When I run my marketing coaching workshops & seminars, one of the key areas of focus is ‘Strategy’. Which makes sense. Naturally everyone is interested in how to develop a killer strategy for their growth business. The first thing we talk about is; ‘What is Strategy’? Which on the face of it seems simple to answer, surely? It’s all that stuff around doing audits, developing cool stuff like SWOTs and competitor analysis and making plans, etc.
But it’s fascinating to see how easy it is to mix up and confuse the key elements of Strategy & Planning. Often people struggle to hold on to the differences and distinctions between Objectives, Strategy and Tactics.
As a real time example of this, it’s instructive to watch how the UK government has repeatedly fallen into the same trap with their Covid strategy. With the result that it’s often difficult to unpick what the approach really is!
Let’s take a quick journey through Covid strategy in the last few turbulent months;
At the start of Covid in February & March, we had Tactics, pure & simple. The message was ‘Wash Your Hands While Singing Happy Birthday’.
Then we moved on to ‘Protect the NHS’. Essentially an Objective, though rather lacking in detail.
We had the ‘Rule of Six’. Purely Tactical.
And currently, the rather more grave ‘Tiered Lockdown’. Which feels pretty Strategic, yes? Well, maybe!
Covid is an interesting lesson in how Objectives, Strategy and Tactics can be confused and confusing! Look at the Prime Minister’s Commons statement on 12th October;
Objectives were outlined as; ‘…saving lives, protecting the NHS, while keeping our children in school and our economy running and protecting jobs and livelihoods’.
Are these really proper ‘Objectives’? What these ‘Objectives’ lack is specificity. How many lives? What level of hospital occupancy? Are we aiming to keep ALL children in school at all times? What level of unemployment is acceptable and in which sectors? These so called ‘Objectives’ are more like a high level vision or wish list. This is a crucial learning for your own strategy development and is so often the Achilles heel of ‘Strategy’.
If there are no really detailed objectives, how do we know if our strategy is working?
What was clearer however, were the ‘strategy’ options outlined by Boris. I’d argue that this was the first time in the Covid story that a UK politician had crisply and clearly outlined opposing strategic options and then explained the path chosen. Boris gave the argument for a ‘Let nature take her course’ strategy and the opposing approach of ‘Go back to full national lockdown of infinite duration’. Then he explained how he’d decided on a compromise strategy – the ‘Tiered Lockdown’ approach.
So we may agree or disagree, but at least we can see that the strategy is (finally, a bit) clearer. My only problem is the aforementioned lack of specific objectives, which means we won’t really know when the strategy has actually succeeded!
Finally, let’s look at Tactics. This is the collection of smaller, interlinked measures that add up to deliver our chosen strategy. Let’s be clear – having an app is not a strategy – it’s a tactic. Closing venues at 10pm is a tactic. So is wearing facemasks, washing hands and not mixing households indoors.
I hope the picture is becoming clear. Whether you’re a government or a SME Upscaler business, it’s vital to understand the distinctions between objectives, strategy & tactics. Start with super – clear objectives and make them as measurable as possible. Then (and only then) can you begin to look at your strategic options, develop propositions and make strategic plans. Finally, your tactics can drop into place. Do it this way round and remember – doing an app is not a strategy!!
Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash