Ready, Aim, Fire! ….Adjust and fire again and again – a new kind of strategy
A C T I O N is the motto!
I could talk all day about strategy, but where would that get us?
My analytical mind loves a well thought out strategy that helps a company gain a competitive advantage.
I’ve been fascinated with strategy from way back in 2003 when I had the pleasure and privilege to be at Harvard among senior managers and executives from around the world. We were there as part of the Harvard Executive Education program taking “Strategic Marketing Management”. Our 12-hour days were filled with lectures and case studies. We were set up in teams. When we were not in the classroom we were reading, analyzing and discussing alternative go-to-market strategies, product and service offerings, evaluating manufacturing, improving efficiency, market segmentation, buying-decision processes, pricing, competitive advantage and so much more.
A week later I left the campus with a big binder filled with use cases and notes, and my head filled with amazing, powerful, brilliant strategies and ideas … only to learn that even the best strategy is useless unless it is impeccably executed. Companies that separate strategy from execution are jeopardizing their success.
Through the years I found myself in organizations that, despite their talent and knowledge, couldn’t seem to get anything done… and hence my passion for working with companies that are driven by action.
The wealth of available data, automation and analysis tools can often provide quick snapshots of trends from customers, and prospects web behavior, that when coupled with industry research, and some assumptions -- ta-dah …can help you develop a good strategy in a few weeks. The key word is good. All the extra work required to defend the assumptions might have to wait. No strategy is perfect. Just as “No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy” (according to Helmuth von Moltke, the Prussian strategist), no strategy will be perfect out of the gate.
The key here is that a well thought out strategy takes a long time to develop – and that’s not something that companies nowadays can afford before missing out on the market opportunity and or have one of their competitors taking over the space.
A C T I O N is the motto!
Bottom line – because no strategy is perfect, applying agile in your marketing strategy is vitally important. As marketers, we can use analytics to test our conclusion and assumptions, measure results daily/weekly and adapt accordingly either by moving into full execution or revising, until we reach market stickiness!
There is a higher cost of waiting and planning than there is in doing and improvising.
In weeks following I will expand and give you practical and proven tips on the following topics: event strategies, buyer persona, agile marketing, segmentation, and much more.
Tiziana Barrow
Founder, Tilagia