This is the best way to learn strategy, but most ignore it

If you want to learn a skill like strategy, there are lots of resources to help you do it: Books Courses Videos Newsletters Frameworks Podcasts Etc. These are all great, and I’d recommend anything you can get your hands on (especially if they’re by me *cough*). But there’s one problem with all that stuff. It’s […]

Here’s a brainless shortcut that actually works

In a way the core principle of strategy is that there are no shortcuts. There are no obvious, off-the-peg, brainless things you can just “do” to get competitive advantage.  Everything requires some degree of thought, insight, and risk. But you know, that may not be strictly true. Because I do believe there is one pretty […]

The 3 step process I use on every project

People often say that strategy is both “art and science”. I do agree, but I think there’s a better way of putting it: Strategy is intuition and analysis. Both are crucial, because each does a job the other can’t. Intuition allows you to take a holistic view of the situation, and generate truly original and […]

The Cybertruck is another strategic masterclass from Tesla

Sorry.  Here I am writing about Tesla again. I don’t even like Tesla!  But damn they just make for the cleanest strategic case studies, so I can’t help it. Elon Musk’s “secret masterplan” that got the company off the ground in the first place (and pretty much invented the electric car category) is basically the […]

I’ve finally figured out why most strategies are so bad

This idea comes from a Linkedin post I did which seemed to strike a nerve, so I thought I’d expand on it here. What are the ingredients of a great strategy? Data? Insight? Creativity? Skill? Leadership? Knowledge? Clarity? For sure, all that stuff is required.  But there’s one other thing which is just as crucial […]

The ONE word missing from almost every strategy I see

As you can imagine, I get a lot of people sending me strategies for feedback. And thanks to the fact that most of them have followed the steps in my book, they tend to be pretty good.  Definitely not the monstrosities that you normally see under the label of “strategy”. But there is one problem […]

How to 10x your strategy with one conversation

When you’re developing a strategy for your business, you know who the most helpful person is? It’s not your co-founder. It’s not your head of strategy. It’s not your head of marketing. It’s not your consultant. It’s not even your customer. No, the most helpful person – who nobody ever bothers to involve in the […]

Here’s how I know when I’ve found the right strategy

In the past few months I’ve been trying to make my writing more practical and useful. However the thing about strategy is that this approach only ever gets you so far.  You can only boil things down to simple instructions up to a point… after which you have no choice but to leap into the […]

This is a leader’s biggest responsibility – but nobody talks about it…

There’s a simple exercise that you’ve just got to try. Not only try in fact; you must make it a ritual.  Every year, or half year even, you should be doing this, recording the results – and, hopefully, the progress. It will tell you more about the strength of your organisation’s strategy (and thus its […]

If you’re serious about growth, you must drop this delusion

There’s a poisonous assumption you see in business, which goes something like this: I’m the best, but the world’s unfair, so I don’t get the results I deserve. I think we’re pretty much all guilty of it.  Nobody ever admits that they are where they are because they deserve to be.  Nobody ever thinks the […]