1. Strategy and Value Exchange: Small Tasks Don’t Lead to Big Ideas
The scale of the target customer need determines the scale of the strategy
The market is not a place where we exchange goods.
It’s where people and businesses come to satisfy their needs by receiving value created by others.
When you buy bread in a grocery store, you fulfill your need by gaining value created by the store and the bakery.
The scope of the need you target determines your strategy.
For instance, what needs did Kodak try to meet?
- The need to buy film?
- The need to take pictures?
- The need to capture the most important moments of people’s lives?
I believe they focused too much on the first need.
If you sell bread, you may target the following customer needs:
- The need to satisfy hunger,
- The need to eat something tasty,
- The need to share a meal with loved ones.
What’s the scope of your target customer need?
2. Strategy-related terms: Starting with goals instead of problems brings problems instead of success
Most strategies I’ve ever seen were ‘me-strategies.’
These strategies looked like the fantasies of an egomaniac dreaming of world domination.
They all started with ambitious goals. No wonder – most experts recommend this approach.
They believe you need to answer two questions:
[1] What would you like to become in the future (your goal)?
[2] What problems do you need to solve to get there?
It makes perfect sense, but it creates a problem. When we have a firm goal, we select only the problems whose solutions can help us achieve that goal.
Isn’t it great? I don’t think so.
[1] We ignore other problems, including those whose solution could bring us to an even bigger goal.
[2] We discard problems whose solutions don’t obviously lead us to the goal.
[3] We might choose a boring problem, but we’ll still choose it because it leads us to the goal.
So, I recommend starting with a problem.
[1] What big problem do we want to solve?
[2] What can we achieve by solving it?
3. Trend of the week: Complex solutions lead to complicated problems
Humans make around 35,000 decisions daily. Help them reduce the number and capitalize on it.
Recently, I bought a cheap printer for home use. Setting it up wasn’t a piece of cake.
I had to:
- Install a mobile app
- Connect the printer to Wi-Fi
- Install an app to my laptop
- Create an account on the manufacturer’s website
- Make a lot of minor adjustments
I was thinking: ‘Someday in the future, when technology evolves, our children will have printers with only one button – on/off.’
Almost 60% of Americans and Germans and 80% of Chinese people agree with the statement, “I wish my life was more simple.”
60% of UK adults use price comparison websites to save money on financial products because these websites make the choice easier.
Many consumers buy branded products not because they are better, but because it’s simpler.
My TV remote control has 30 buttons, I use only three.
Our brains were wired to operate in a world where we didn’t have to learn so many new things every day.
Scientists even coined the term ‘decision fatigue.’
Contemplation questions:
[1] Does your strategy include efforts to simplify your customers’ work or life?
[2] Does your team strive to create simpler customer solutions?
[3] Is simplicity your strategic advantage?
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Svyatoslav Biryulin
Do you have a comprehensive, working, and winning strategy? Find out by taking the most comprehensive strategy test, the Ultimate Strategy Checklist by Svyatoslav Biryulin. This checklist consists of 25 key questions and numerous additional ones. If you don’t have an answer to at least one of them, it might be worth refining your strategy. To get it for free, just subscribe to Svyatoslav’s free newsletter here. You will receive the link in the welcome email.
Read also: When Vision Inspires, Outcome Backfires
Check out my book, Red and Yellow Strategies: Flip Your Strategic Thinking and Overcome Short-termism, here.
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