He shamelessly cited the momentum of the corporation, its ability to to move in the same direction even when beset by challenges or unexpected market forces, because the sheer volume of trade wouldn’t be impacted by sporadic issues.

Looking back, one sees that he worked for what is possibly the least innovative company on earth. It did, step by step, months and often years after the competition, adapt to new realities. And as it did, it remained afloat. There’s a lesson there. If you’re such a giant, you can get by with doing the least possible, relying on a mind-bogglingly large client base to pay for your sluggish behaviour.

Then there’s the rest of us. While Mike Tyson isn’t known for his business strategy, he taught us a valuable lesson when saying that “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”

When wisdom comes from a boxer, you expect it to be direct and visceral. But consider his words for what they really mean. Our strategy is a longer term and broader reaching sequence of events than a boxer’s plan. We hope to go on for longer than a handful of rounds. But it can also be derailed by a sudden and unexpected turn of events. Which we have all had to contend with to a certain degree when a pandemic comes knocking on our door.

For better or worse we’ve all adjusted our strategies. We’ve hunkered down, assessed our costs, reevaluated our resources, sought new client bases… We have also pivoted entire businesses, reassessed our brand’s purpose, figured out new ways to reach our audiences…. But have we really, fundamentally, worked on our strategy?

It seems to me that we have changed plenty of tactics. In military terms, we have picked our battles and sought to fight them on familiar ground. But is it possible to win plenty of battles and still lose the war? Let’s look at WWII and find out:

When the sovereignty of Poland was under threat by Nazi Germany, Britain raised an admonishing finger. They said, in no uncertain terms, that invading Poland would be tantamount to a declaration of war. We all know what happened.

Years of bloody battles ensued, at tremendous human and capital cost until that fateful day when the Nazi flag was torn down from the Reichstag in Berlin.

With war finally over, Britain effectively handed over Poland to Russia to say thank you for their contribution that helped win the war.

Did Britain actually win the war if the first thing they did was hand over the very reason they started to fight in the first place? Is it possible to have a strategy that has a very defined goal at the outset and to lose sight of it once the going gets tough and does so repeatedly?

We have had wave after wave of blows and of hope. At the end of 2020 we were mostly acting like the turn of the New Year would somehow let the virus know that it had overstayed its welcome. We have had news of a vaccine followed by news of more virulent and deadly strains. We have had countries that had to double down on second and third lockdowns. What happens to our strategy when it takes more than one punch in the face?

The first thing to do is to step back from the noise, to view the bigger picture with the clarity that is afforded by standing away from the flames for a brief moment. There is a bitter irony to this. How can I help save my business that has little fires everywhere if I’m not running around with buckets of water, putting them all out?

It does help to step back though. When we’re busy fighting the small battles, we lose sight of the bigger picture, and the bigger picture is the company’s core purpose. Why did we set out to do all this in the first place? This helps us get back to the room and know which fires to prioritize and, in some cases, which to completely ignore. After all, prioritizing helps with the crucial endeavour of focusing our resources where they really need to be deployed.

While we’re a step back, it pays to see the business with the eyes of an outsider. Find an outsider you can trust and engage in honest and open dialogue with them. Chances are that this could be painful. It hurts when you’re asked why you do something the way you do it and find out that your only answer is, “because we’ve always done it that way.” Only repeat what you’ve been doing if you can find fresh justification to do so.

Base your updated strategy on agility and, if possible, on building a war chest in parallel. Acting like this pandemic will be over and then the sun will shine and there will be no more problems ever again is just nonsensical. The statistical probability of another pandemic next week is exactly the same as the start of this one was. And pandemics are not the only potential disruptors to global or local business. Your next strategy must be built on agile foundations, with steps in place to make sure you bend rather than snap when the next blow is dealt.

In the meantime, it is wise to think of a post-war economy. This sees a certain amount of jubilant and irrational spend but it also sees the entrenchment of a more thrifty mindset. Applying this to your strategy will help you build something of a warchest, squirreling away some funds to help with the next unexpected move.

Once you’ve updated your core strategy, leave it there for a while. Then revisit it after a week or so. There is a possibility that you will see it as familiar but that it will appear flat or slightly superficial. This is the point of revisiting. The best strategies are several layers deep. While laying out the foundations for business growth, for agility, for sustainable growth in brand value, and for long-arc product lifecycles, we do not always look around us at our environment and craft strategies to account for all possible avenues.

Is there a possibility that part of your strategy is designed purely to force your main competitors to overspend on marketing, depleting their resources? Could your strategy involve placing regulatory pressure that will eventually swing such a crucial aspect of the external environment your way? Have you considered that your most precious resource is human capital and how you could wind up employing all of the most valuable minds in your industry, gaining unshakeable advantage?

So revisit your strategy with a significantly broader perspective the second time around. Add depth and retain the elements that keep you nimble and unwavering. And when you’re done, summarize it. Reduce your strategy to the point where you can explain it to your mum in a lift ride. This could be the hardest step but it is crucial. Because once you’ve done that, it means more to you than anything and it is now in a format that can be communicated to everyone on the team. With everyone on the team working to the same strategy, it is going to be tough for anyone, or anything, to knock you off your course for longer than you can handle.

1. Step back from the noise and reassess your strategy without distraction from the daily grind
2. View your strategy as an outsider or with an outsider and retain those bits that withstand the scrutiny
3. Base your updated strategy on agility
4. Include provision for the gradual building of a resource war chest
5. Revisit after a while and add depth to your strategy, considering a wider set of influences on your business
6. Distill your new strategy into a very concise mantra and share it with your team

The post Add depth to your business strategy for built-in resilience appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

If you’ve done it before, it’s almost easy: you can finish your ALEX bookcase only consulting the instructions a few times. If you’ve done it enough times, you might even be able to DIY customisations not provided by the instructions. 

If you’re new, it’ll take you longer. Guidelines are good, but you learn more by doing. Your bookcase might come out a little wobbly, but it’ll serve you until you learn how to do it better. 

Now. 

Picture building an ALEX bookcase. 

You’re used to it. 

It’s something you’ve done before. 

You know what it’s all about. Every screw, every tool needed, every possible outcome. 

Except you’ve borrowed someone else’s tools, you’ve lost half the screws, and your house is on fire. 

That was strategy marketing in 2020. 

What’s strategy marketing?

How do you talk to your consumers? 

Social media, or events? Billboards advertising your products, or try-it-live stalls in supermarkets? Do you write blogs? 

Do you Tiktok?

What you do to communicate about your brand is strategy marketing. Strategy marketing takes an overall look at how your business is doing, and plans out the next steps, the next big event, the next investment that will push your business forward. It’s necessary for any organisation to have a strategy on how they’re going to market to their audience. It means knowing who your audience is, knowing what they like to hear, and figuring out the best way to combine those things into what can feed the bottom line. 

In 2020, however, strategy marketing had to pivot. 

Strategy Marketing changeover: 2020 edition

Most strategy marketing tactics focused on selling. 

You have a brand. It sells something – a product, a service, a way of living. A lifestyle. A promise.

To make your brand work, you come up with strategies that sell: buy one, get one; the last vacuum/plate cleaner/showerhead you’ll ever buy; how did you ever do without this airpod case for your earphones? It’s the norm. Consumers won’t buy something they don’t like the look of, won’t see the use of, or don’t understand, so strategies work around those issues with advertising, brand campaigns, and social media. 

For selling. It’s important to memorise that most of what happened before 2020 was to sell. 

With the pandemic, while more people were shopping online than ever before, brands struggled to connect. We’ve covered this in other blog posts, so we won’t repeat it now (have you read our ebook on it? It’s free!), but the ‘too long, didn’t read’ version is this: 

Wages went down. 

So sales went down. 

So people stopped talking to/about/with brands. 

So brands couldn’t reach their audiences. 

So profits dipped. 

And brands went into panic mode. Social media accounts which had gone dormant sprang back to posting. Websites due an update debuted their new look with sales. Brands that didn’t have websites made websites. 

It worked, for a little while, but the allure of new wore off, and brands were back at square one, wrestling with how to sell to audiences that don’t want to buy. 

What changed?

Strategies pre-2020 focused around selling. 

Strategies post-2020 should focus around talking. 

It’s a subtle shift. Barely noticeable unless you’re looking for it, and we were curious, so we looked for it. The biggest difference between 2020 and 2021 is that the central focus for why you needed a strategy changed from selling to conversation, from audience-as-consumers to consumers-as-audience. 

That changed what came after. Brands didn’t push prices, cheaper options, ‘try this or you’ll regret it’ products. 

Brands pushed help and conversation. 

It worked. 

Business strategy tips for 2021

A strategy is only as good as long as you’re willing to work on it. 

It’s not static. It can’t be moved from year to year and maintain the same strength. For a strategy to be effective, it has to be alive, a part of your business that changes as you do, adapts as you do. With the ongoing pandemic to reckon with and the fluidity of consumer behaviour an even greater concern than before, you need to make sure that your strategy for 2021 is apocalypse-proof. 

Here’s a few tips to help. 

• Adapt. You’ll have to change your strategy a couple of times until you find what works. The things that work for you, the things that work for your audience, and the things that work for your brand are a Venn diagram built on patience and trying things out. 
• Stay ahead of the technology curve. Cookies are ending. Google is updating. Facebook is becoming Instagram is becoming Facebook. To make the most of your strategy, you need to know what’s happening with the platforms you use. 
• Build trust, build connection. Your brand will survive if consumers want it to. Don’t be the reason they don’t. Foster connection with your audience first and foremost. Make people the centre of your brand’s purpose for existing. 
• Do what you say. Brands all make promises. Sometimes those promises get forgotten about. Not on the internet – not anymore. If you’re going to promise your audience something, hold to it. Donate to that charity. Give a percentage of profit to the community. Help. 
• Relax. We know it’s hard. Corporate brands are corporate because it’s safe, and it’s easier than taking a risk that doesn’t pay off – but people respond to casual brands, even if it’s just on a website or a Tiktok. They want to anthropomorphise a brand into someone or something that’s alive. Give them that. 

Ultimately, our one tip is this: when you’re looking to create a strategy, you need a centre-point, something that is going to drive your goals. Our suggestion?

Put people at the centre. Put your community at the centre. 

The greatest victories come when you understand your opponent and their desires and their wants as well as you know yours. From there, it’s easy to make a plan on how to succeed.

Just ask King Frederick II of Prussia, the reason potatoes are a fundamental staple of European cuisine. 

The post Business Strategy 2021: How 2020 threw out the Strategy Playbook appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.