Big Strategy: The Killer of Fun, Fast, Creative, and Useful
There are industries bloated with Big Strategy; where consultants, agencies, and internal leaders use large budgets, fancy words, shiny decks, and fuzzy concepts to justify that they, their roles, and their ideas are worth paying for.
1-minute 15 second read (+0:32 video)
Scrappy creative.
Quick execution.
Short feedback looks.
A culture that values experimentation with a willingness to miss.
Having an opinion.
These all fly in the face of Big Strategy.
There are industries bloated with Big Strategy; where consultants, agencies, and internal leaders use large budgets, fancy words, shiny decks, and fuzzy concepts to justify that they, their roles, and their ideas are worth paying for.
Call BS and argue that there’s a better, cheaper, faster way, and you're the naive, unqualified outsider who doesn't understand. And therefore, you shouldn’t be in the room.
When in reality, the only thing to understand (and IMO, the only thing to be obsessed with if you're doing work that builds a connection between your thing to a market) is where your people are, what they want, and how they behave.
Big Strategy turns its nose up at this level of pragmatism. It feels reckless to people whose sole objective is to keep things safe and status quo.
The advocates of Big Strategy are motivated to fly under the radar—sucking time and money while confusing everyone just enough that the outsiders automatically assume that this must be a good idea if it costs so much and takes this long.
Here’s the thing: You already know where your people are, what they want, and how they behave. You’ve just been brainwashed into thinking that this is more complex than it actually is. And, that you need to slow way down, bring in the experts, and make sure that everything is safe and aligned before it sees the light of day. (If it ever does. Many times, it doesn’t. Back to the drawing board = more time, more money.)
This post is permission to trust yourself.
If Big Strategy is exposed for what it is, those that hide under its cozy security blanket might just become obsolete. Then companies can get on to having an authentic opinion and doing things that are fast, fun, creative, and useful to the people they’re trying to serve.
For context, I’m specifically referring to how companies brand and market themselves to talent. Between the maze of internal stakeholders, independent consultants, and agencies, very little seems to get accomplished despite a lot of money and time being spent on these initiatives.
That said, I'd guess that my sentiment likely applies to any industry and use case you plug into the equation.
Watch the video: 32-seconds (Sorry, it wouldn't load properly.)