Strategy can be time-consuming and complicated. It requires research, analysis, thinking. It means working with other people, some of whom may have different views to our own. 

Meanwhile, the business needs to go on. So many things to do. So little time.

So we put off ‘doing strategy’ yet another day. Then something happens which draws us to it. 

Many years ago, I worked selling advertising. It required a thorough understanding of the customer’s business through questioning and discussion. I found that doing this in-depth ‘need find’ as we called it, was a strength. Within the hour which we had allocated, the customer had found that they had managed to switch off from the day to day operations. For the first time in a long time, they were able to think about strategy. It led to some long-lasting customer relationships and some very productive advertising campaigns.

In that situation, discussing strategy was a means to an end for both of us. I didn’t request the appointment on the promise of discussing strategy. What the customer wanted were sales leads that they could convert into business. To get the right quality of sales leads, I needed to design advertising that was aligned with and worked with the customer’s strategy.

A strategy is and always will be a means to an end. We don’t spend time thinking about strategy for fun but as a response to challenges that we face.

Strategy, therefore, should be at the very top of our priorities.

Unfortunately, we may have very negative feelings about strategy. 

• We may not have any strategies
• We may suspect that they are not working
• Perhaps there has been some resistance to them
• Maybe we were given a hard time justifying our performance and plan at an executive meeting
• Perhaps we neither understand ‘strategy’ or how to communicate strategy

As with anything in life that we fear, we must find a way of overcoming those negative feelings if we are to improve our situation.

To change our mindset to a more positive one, we need to work on our understanding of both strategy and communicating our strategy. 

Once we develop this understanding, we find that rather than avoiding thinking, talking, writing, and visualizing our strategy; instead, we seek out opportunities to do so.

They can ‘talk about the numbers’ within a planned and dedicated performance section of an interview or presentation.

They can also refer to relevant data spontaneously and by memory when needing to answer questions.

When we are communicating strategy, we need to be able to explain our thinking and justify our choices. Data provides that evidence.

The ability to remember the data for use under pressure isn’t about learning the facts like learning our maths and science tables at school. It’s about understanding the relationship between the numbers and the strategy. For this reason, the data we use to measure strategies may be different from the information we use to measure business operations.

When we measure our strategies correctly, our ‘numbers’ become valuable insight as to the success or otherwise of our approach.

Competitor analysis is where you want to analyze your competitors at a business or corporate level — for example; you might be comparing the level of innovation at Adidas and Nike. 

Competitive analysis is where you analyze your competition at a product level — for example; you might be drilling down into comparing the functionality of the shoes.

Understanding what we are dealing with is essential when developing a strategy. We have to be prepared to do the necessary research. 

When communicating strategy, we need to avoid over-complication. So, rather than talk about ‘competition’ as one big subject, we need to be able to break it down into much smaller pieces depending on our audience. Creating separate competitor and competitive strategies can, therefore, help us enormously.

If that is what is going through your mind, try it.

Pick any strategy you are either currently running or planning.

Just talk about it.

(To start with, perhaps do so in private rather than with an audience).

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Then review it.

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How did that go?

Did you find it easy?

Was it clear and concise?

If others had heard it, would they have been inspired?

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If everything went perfectly, congratulations! 

However, if you ‘just winged it,’ without any preparation, you probably found it a very uncomfortable experience.

Even with preparation, there is still a lot more to it than many people think.

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To communicate strategy well, to an influential audience, you need to focus on two things:

1. Firstly you need to have the right strategy. 
2. Secondly, you need to have thought, prepared, and rehearsed for how you are going to communicate it.

Communicating strategy well requires a process and takes preparation and practice.