The Essence of Business Strategy

🔊The Essence of Strategy is choosing what NOT to do 🔊

This is a great quote from Michael Porter

WHY❓

To have an effective strategy, you need to be super sharp and focused

I remember when I started my 1st business and not having any idea of what I should be doing. Especially when it came to sales. I literally had to come at it from every angle. I was in HUSTLE mode

Was this an effective strategy❓

We’ll come back to that

I quickly realised I was wasting my time in certain areas and along with that, it wasn’t just sales, it was everything. Both internally and externally. We were working 16hrs a day, quite often at breaking point. One day, myself and business partner agreed something had to give

We filled a whole wall with Post Its. Detailing everything we were doing. We divided the wall in 2

⛔️Stop doing

✅Keep doing

💥 This was nothing short of a reality check. Working 16hr days

Only to realise that 4 to 5 of those were wasted effort. That was a hard pill to swallow

As tough as it was, it was a great exercise and this actually became a regular activity

Business it tough at the best of times, so why make it tougher❓and coming back to the question – was this an effective strategy. Well when you start out, you have no choice but come at it from every angle.

However, it’s crucial that you keep assessing for the

⏩ Activities that are adding value (To you and your customers)

⏩ Activities that are not adding value

Then remove✅

The 1st time we did that Post IT exercise we removed >70% of things that we were doing. If you don’t engage in these activities on a regular basis

🔊Don’t be surprised to wake up one day wondering how are you going to continue

We are all great adding things, but quite often not good at removing them. To have an effective strategy, that is to be able to deliver on your VISION

You can’t keep adding and adding. You need to become RUTHLESS at eliminating things so you can make space for the

🔥CRUCIAL 2/3 activities that will get you 1 step closer to your dreams

So an effective strategy is not just about doing things, it’s about choosing what not to do. It may seem difficult at start to get moving but a simple way is to have a STOP DOING list, along with your TO DO list

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