Monthly Archives: May 2014

What is a good strategy?

A good strategy is one you would not be stupid not to do. What does that mean? In part, that means that it is not necessarily obvious.  Similarly, good (business) innovations are generally novel but also uncertain before becoming reality. Good strategies share must also be novel and not obvious because if they were obvious someone else would likely would have already done it. They are uncertain because the likelihood of successful execution is unclear — if it were certain, someone would have done it, right? Imagine a spectrum of strategies from “stupid” to “brilliant”. The stupid ideas are bad, while the brilliant ideas have already been done suggesting that good strategies fall somewhere in between. Using this novelty-uncertainty framework, a good strategy will be developed and implemented only when you have people capable of novel/disruptive thought, but also willing to tolerate uncertainty, (one would hope) driven by their confidence in their ability to execute.