“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”
I wish I could claim that nugget of wisdom as my own, but unfortunately, some Harvard Business School professor beat me to it decades ago.
At some point in our professional lives, we’ve all been there– tasked with crafting a strategy for our product, department or organization.
Here’s what I’ve learned (from people way smarter than me): a solid strategy should be like a strict but loving Asian Tiger parent– it’s really good at saying “no.” It clearly maps out what we’re doing and, more importantly, what we’re absolutely, positively not going to do, even if that other thing looks really shiny and tempting.
I personally like to think of it as how Waze should work after a night out. A good strategy is that responsible friend (who is sober, of course) who says, “Look, we’re taking this route home– no, we’re not stopping for ‘just one more for the road,’ and yes, we’re avoiding those police checkpoints.” It’s direct, it’s clear and it probably just saved you from questioning your life choices.
Ultimately strategy isn’t about creating an exhaustive list of everything we could possibly do (though I’ve sat through enough meetings where that seemed to be the goal– as if people were getting paid per Powerpoint slide). It’s about making smart choices and sticking to them.