alignment.
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Decision Tree is dedicated to guiding clients through their decision making workflows to help you unlock your full potential and achieve your goals. Our long-term relationships are built with mutual support and collaboration at the center of the engagement. While the results may produce “recommendations” the main deliverable is a set of strategic options with evaluation scores on each so you have alternatives and contingencies at the ready. The tangible results are closing information gaps and breaking analysis paralysis while building concensus and buy-in across teams.