Hi!
I’ve been thinking about strategy during uncertain times.
“Things are just too crazy.”
Or, something like that…is often the first reason given when someone doesn’t have a strategy.
Right now, a lot of people are feeling uncertain.
But that doesn’t mean you should walk away from the idea of strategy.
You need to embrace strategy now more than ever.
Let me highlight 4 ideas to solidify the importance of strategy.
Strategy creates clarity amid chaos.
When things are chaotic, a clear direction is more important.
Without a direction, you often find your business:
- Reacting to the immediate challenge.
- Making rash decisions that whipshaw your business from one direction to the next.
- Struggle to set priorities.
A strategy forces you to define the first question: “What does success look like?”
This gives you a direction and provides a focus even when things are uncertain.
This focus provides a set of guardrails that keep you from getting lost or distracted.
Strategy helps you use resources effectively.
Uncertainty usually causes one of two reactions:
- People go buck wild, throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks.
- Becoming overly cautious and losing any ability to act.
Your strategy can help you in these situations by:
- Understanding what opportunities deserve resources.
- Use your resources to protect core aspects of your business.
- Gaining the ability to move quickly when things change.
In every situation, using your resources well is essential.
In an uncertain situation, having a strategy and an idea for using your resources well gives you an advantage even when dealing with similar circumstances.
Why?
Because you have a plan…and they probably don’t.
Strategy helps you position your business. Your position is a light in a storm.
In the best of times, people aren’t very good at positioning.
“Why me?”
In uncertain times, answering the “Why Me?” question becomes even more important because potential customers and partners become more selective.
Why?
- More options as people start struggling and opportunities dry up.
- Less cash flow makes buying decisions harder to come by.
- Businesses water down their position even further out of desperation.
These challenges make the business that is clear a beacon in a storm because you are focused, have clarity, and offer solutions.
That’s why I’ve always had the guiding principle of being “Focused! Effective! Profitable!”
In uncertain times, your strategy allows you to:
- Easily show why your approach is different and effective.
- Allows you to highlight how you deal with complexity and challenge.
- Gives you and your partners confidence because of the clarity of your focus.
These point folks towards “Why Me?”
Strategy guides you when things change.
The big thing about uncertainty is that you are likely dealing with constant change.
Constant Change + Rapid Change = Opportunity.
A strategy helps you deal with this because you have guidelines that push you in a direction but don’t tie your hands with a checklist of actions you must take.
A strategy:
- Gives you some frameworks to apply to every situation, like my Choice-Focus-Action framework.
- Helps you with pattern recognition, which can lead to more rapid actions.
- Allows you some tactical flexibility, so you aren’t tied to one set of actions.
The key isn’t to have all of the answers at the start.
The key to dealing with uncertainty is to be able to react to the situation you face.
That’s true in normal times, but even more so in uncertain times.
Let me know what your strategy looks like.
Are you prepared to deal with uncertainty?
Dave