Strategy isn’t just a plan, it’s a mindset.
Who is your business becoming?
Who are you becoming as a leader?
What kind of world are we heading into?
In 1997, my brother-in-law saw it coming: a more connected world, faster internet, and a willingness to trade almost anything, for convenience and connection. The big question now is: What are you seeing ahead?
Strategy isn’t just a plan, I think it’s a way of thinking, a philosophy of becoming. It starts with powerful questions: Who do you want to become? What kind of world are we helping to shape? Back in 1997, my brother-in-law predicted that the world would become more connected, that internet speeds would accelerate, and that people would willingly trade many things for convenience and connection. He wasn’t wrong. Strategy lives in that kind of foresight, seeing where the world is going and choosing who we want to be as it unfolds.
Strategy is about clearly defining the change we want to make in the world and identifying the tools and capabilities we have to make that change happen. It also involves understanding how we can leverage time, systems, and even elements of play or gamification to support people in achieving their goals. I think that when we have clear answers to these questions, marketing becomes a much more straightforward task.
Strategy is not a plan, tactics or instructions manual! Strategy is a guiding philosophy of becoming, it’s a way of looking at the world as it is and deciding how you want to change it. It’s not a guarantee, it’s not a map, it’s a compass. Strategy will help to keep you aligned with your purpose, even as you adjust to challenges along the way. As it doesn’t matter how fast you run if you are going in the wrong direction. Who are you here to serve? And how are you hoping to change them?
A military general is a strategist who does not react impulsively to every situation. Instead, general’s have a strategy and a plan for when things occur, they pay close attention, take a step back, assess the situation, and only then decide the best way to allocate their energy, time, and resources. This allows them to create an effective plan of action for their next move. In contrast, those who are constantly reacting to events are not strategists; they lack the calmness required for thoughtful planning. I like information because it allows me to understand what has happened and determine the best course of action. And with the necessary information, I can make informed decisions and move forward effectively. The only time I struggle to strategise is when I don't have all the information I need.
““Sometimes I am so clever that I do not understand a single word of what I am saying.””
How do you translate content into practice in a scalable way?
Sometimes by making small optimisations you can substantially increase your revenue. I think the following questions are important to ask yourself before you launch your growth strategy:
What do I know?
- Identify, assess and list all the relevant knowledge and skills you have regarding the content you want to apply.
What are my resources?
- Identify the resources at your disposal, for example, financial resources, time, mentors, etc.
What’s my experiment?
- Plan and design your experiment by creating a hypothesis, defining your method, and setting measurable goals.
How do I move forward?
- Based on your experiment's results, create a detailed action plan which should include timelines, responsibilities, and key milestones.
And how can I do that at scale?
- Determine how you will expand by looking at things like your resources, challenges, and strategies for maintaining quality and efficiency at a larger scale.
Contact me via email for a deeper dive into your growth strategy.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) is on the agenda for every organisation, business, school, government etc., not only because of its business case, but also because it’s the right thing to do. Despite the sudden rise and talk in boardrooms, companies, HR, schools etc., the current DEI landscape still suffers from the lack of global standards in the field, the lack of consensus on how to define and measure success of DEI implementation. The gap between intention and action is growing. Our team of DEI experts understands all of this and are available to help organisations navigate these caveats. Contact me here, or via e-mail to arrange a meeting.
Effectively measuring a product or service lies in the realm of how it makes people feel. My ability to connect the dots stems from a wealth of diverse experiences, allowing me to see the connection between seemingly unrelated things. This capacity is rooted in psychology rather than technology. In my experience delving into psychology proves more fruitful than pursuing rational improvements when trying to enhance people's emotional experiences.
““I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ”
The difference between the cook and the chef. While these verbs are often used interchangeably, there is an important nuance. The chef is a trailblazer, the person who invents recipes, he knows the raw ingredients and how to combine them. The cook, who reasons by analogy, uses a recipe, he creates something, perhaps with slight variations, that’s already been created. The difference between reasoning by first principles and reasoning by analogy is like the difference between being a chef and being a cook. If the cook lost the recipe, he’d be screwed. The chef, on the other hand, understands the flavour profiles and combinations at such a fundamental levels that he doesn’t even use a recipe. He has real knowledge as opposed to know-how.
Game theory is a mathematical framework to understand how decision-makers make choices and interact strategically in situations where the outcomes of their decisions depend not only on their own actions but also on the actions of others. I have used game theory to study and analyse strategic interactions between decision-makers and competitors. Markets are not perfectly efficient they are discovery mechanisms, and through this discovery process it will clarify what people will willing to pay for. Therefore, price reduction is not a strategy as there is an appropriate level of costs for your business and for the market niche you seek to fill.
I think you can’t really understand human behaviour unless you understand game theory because we are social species and most of our mental evolution has evolved by developing how to second guess other people.
If you agree with the Greek philosopher, Aristotle, that all human action is purposeful in some way, and you are only truly happy when you are doing something that is moving you toward something that you want. The big questions then become:
· What are your goals?
· What purposes are you aiming at?
· What do you want at the end of the day?
This year I had the opportunity to work with a global financial services organisation, and they clarified their purpose as ‘enabling positive futures’. In other words, the better able they are to deliver financial services, the more likely they are to enable the positive futures of their customers. The key was that every employee in their organisation was conscious of this purpose and incorporated it into everything they did.
Strategic planning is the ongoing organisational process of using available knowledge to document a business's intended direction. This process is used to prioritise efforts, effectively allocate resources, align shareholders and employees, and ensure organisational goals are backed by data and sound reasoning. Goal setting is a purposeful and explicit process that starts with identifying a new objective, skill, or project you want to achieve. I think it’s important that you make a plan for achieving it, and you work to complete your goals. I am a skilled developer in strategic planning from conception to implementation. Contact me via e-mail for executive coaching and team assessments, as well as organisational assessments and strategic planning.
It’s not just about omni-channel, it’s about customisation, community, and content. Individuals with unique personal goals and achievements brought together to form global communities. I think the best way to build a community is to ask for help and only ask when you are ready to listen. For example, my cousin, Rocky released his book, “From Rock to Riches: Using the WEALTH Formula” this week. The book describes his journey from the Jamaican countryside to financial independence in the UK. With the support from family, friends and acquaintances the book is currently number one on the bestseller list in eight categories on Amazon.
⁃ Design is a concept for both the product and the experience.
⁃ Strategy is how a quality product gets into the market and becomes known globally.
“Strategy is about setting yourself apart from the competition. It’s not a matter of being better at what you do - it’s a matter of being different at what you do.”
Strategy is not only what you talk about doing, strategy is also something you do. I think that to develop a bold and executable strategy starts with making sure leaders have addressed these two questions:
· What are we great at?
· What are we able to achieve?
How will you be different than your competition? Contact me via e-mail for a deeper dive of your strategy.
As a strategic leader it’s important to develop the direction the organisation is going via workshops. In my experience big ideas result from collaboration, study, and research analysis. Once you have the big idea you must develop a clear communication strategy of how you will communicate them efficiently throughout the organisation. Afterwards, oversee the implementation of these big ideas and finally, determine how the big ideas need to be refined and changed on a continuous basis. I think communicating these big ideas takes place daily through everything that you do. Contact me via e-mail for a meeting to discuss your workshop options.
How does purpose drive performance?
Your purpose will be the foundational base for driving strategy, so sharpen and tweak it continuously, and this will also help to implement it. Purpose is not a statement, it’s an ideal. Purpose is a sense of what are my goals and ambition, purpose also asks what my duties are and why I exist. Writing the words is the easy part, the hard part is how you translate a set of words into a plan of action. And when you think long-term it forces you to think about the stakeholders you want to serve.
As a former sportsman I think strategy is about winning, not just about competing. Winning the game is about creating a measurable margin of difference in the value that we offer customers that gives them a compelling reason to choose us.
“A differentiation strategy is a way to stand out from the noise and give people a reason to choose your business over others. ”
There are two ways of being unique:
1) By doing something that nobody else is doing, or
2) By doing what everyone else is trying to do but doing it materially better in the eyes of the customer.
Time management is very important and we have the ability to manage our time. When we talk about time management there’s usually the ‘tips to be more efficient’, but that’s not the point of time management. It’s not all about being more efficient and productive, as it may lead to stress and overworking. It’s about embracing our freedom to choose what we want to do with our time, being able to understand that time is limited and that it’s up to our own judgement as to how we want to spend it. We have this tendency to trick ourselves into thinking we’re not free because being free to use your time as you please, means that you have to make a choice and live with the consequences of that choice. In reality, we do have time and time can be managed, it’s just that we don’t have a lot of it so there has to be sacrifices.
“Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. It is up to you to give life a meaning.”
Research shows that whenever people start thinking of time as money, they become greedy, less happy, and more restless. When time is spent without consideration, it becomes a persistent source of regret. How many times do you catch yourself ‘wasting time online,’ spending hours on Facebook not learning anything? I think that when it comes to time, we can either make excuses or sacrifices but only one of them will allow you to live a meaningful life.
The Day Reconstruction Model (DRM) measures how people spend their time and how they emotionally experience the various activities and settings of their lives, combining features of time-budget measurement and experience sampling. It looks a little like this:
PEAK - Usually in the morning and is the ideal time to do your heavy analytical work.
TROUGH - Early afternoon, here I would advise you to do adminstrative work.
RECOVERY (also known as the rebound) - Late afternoon/early evening and is the perfect time to do your insightful work.
Negativity is on the rise in the afternoon and falls during the evening. Understanding this pattern will have a very direct impact on the work you do and also when you schedule important meetings.
“We need to start thinking of breaks as a part of performance rather than a deviation from performance.”
