I Have a Strategy (No, You Don't)

The Illustrated Guide to Strategy

Howell J. Malham, Jr.

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781118484203
• eBook ISBN: 9781118526316
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

A smart and witty take on strategy... an essential business topic

Every day, millions of professionals around the world discuss strategy, and they assume that everyone else in the room defines "strategy" the same way. But they don't. Howell J. Malham Jr. has created a simply designed and illustrated book that goes straight to the heart of the issue. Through the largely facetious dialog of two line drawn colorful characters, this clever, irreverent book seeks to get everyone in the room on the same page using the same definitions for the same words. This is a crucial first step to any business proposition, yet it is often the most overlooked.

• An open and visual book that defines the most over-used (and least understood) business term: strategy
• Author is the co-founder of Insight Labs
• Produced in a wry style, this book offers a witty, inventive take on a common business problem

At a time when business in general is groping in the dark for new solutions to persistent problems, this book is a breath of fresh air, reminding readers that they have to build a foundation before they can scale the walls.

I Have a Strategy (No You Don't)

Strategy.

It's an interesting word, isn't it?

If you say it over and over, it starts to sound really strange.

(Try it.)

It's a military term derived from the Greek word

(strat

gia) meaning “generalship” or “the art of the general.”

Sun Tzu—the great Chinese general who authored The Art of War more than two thousand years ago—gave a great deal of thought to strategy.

He said, “All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.”

Carl von Clausewitz thought a lot about it, too.

He was a Prussian military strategist who fought against Napoleon Bonaparte I, emperor of the French.

In his famous book, On War, Clausewitz defined strategy as “the use of engagements for the object of war.”

These days, you hear the word strategy in business. You hear it a lot.

Problem is, most people in business don't know what it means.

Most people confuse a strategy with a tactic. That's a very common mistake.

A single tactic is not a strategy.

People who believe that are confused.

My father would encourage all of us to “pray for them.”

Some think strategy is a tool. That's another mistake.

They're confused, too.

Or they never had an opportunity to learn about strategy.

Or they're just lazy.

We pray for them as well.

(We pray they go away.)

Others think strategy is visual design.

Those people are very creative.

And have a really good eye.

And may very well understand the principles of design.

But graphic design alone is not a strategy.

Here's the simplest way to define strategy:

A planned, doable sequence of actions designed to achieve a distinct, measurable goal.

That's it.

Pretty simple, really. (But simple isn't easy.)

From this point on, promise yourself you will never take another meeting to discuss strategy until everybody in the meeting is clear on the definition of “strategy.”

(It will be a better meeting, I promise.)

Spending time and money in meetings to develop a strategy without a distinct, measurable goal is not smart.

(By the way, it's not strategizing either.)

It's called something else.

It's called f#@king off.

On company time.

(There's a lot of that going around these days.)

Business is full of “strategists” who don't know how to strategize, developing strategies for clients who don't know what strategy means.

After months and months, and hours and hours, self-proclaimed “strategists” deliver a big, fat PowerPoint with lots of charts and graphs. And then present very large bills.

Those folks are not really strategists. They're time wasters. Worse—you now think you have a strategy when you don't. (Remember The Emperor's New Clothes?)

So, when is a strategy really a strategy?

A strategy is a strategy if:

1. It has an intended purpose.

A strategy is a strategy if:

2. There is a plan.

A strategy is a strategy if:

3. There is a sequence of actions.

A strategy is a strategy if:

4. There is a distinct, measurable goal.

Those are the elements of strategy.

Let's recap. A strategy is a strategy if it has:

1. A purpose

2. A plan

3. A sequence of actions or tactics

4. A distinct, measurable goal

Every strategy needs at least one, essential tactic—that is, an action or device to help achieve a measurable goal.

It needs a narrative.

The story.

It's how to package and sell your strategy.

It's how to create buy-in and inspire others to understand, maybe even love your strategy.

Without a narrative, you can only sell strategy to strategists, which is like selling chemistry to chemists.

Four main elements and one, essential megatactic. That's a strategy.

If strategy were a mathematical equation it might look like this:

Let's look at strategy in action:

Like the strategy that parents use to get kids to eat vegetables they don't want to eat.

Combining a sense of play and imagination, parents develop a strategy t...

Table of contents

• Cover
• More Praise for I HAVE A STRATEGY (NO YOU DON'T)
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• I Have a Strategy (No You Don't)
• Principal Sources
• The Author