The Way of Strategy (#22): The Basics of Strategic Assessment

Lately, we have been spending our time advising startups who are over focused on tactics, specific means and their set of technological methods. While they refused to recognize the risk and the consequences of not understanding the grand objective and connecting the proper tactical approach to it, these decision makers believe that "keeping it simple" and the use of a specific technology are the key to their business success.

We also spent a great deal of time, trying to convince them in the importance of assessing the marketplace settings before building a tangible plan. The problem began when they began to believe that their intuitive feeling is greater than the need for intelligent data.

Sidenote: The beginning section of our future book will focus on the fundamentals of the grand picture and how to develop a tangible strategy from it.

Regardless of the marketplace, the general fundamentals for competing strategically are always the same:

• Assessing the grand picture.
• Positioning oneself with proper planning; and
• Influencing through the implementation of direct and indirect methods.

Living in an information-driven society does not always mean that people would always make the proper decision. Our resolution is to emphasize the message of understanding the grand picture before making a strategic decision.