Strategy is the most elusive word of the century.
Give someone a strategy to design and they will sit there contemplating day and night for weeks on end to come up with a set of wishful goals. One of my (maybe unpopular) opinions is that a strategy is just a starting point and execution accounts for 99% of the success. Execution distinguishes you from your competition and is your feedback loop to inform and iterate the strategy. Similarly to how the idea is only the beginning for a startup and it’s all about how you execute it. Don’t get me wrong - strategy is absolutely crucial to inform your coordinated actions for maximum leverage.
My favourite quote which underpins the concept is:
A good strategy is sequencing events to build strength along the way.
Execution without strategy is like laying a bunch of bricks blind-folded. If you’re lucky you’ll build a house, but I wouldn’t rely on it. A good strategy is your blueprint for the house, a well-designed plan of how to lay the foundation, the sequence of bricks and how all elements fit together.
Hence why I’m writing Batko OS. I hope it helps you with the operational building blocks to execute on your strategy.
Strategy Starting Point
That being said, let me help you with the starting point for your strategy.
There is a lot of material about strategy. Take this as one datapoint. It’s from the book Good Strategy, Bad Strategy. Find my book summary here.
I’ve consolidated the insights of the book into a practical strategy template:
I’ve supplemented the template with great nuggets from other strategy resources.
Hit “File > Make Copy” and start filling it out for yourself.
Enjoy!
I don’t have much more to add here - all the goodies are in the template :)
Big shoutout to Luke Marshall, Jax Vullinghs and Nick Crocker - who pointed me to some great resources. There’s some more in here:
