Amateurs, Experts, and Strategists

Focusing on a Plan Requires A Strategic View.

The key to understanding economics, marketing, and war is in seeing the big picture and being able to adapt, shift and change even the small things to achieve your goals. You can’t get stuck in one way of viewing the world. That becomes the weak point because ultimately the world doesn’t care about your point of view.

And the world doesn’t care about you.

What matters is your objective and how to achieve it – it’s the strategy that will get you there. Being clear about this gives you adaptability and flexibility in how to achieve it. This is the hardest part of getting to a goal. Giving up well-planned and detailed plans that are no longer feasible with the changing circumstances is extremely hard for organizations and teams, but it’s essential to reaching the goal.

Sun Tzu, a famous Chinese general from the 5th century BC who wrote The Art of War, said, “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”

Think about the interconnection between three key areas of thinking for marketers: tactics, logistics, and strategy. You can’t create successful outcomes without all three. They all must work together but strategy drives the results.

Remember, Everything Is Always in Motion.

All these factors in motion affect outcomes. They are interconnected and being aware of what you’re doing and being flexible enough to pivot is essential to achieve specific, measurable goals in time. Marketing is both art and science in understanding how to focus on the results you want. Aligning tactics with strategy and making sure the logistics – how you get this done – support what you’re doing is essential to dealing with a world in motion that doesn’t care about you or know about your company, or brand.

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.

– Sun Tzu from The Art of War

Moving forward, the mantra of these three concepts is kind of a Swiss Army knife of possibilities that allow businesses, in particular, those focused on growth, to respond with marketing campaigns that measure evolving customer perceptions and desires as well as changing realities and market forces swirling around in the midst of consumer decision making. That motivation to buy, to understand value requires deep insights and yet simple solutions.

The Long Term Goal and How You Get There.

In the long term, everything from marketing, to brand design, to customer engagement must be seen in a strategic way that allows for moving, adapting, and focusing on that bigger goal of growing a trusted customer connection, and building brand loyalty.

How you adapt to these dynamics can mean everything from losing the battle to actually winning the war.