Inside baseball of winning strategy teams

In baseball, it’s knowing how to hit, run, steal, and catch. 

In football, it’s knowing how to block, tackle, find pockets, and pass. 

We like to think our strategy work is special, but it too has actually-quite-simple “units of value” through which progress is made and “games” are won:

Think about it:

Ignore any one of these, and can your company win? Not just survive in the short term, but really win?

And just like in sports, there’s one other dimension: time.

Today (or short-term survival), tomorrow (long-term planning), and on the whole (everything in between).

In strategy work, that translates to:

If our houses are in order, we should be able to handle “company” insights on all 3 time horizons. 

But looking across those 12 other plays, very few companies are deserving of a trophy.

How many of these can you confidently say your company or team is nailing?

I’m willing to bet every one of us has some gaps in our knowledge, leading to missed opportunities or even increased risks.

BUT, it’s not your fault.

I’d argue that’s more a function of how HARD it is to get all that information, NOT intentional ignorance whereby we’re blind to the value in any of these units of, well, value.

Team after team has come to us for help closing these gaps, so if you’re feeling the pain of too much to do in too little time or not even having some of these plays in your playbook to begin with, my only question is: 

Where would you start?!

Victoria

P.S. The future of research on all these fronts is NOT a question of AI ~or~ humans. It’s both.

We’re partnering with Andreessen Horowitz to unpack this new frontier of “tech-enabled services” as part of SF Tech Week (Oct 10th) & LA Tech Week (Oct 17th). These events are virtual, so register to join us live or get the recording!