Why general company strategies fail

Read time: 4 minutes

Hey there 👋 - it's Brian.

In today's issue, we'll cover the most common mistake businesses make when building their strategy: they're not focused on their biggest business challenge.

We'll talk about:• The problem with generic business strategies• How to find your biggest challenge• How to create a strategy that tackles your challenge

To learn to position your business to grow, you can subscribe by clicking below:

A message from Through the Noise

There are a lot of news sources on startups and venture capital, but it's hard to get beyond just the surface. I want to understand the story behind the startup and feel like part of a community.

Through the Noise does just that. They deliver simple stories in the VC/ Startup space to help you understand what's really going on.

Cut through the noise in startups and venture capital each week, read by 12,000+ creators, entrepreneurs and investors.

Try it free here:

"Deciding what not to do is as important as deciding what to do"- Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs knew that if he said "yes" to everything, Apple wouldn't be the behemoth it is today. He had to focus his efforts on projects he felt would change the world and say "no" to anything else.

Most companies think they're focused, but in practice, their strategy is too broad to make an impact.

Let's look at an example:

Traditional strategy is so generic that it's useless

Most strategies start with a loft vision or mission statement. Here's the vision from Meta:

In other words... "to be a social network."

Is there any social network on the planet that doesn't want to build a community and bring the world closer together?

There's no harm in having a vision. In fact - I use it in the first step in my favorite strategy framework - The Strategic Choice Cascade. Visions are great to inspire the business, but too general to be a foundation for strategy.

The problem: most companies use this generic vision to guide their strategy. When the foundation of your strategy is too broad, your strategy becomes generic. This means money, time, and resources are divided across many initiatives. The more divided, the less likely your initiatives are to succeed.

In practice, a generic "strategy" becomes a list of goals.

Does this look familiar?

• We will reform our talent model• We will redesign our org structure• Update systems

Doesn't seem very focused, does it? It feels like a list of "to-dos" rather than coordinated initiatives targeted at solving the biggest business problems.

Let's turn this from a list of "to-dos", into coordinated initiatives that work together to solve the business' biggest challenges:

How to focus your strategy to take on the biggest challenges

Instead of creating a generic strategy for your business, you want to focus your resources on the problem that has the most impact on your business.

For this example, let's assume the problem is the business is not growing fast enough. Our goal is to understand what's causing the problem.

1) Label the growth challenge and get specific:• Which customer segment has grown the most? Least?• Is it a change in # of customers or amount they spend (by segment)?• Is there a difference by geography? Distribution channel?

We want to narrow down specifically where the problem is.

Then, you want a theory as to what's causing the issue externally (customers and competitors) and internally (within your business).

2) Example external causes:• Market is saturated and it's getting more expensive to reach more customers• Competitors are coming in and you're losing your advantage• Customer preferences are changing• A perceived decrease in company value (e.g., mistake in PR, advertising, poor positioning)

Now, we look internally, and see what obstacles our business is facing that are causing the issue.

These obstacles are what we can fix with our strategy:

3) Example internal causes:• Your value is not clear to the changing customer segment• Talent doesn't have expertise in the new customer segment• Customer service not prepared for changing preferences• Customers can't understand product pricingNow when you craft your strategy, you'll make choices aimed at fixing these obstacles.

Strategic Choices

Now the problem you're tackling is much clearer, isn't it?

Instead of a general vision for your business you now have:• A specific challenge you're targeting• A theory as to what's going on in the market and causing the challenge• Obstacles in your business stopping you from solving the challenge

This makes your choices much easier because you now know each choice should be helping you remove the obstacles getting in the way.

Anything that doesn't solve the problem is either de-prioritized or labeled non-strategic.

Much more targeted!

Ready to focus your strategy on your core business challenge?

If you want help, reply to this email with "I'd love help with my growth" and I'll point you to resources to help.

I read every email and will answer your questions in future content.

See you again next week! 👋

Brian

Previous issues to help you build your strategy:

• What is Strategy• Build your Strategy• Strategy Docs

I've created an awesome guide that I want to bribe you with.

I've helped 30+ Fortune 500 clients position themselves to grow.

They all use this one growth strategy framework which I've summarized on one page.

Share this newsletter with 1 friend and you will get access to this $45 resource for FREE.

Share using the Click to Share button below: