Dave Trott over in the UK wrote a great short blog post today called “Strategy Is Sacrifice.”
It is brilliant because in a short analogy, Dave differentiates strategy for those that might struggle with it generally using wartime aircraft to show that subtraction is often the most necessary thing.
In most of the strategic projects I work on, the first question is about tackling things, adding things, what should a company be doing.
Which is typically the wrong answer and the wrong approach to an issue.
The better way to approach anything is by asking what should I not be doing.
In most instances, the correct answer isn’t to keep piling things on top of each other, but to take a scalpel to the issue at hand and clear away the things that are standing in the way of your results and you achieving what you need to achieve.
Addition is usually secondary to subtraction.
So are you actually adding or are you subtracting?