Dear Tony, 

My impression is that strategic thinking is important to get promoted.  Where do I start when it comes to strategy?  What is it, and how can it help my career? 

-Strategic in Santa Fe

Dear Strategic,

The best way to think about strategy is it’s a way of improving anything, and creating a plan to achieve some objective or outcome.  How to do this is where everyone gets lost in mission, vision, initiatives, outcomes, tactics, etc. 

The best way I have found to start when improving strategic thinking skills are the 3 elements below, in order.  It is important to view these in order!

1. Corporate Strategy.  This is the first and highest level of strategy.  This kind of strategy revolves around answering the question:  “What business are we in?”.  Most famously, Mark Cuban thought he was in the basketball business when he bought the Dallas Mavericks.  Cuban forced the organization to keep asking the question over and over, “What business are we in?”.  They eventually landed on “Entertainment experience”, with basketball being a tactical objective to creating awesome experiences for fans everywhere.  ALL leaders must understand what business you are in, and there is no room for error when asking this question. 
2. Competitive Strategy: Once you know the answer to #1 above, then you must answer “Can we compete and win versus others?”  What makes us different?  What are our core competencies that other companies don’t have or can’t develop easily?  What things can we deliver that customers love?  You must critically evaluate your business and determine what value proposition would win, and why customers would choose it vs. others.  The answers to these questions will lead to actions related to go to market strategies, as well as investing in future improvements to the firm. 
3. Operational Strategy: Once you pick what business you are in (#1), and you determine what would make you competitive and give you a winning formula (#2), then you must lastly determine if you can deliver the goods.  Do you have all the resources you need?  Do you have a sustainable plan to promote, sell, and support customers?  Do you have what it takes to reach existing and new customers? 

The above 3 areas are a great starting point for anyone looking to learn more about strategy.  When someone says “We need a strategy”, ask them what kind of strategy they are talking about.  Do some research on your firm and ask yourself how you would answer the questions above for your own company.  If you lead a department, walk through the 3 levels of strategy above and see if you and your team can answer these questions. 

Thinking about strategy with these 3 levels in mind will help you tremendously in your career.  Be the leader who can both ask and answer the questions under each level.  By doing this, it will sharpen your strategic thinking skills so that when somebody gives you the chance to lead someday you will be ready for it.

-Tony