Give your business a competitive edge by avoiding the 3 major hallmarks of bad strategy

It doesn’t matter if you’re a government, a multi-national business, a military unit, a sports team or a small local business. If you do not have a strategy or, perhaps worse, you have a bad strategy, you risk losing badly, especially when facing economic uncertainty and turmoil, significant shifts in working patterns or changes in expectations.

Good strategy shines a light in a storm and gives you the chance to survive that storm and to come out the other end and thrive…

But bad strategy, including mistaking goals, ambition and effort for a strategic plan, sees you heading into the rocks and crashing, while your competition take advantage.

Avoid crashing into the rocks and steer your business clear of the 3 major hallmarks of bad strategy.

1. Failure to face the challenge 

A strategy that does not define a challenge which needs to be overcome makes it impossible to evaluate and difficult to improve. All you are doing is engaging in wishful thinking and investing time and effort in misdirected strategy.

2. Gibberish

A strategy written in gibberish, using overly complicated wording to create an illusion of top-level planning and thinking, is the most common type of bad strategy.

3. Bad strategic objectives/mistaking goals for strategy

A shopping list of desirable goals and objectives is NOT strategy, as they do not address the critical issues facing your business.  Vague statements and hopeful intentions do not equal a strategic plan.

Your business will only survive and thrive in difficult, uncertain and turbulent times if you do the hard work.  Good strategy involves the effort of diagnosing the key challenges and then making strategic choices, providing focus and leading to coherent action.

It is possible that your competition will avoid this hard work. Will you?