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The Role of Data in Strategy: Learning from the Past to Shape the Future

I am often told that data looks to the past while strategy looks to the future. And while this is true, some take it a step further and suggest this as a reason for not overly relying on data when developing strategy.

But if we don't rely on data, what should we rely on? 🤔 Not relying on data because it reflects the past doesn’t make much sense. After all, the past is all we have to inform us about what works, what doesn’t, and why.

The Past is Our Only Reference Point

When strategising, the future is inherently uncertain. No one can predict it with any certainty. But by looking back at past trends, patterns, and experiences, we can make educated guesses about where things are heading. Data helps us do exactly that—whether it’s quantitative metrics or qualitative insights. It serves as a reflection of what's happened before and, more importantly, why.

For instance, when market researchers examine customer behaviour, they aren’t just looking at yesterday's purchases. They’re analysing patterns — patterns that reveal how customer preferences have evolved and how they might continue to change. This kind of analysis allows companies to stay ahead of trends and innovate in ways that resonate with their target audience.

Steve Jobs and the Calligraphy Example

A common counter-argument to the use of data in strategy is the case of Steve Jobs, who famously designed the fonts for Apple based on his study of calligraphy during his college years. At first glance, it might seem that this story is about inspiration, creativity, and thinking outside the box, which aren't typically associated with data.

But let’s look at this a little more closely. What is the study of calligraphy, if not a form of qualitative data? Jobs was drawing from historical knowledge and techniques. He wasn't reinventing the wheel — he was building on the artistry, precision, and discipline of centuries-old traditions. By studying calligraphy, he was collecting data about the past in order to innovate in the present and future.

His decision wasn’t purely whimsical or gut-driven. It was an informed choice based on patterns of visual appeal, readability, and user experience that calligraphers had discovered and refined over time. In essence, it’s another example of how understanding the past can inspire future breakthroughs. 📜✍️

Data Provides Context and Insight

When we say strategy is about the future, what we really mean is that it’s about making decisions that will have future outcomes. The only way to make informed decisions is to understand the context, the landscape, and the forces shaping it.

Data — whether qualitative, like Steve Jobs' study of calligraphy, or quantitative, like sales reports and customer analytics—provides critical insights that help businesses assess risks, identify opportunities, and anticipate future trends.

Here’s why relying on data is crucial for strategic planning:

Trends and Patterns: Data reveals long-term trends that would be impossible to spot otherwise. It shows how things are changing and helps us anticipate future changes.
Risk Mitigation: By analysing past mistakes and successes, businesses can reduce the likelihood of repeating errors and increase their chances of success.
Informed Innovation: Data doesn’t just tell us what happened—it can also reveal why it happened. Armed with this knowledge, businesses can innovate more intelligently.
Competitive Advantage: Competitors who ignore data run the risk of making poorly informed decisions, leaving the field wide open for those who leverage data-driven insights to make smarter moves.

Balancing Intuition and Data

Of course, strategy isn't purely data-driven. There’s still room for creativity, intuition, and vision. Some of the best ideas come from out-of-the-box thinking, and not every decision can be backed up by numbers. But these creative decisions should still be informed by data. They should be rooted in an understanding of what’s been tried before, what succeeded, and what failed. Just like Jobs' development of Apple's fonts was.

The real magic happens when you balance intuition with data. Visionary leaders can see beyond the data, but they use it as their foundation. Without that solid base, even the most inspired ideas run the risk of being disconnected from reality.

So, Should We Rely on Data in Strategy?

Absolutely! While data reflects the past, it is our most valuable tool for shaping the future. Whether it's a market analysis, customer feedback, or even the study of ancient calligraphy, data provides a foundation for making informed decisions. Without it, we're left guessing or gazing into a crystal ball — and neither of those approaches is a sound business strategy.

The next time someone suggests we shouldn’t rely on data because it looks backwards, remind them that the past is the only lens through which we can view the future. What we choose to learn from it will determine how successful we are in charting the course ahead. 🌍🔮

Strategic Inception

Most of the best strategies I've encountered hinge on a single strategic insight.

Or, perhaps, a very small number of them.

Peter Compo, author of "The Emergent Approach to Strategy" calls this The Bottleneck. Richard Rumelt, author of "Good Strategy, Bad Strategy" calls it The Crux. Military historians talk about Napoleon's Glance.

Even better is when that single strategic insight is so compelling it one cannot fail to act on it. When it is so elegantly simple that, once seen, it cannot be unseen.

In one client I worked with, it was the realisation that customers who exhibited a certain behaviour were over 4 times more likely to purchase their product than those that did not. In another, it was understanding how their sales teams actually spent their time, given that they lacked the data and support which would enable them to act more effectively. (Apologies that confidentiality requires me to be a little vague about the details! In both cases, of course, the context is vital.)

Leonardo DiCaprio in Inception

In the film "Inception", the character played by Leonardo DiCaprio says "Once and ideas has taken hold of the brain, it's almost impossible to eradicate."

In that film, the protagonists have access to fantastical technology for embedding ideas in people's brains in a process they call Inception.

Sadly (or perhaps gladly, when you see how the film turns out), we don't have access to that.

And so our work is:

to keep delving until we uncover that single strategic insight that compels action, leaving no stone unturned until you have the Eureka! moment,
to embed it throughout the organisation through regular repetition of an elegantly simple explanation of that insight,
without becoming so beholden to it, that we fail to notice and adjust when the circumstances around us change.

We can, of course, settle for less. There are plenty of strategies which are "good enough". But if we want truly great strategies, then that is the task we must set ourselves.

Honest people may differ - listening for strategic insight

I did my MBA in South Africa shortly after the transition from apartheid to full democracy in 1994.

It was a time of unparalleled transformation - political, economic and social - which has served as a model for other countries ever since. It produced world leaders of the gravitas of Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu, and ground-breaking civic processes like the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. And, in many senses, that transformation continues to this day.

And it was by no means a simple nor an easy process!

The lecturer on our Politics and Business model had his work cut out for him. Trying to help us students make sense of the implications of a transformation that was still raw and in progress. Where opinions had been tempered by years of bitter struggle. And where the world in which we lived was suddenly very different to anything any of us had ever experienced before.

I remembered he peppered his presentation with the phrase "Honest men may differ".

(These days, one might prefer "Honest people may differ". But all those years ago, and given everything else that was going on at the time, we might perhaps forgive this lapse.)

It was a recognition that, whilst he could tell us what he though, he recognised that others might disagree. More than that, it was a recognition that those who did disagree weren't necessarily either wrong or disingenuous in their views.

And for me, it opened up the possibility that behind the differing opinions of honest people there might lie some deeper truth which bound those contradictory understandings together.

That's an understanding I've taken into my strategy consulting practice.

Often, when an organisation invites me to help them, it is because they've reached some sort of impasse. Where the executive decision makers can't agree on a way forward.

Part of my role is to listen and understand without taking sides. To ask questions. To get behind their assumptions and to find the hidden insights which lead everyone to a greater understanding of the strategic challenges and opportunities the organisation faces.

I remember working with a mid-sized asset manager. There was one faction within the leadership team who believed it was absolutely essential for the organisation to scale. And to do so very significantly. By orders of magnitude. They presented evidence that the very largest asset managers were able to produce the highest returns.

But a second faction believed that their advantage lay in remaining smaller. This would allow them to pick and choose the best opportunities without having to play "the whole market" as the larger plays had, by necessity, to do.

How could both hold such diametrically opposite views? After all, these were seasoned investment professionals! They certainly weren't anybody's fools!

After some digging, we were able to determine that the answer lay in expense ratios. The largest asset managers were not, in fact producing higher absolute returns. But higher economies of scale meant they were able to reduce their expense ratios. This, in turn, drove up their net returns. Similarly, some smaller asset managers were able to produce higher absolute returns, by being more selective in their investments. But they lacked the economies of scale. This meant that their net returns were relatively lower.

This simple insight transformed the conversation. No longer were the two factions diametrically opposed. They now had a common understanding and were able to work together to solve a common challenge.

The specifics of the case are unimportant. But perhaps you've encountered similar situations?

The lesson for me is always to listen to people as if they are right. As soon as you think they are wrong, you start listening with a view to disproving them. But if you listen to them as if they are right - no matter how strongly you disagree with them - then you have a chance of uncovering fresh insight.

And the way to do that is to remember that honest people may differ.

When you encounter differing views, ask each to explain their position to you as if you genuinely don't understand but want to learn. Draw out their logic, the assumptions, and the evidence on which they are based. Keep going until you genuinely understand how, given that evidence and those assumptions, their position is logically correct.

Then examine the evidence and assumptions. Compare it to the evidence and assumptions that lead to the competing conclusion. What's missing? What other conclusions could you draw from the same evidence and assumptions?

Of course, all of this takes time and practice. Often, it needs objectives outsiders without any personal stake in either of the differing opinions being either right or wrong. That's why organisations turn to experienced outsiders.

Build your wings on the ground

I recently saw this quote:

“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.”

- Kurt Vonnegut

This is one of a category of quotes about failure, risk taking and entrepreneurship which I think are misleading and dangerous.

I wonder if they are propagated by venture capitalists?

You see, if you're a venture capitalist, then this is sensible advice to give. If you invest in 100 jumpers, you don't care if the first 99 plunge to their deaths, as long as the 100th jumper succeeds and you can make all your losses back.

But if you're the first jumper in the queue, it's terrible advice. When you're dead, it doesn't matter how many others succeeded or failed after you.

In this example, we would say that the venture capitalist is involved, but the entrepreneur is committed; the venture capitalist has skin in the game, but the entrepreneur is betting the farm.

Quotes like this are meant to encourage entrepreneurs to take bigger risks. "Entrepreneurship is about taking risks", it tells us, leaving out the all important "Entrepreneurship is about mitigating risks".

Now, I appreciate that the quote is not mean to be taken literally. It's not advocating that people actually jump off cliffs. (And I am not suggesting that venture capitalists don't actually care about people plunging to their deaths.)

But it is proposing that people take extreme and, I will argue, unnecessary risks in order to make progress.

And even if you're not plunging to your death off a cliff, you may be losing your home, sacrificing your marriage, friendships and other family relationships, and ultimately your happiness. So I think it is worth thinking about this a little more deeply.

The person who posted this quote told me that:

taking that such risks would 'focus the mind',
we need to take risks to learn, and
the advice is not meant to be taken literally.

Fear focuses the mind

It is undoubtedly true that risk and fear focuses the mind. I am sure that finding yourself plunging off the edge of a cliff would get your attention!

But is it the best way to focus the mind?

I doubt it. Fear invokes our lizard brain. This controls our fight, flight or freeze reflex. It is great in circumstances of imminent peril. But, at the same time, our higher order decision-making is impaired. This is not great for problem solving or learning.

Instead, in his book "Flow", Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes "a state of concentration so focused that it amounts to complete absorption in an activity".

According to the author, Flow is achieved where we have:

clear objectives,
a good balance between the requirements of the activity and our own abilities,
a clear feedback loop.

Jumping off a cliff and developing wings on the way down, ticks only one of these boxes. The objective is clear: build wings so you don't die. But our ability to build wings in a matter of seconds is probably not up to the job.

And feedback really only works we we have multiple iterations. That is, where we can try once, get some feedback and then try again. It does really work well when we can only afford to try something once. That is when we're betting the farm.

We need to take risks to learn

I've debunked this argument before, in It's time we stopped idolising failure in innovation.

Sure, some risk is inevitable. But it's like the carbon dioxide emitted by internal combustion engines - an unpleasant by product which we take great pains to minimise.

We are fortunate that the Wright Brothers did not receive and take this advice. They built their wings on the ground. And they tested them as safely as they could. They conducted extensive research before, during and between numerous tests. They did everything they reasonable could to minimise their risks.

Had they simply flung themselves off the nearest cliff we might have had to wait many more years before someone else achieved powered flight in a heavier-than-air craft!

It's not meant to be taken literally

This was the final defence of the quote which was offered to me.

But advice that is only good to the extent that you don't actually take it is bad advice.

If the opening quote is not advocating that we take extreme and potentially catastrophic risks, then what is it advocating? What good point is it making that a different example, without all the potential for misinterpretation of this one, could not have made more effectively.

I suspect that quote was originally made, and has subsequently circulated, because it is attention getting. Much like a tabloid headline. It's a cheap trick to draw us in. But like a sugary snack, it offers no nourishment.

We have millions of ways of mitigating risks. We have parachutes and wind-tunnels, we have startup incubators, we have countless ways of researching and testing ideas, and we can break big risky ideas down into smaller more manageable and testable chunks.

We should use them. We should not simply throw caution to the wind and leap off a cliff.

In short, we need a better-quality discourse about entrepreneurship, risk-taking, innovation and learning.

Risk is relative

If you're a wealthy billionaire, then betting a few million here and there is relatively low risk. After all, Elon Musk could lose $250bn overnight, and still be wealthier than most people on the planet.

The small entrepreneur who takes a second mortgage on their home to buy a neighbourhood restaurant is taking more risk than Elon Musk was when he tried to buy Twitter for $41.39bn. Their downside is greater and their ability to recover from failure is lower.

So perhaps Elon Musk can afford to be a little cavalier. The rest of us should be suspicious of those who advise us to act in the same manner.

My advice

My advice: "Build your wings on the ground, but start working right away."

Perhaps it won't sell as many tabloid newspapers. But it might just help you achieve more success in life and business.

Business strategy development and execution is about finding a balance between thought and action. It's about thinking and acting strategically.

It's about seizing the opportunities, whilst avoiding the threats. It's about being realistic about our strengths and weaknesses as they impact our ability to do so. It's about optimising the chances of success whilst mitigating the risks of failure.

It doesn't always lend itself to pithy little sayings. It requires a little work. But its better than throwing yourself off a cliff.

Footnotes

According to Wikipedia, Kurt Vonnegut was "an American writer known for his satirical and darkly humorous novels". There is nothing about his profile to suggest that he had any experience of or insight into business or entrepreneurship, or that the quote was meant to be taken in that context.
According to quote investigator,

the quote actually originated from Ray Bradbury in 1986 in a keynote address about following your heart. He used the quote again in an interview in 1990 in the context of love affairs and friendship. According to Wikipedia, Bradbury was also a fiction author and screen writer. Again, there is no suggestion of any experience of or insight into business or entrepreneurship.
the quote was adopted by airline executive Franco Mancassola, in an interview in 1998. He said: "I tell managers: 'I have absolute faith in your abilities, and should you fail, I'll have absolute faith in your replacement. I live by the rule, 'jump out of the plan and build your wings on the way'." It seems Mancassola believed that people were expendable in the manner in which I cautioned against above. According to Wikipedia and Jet Back In Time, the airline he founded survived for only 3 and a half years before ceasing operations due to financial problems.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but...

“If we have data, let’s talk about data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine.”

- Jim Barksdale

I'll start this post of continuing the story of Wayne Gretsky. I started it in two recent posts:

Gretsky was great and skating to where the puck was going to be. But, he never explained how he knew where it would be. It’s assumed that he was just very good at reading the play.

Where others saw chaos and unpredictability, he saw data/evidence/patterns/probabilities. He took the information available about the state of play and out-thought everyone else on the pitch.

Don't "just do it"

These days, we have a predisposition to action rather than thought. We’re told to “Just do it”. We're told the most important thing is to do something. Even anything. Because action is better than thought.

But, strategy teaches us that we need thought to choose the right actions. “Fail fast” and “test and learn” are great. But random experiments are at best inefficient. And ill-conceived experiments are even worse.

As Henri Bergson said, you should:

"Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought."

You have to look for evidence

It doesn't take a lot of experience to realise that you will probably never have all the data you want. But we still have to make decisions. And we can't always afford to wait to get more data.

But that is not an excuse for not bothering. My experience is that there is usually a lot more evidence available than people care to acknowledge. It takes a little creativity to find and interpret it. But that effort pays off in spades.

I remember hearing a proposal from the manager of a call centre within a medium-sized business. They weren’t keeping up with the number of incoming calls. He wanted to hire more call handlers.

But I asked him why people were calling in the first place. It turns out he knew exactly how many people were calling but had absolutely no idea what they were calling about. So I went and collected some data.

It turned out that most people were calling about things that the company had messed up. So it seemed obvious to me that they should at least consider that a better solution might be to hire more people or train them better to not mess those things up, rather than simply hiring more people to clean up the mess afterwards. But without having looked at that data, you’d have no way of knowing that.

Finding evidence is not enough, you still have to interpret it

It's equally true that we have a tendency to mis-interpret or over-interpret data the data they do have.

We see what they want to see, and not what is actually in front of them.
We mistake correlation for causation.
We mistake what customers say for how they actually behave.

So its obviously important not just to have the data, but to use it well.

Evidence of the future

Another mistake is thinking that there can be no evidence for the future because it hasn’t happened yet.

But as the famous Science Fiction write William Gibson said:

“The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed.”

Consider COVID-19.

Think of all the companies who’ve been experimenting with remote work for years.

Think of all those films and that famous 2015 Ted Talk by Bill Gates. He not only predicted the global pandemic but also described how it would happen in pretty accurately detail.

The conspiracy theorists, of course, have a field day with that. But all he was doing was pulling together the evidence which was readily available to us all.

So, if we weren’t prepared for pandemic it wasn’t because there wasn’t any evidence, but because we hadn’t paid attention and acted on the insight.

Evidence versus intuition

I've heard other people argue that experience and intuition are better guides than evidence.

Don’t get me wrong: Intuition and experience are wonderful things.

But, they tell you:

what data to look for,
how and where to look for it, and
how to avoid misinterpreting it.

Experience and intuition also contain all our biases and failings.

So intuition and experience aren’t a substitute for evidence. They’re a tool for using evidence more effectively.

Hindsight is 20:20

We tend to turn for inspiration to very successful people or businesses. And what we see is what they did. That what’s visible. And I think that may be partly what is behind our current bias towards action.

But what we don’t see is the thought they put into it and the evidence on which they based it.

Or, we see the few who succeeded without using evidence and thought. And forget about the vast majority who simply failed on that basis.

Conclusion

There is another saying about opinions: Opinions are like noses; everyone has one but they think each others' smell. (Although I think the original saying might have referred to a different piece of anatomy.)

Opinions are a weak foundation for business strategy. Evidence is the antidote.

So, as business strategists, we should constantly be asking: What evidence to you have to support your decisions? And what processes do you have in place for re-confirming or adjusting that on an ongoing basis?

It's in the numbers

When I first took an interest in business strategy, I shied away from getting too involved in the numbers.

I had a degree in accounting, and, later, an MBA. So I didn't have a problem dealing with numbers. But I didn't want to be seen as a 'bean counter'.

Bean counters, I reasoned, focus on efficiencies and cost cutting. Strategists focus on the big picture. Blue sky thinking. Frameworks and models. Inspiration couldn't be reduced to spreadsheets.

But I quickly realised how wrong I was.

Yes. Strategy is about the big picture, blue sky thinking, frameworks, models and inspiration. But behind all of those things lie the numbers. And until you can get to the numbers, the job isn't done.

Here are some tips for getting to grips with the numbers in business strategy.

1. Go wide

The numbers used in business strategy include but extend well beyond those typically found in financial statements and reports.

They include demographics and economics; product and process performance. They include market research. They come from within the organisation, within the industry, and from without. They deal with durations and conversion rates, volumes and prices. They look behind hunches and anecdotes to spot trends and structures. They range from statistically valid samples to pure educated guesswork.

It requires imagination and insight to determine what numbers to look for, where to look for them, and how to interpret them.

Triangulating between more diverse source of information increases confidence. Understanding how to reconcile disparate and even contradictory information requires finesse and experience.

2. Examine the relationship between the numbers

The numbers themselves won't tell you much. It's the relationships between the numbers that matter.

I often joke that a lot of my work consists of dividing some numbers by other numbers, until and interesting relationship reveals itself!

Look at the relationships:

Between related numbers (ratio analysis). For example, between inputs and outputs of various kinds. Between revenues and costs; between volume produce and activity to produce it; between work done and people doing it; between market demand and product supplied, etc.
Between numbers (and ratios) over time (trend analysis). Are numbers going up or down or staying the same over time. Charts are helpful in revealing trends. But it is worth getting good at calculating Cumulative Annualised Growth Rates (or CAGR), and doing so across various time periods.

You don't have to be a statistical mastermind - although it almost certainly helps - but it is important to have a work knowledge of quantitative analysis techniques.

3. Ask the right questions

If you want to understand how a business works, and if you want to get good at doing your job, ask how, what, when, where and why.

But if you want to get good at business strategy, you need to go further. You need also to ask how much, how many, how often and how long.

4. Ask what else the data could mean

Don't assume the first 'obvious' answer is the right one. Always consider what other explanations could be leading to the effect you're seeing. And then dig deeper into the numbers in order to confirm which explanation is the more likely and relevant.

For example, I remember seeing some present data which showed that larger investment fund produced higher investment returns. The argument was that larger funds had access to better investment opportunities.

On deeper analysis, it turned out that this was probably not true. The seemingly higher returns were more likely to be driven by the lower operating costs these funds enjoyed through the advantage of economies of scale.

5. Learn to tell stories with numbers

Simply presenting lots of charts and tables and and ratios won't achieve much on its own.

It's important to use the numbers to tell a story. What is happening in this business and industry? What are the possible patterns of cause and effect which explain the data we're seeing? How can we use this understanding to make better decisions about what to do next?

At the end of the day, people won't remember most of the numbers. But they will remember the stories you tell with them as long as they are relevant and compelling.

See this in depth article about storytelling with numbers.

Book recommendation: How to make the world add up - Tim Harford

(The image at the top of this post is partly inspired by one of my favourite films, the Matrix, and in particular the scene in which Neo finally learns to see through the real world to the numbers and code it manifests.)

What is strategy development and execution?

People argue about which is more important: strategy or execution. This is a false dichotomy. Both are important. In fact, each is worthless without the other.

In strategy, development and execution are opposite sides of the same coin.

Defining strategy development and strategy execution

Strategy development is the process of deciding and agreeing what an organisation will do, when, for whom, how, and why.

Strategy execution is the process of allocating resources, changing and aligning the organisation to deliver that strategy.

The problem with strategy development without execution

The problem with strategy development without execution is fairly obvious. Without execution, your strategy will never be more than an aspiration. Nothing will change.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what happens with many strategies. The leadership develops a new strategy and announces it to the rest of the organisation and then... not much happens.

A popular remedy for this problem is to try and involve more people in developing the strategy in the first place. Whilst this can help, it is usually not enough. Sometimes, it can make matters worse. People, be they staff, customers, suppliers or others, can be great sources of insight. But someone still has to process that insight. Strategy is about making choices and trade-offs. It should not be an attempt to give everyone what they want.

Instead, strategy execution requires rigour and discipline:

Communicate clearly and unequivocally. It should include not only what the strategy is, but why it is that. It is important to distinguish between when you are asking people for their input, and when you are communicating a new strategy to them.
Establish accountabilities, track and report against carefully thought out milestones, scorecards and KPIs.
Allocate resources. More often than not, this means re-allocating from what is now relatively less important to what is now relatively more important. Change structures and reporting lines accordingly. Terminate or redirect programmes which no longer fit.

All of this can be very uncomfortable. Strategy involves change. Many people resist change - especially where it challenges their existing power base.

The problem with strategy execution without development

The problem with strategy execution without development is more subtle.

If you haven't developed a strategy, what will you execute? Unfortunately, this does not seem to stop many organisations. The result is 'busy work'. People pursue their pet projects just because they can. Or they deploy resources to do things just because they worry that those resources will be taken away from them if they're not seen to use them.

Even more subtle is the problem of strategies which are not executable.

Some so-called strategies are little more than grand slogans, woolly ambitions or jargon-packed corporate double-speak.

When asked to execute them, staff don't know what they're actually supposed to do. What should change?

And so they play it safe. They carry on doing what they were doing before. Or they use the opportunity to pursue their pet projects.

If they are smart they will rebadge their existing work or pet projects as being central to the execution of the strategy. And because no-one can say for sure what the strategy dictates instead, it can be hard to contradict them.

How can you overcome these problems?

To overcome these problems:

Make sure that your strategy articulates clear choices. It is as important to say what the strategy is not as to say what it is. You haven't really done strategy until you've decided not to do something.
Avoid unqualified comparative statements. As a general rule, avoid words like "best", "leading" and "world-class".

For example, a company might say it wants to be "the worlds best widget manufacturer". That is a fine ambition. But what does it mean? What, specifically, constitutes best? How will this be achieved?
Describe as vividly as you can how the organisation will be different after executing the strategy than it was before.

Focus on tangibles - changes to processes, resources, products and services - rather than intangibles. Focus on what you will do differently, rather than on what you will become by doing it. (What you will become is also important. But you won't become it unless you do something. So focus on that.)

For example, a company might say its strategy is "to become the most trusted widget manufacturer". Again, that is a fine ambition. But what will the company do to achieve that?
Avoid sitting on the fence or delegating your strategy.

For example, a company might say its strategy is to be customer-centric or to listen to its customers and what they need. Those are both noble ambitions, but they are not strategy. Strategy describes the choices you make after having listened to your customers, understood their needs, and decided what you will and won't do about them.

The same goes for equivalent statements like "putting staff at the heart of our business".
Use tried and tested tools like StratNavApp.com for developing and executing your strategy.

StratNavApp.com contains all the tools you will need. They're integrated, collaborative, online and available everywhere all the time. So it will help you do the heavy lifting of incorporating inputs, processing them, generating strategy output, allocating accountabilities and responsibilities and tracking progress.

You can, of course, try and do all of this on your own. But why would you, since the tools exist. It'd be like hammering in a nail with your fist because you didn't want to use a hammer.

Strategy development and execution are equally important parts of a holistic process. It is as important to develop strategies that are executable as it is to ensure that what is executed is the strategy.

14 tips for running a strategy day that works

Image by rawpixel from Pixabay

The Strategy Day has a bad reputation. But done well, it can make a valuable contribution to a broader process for developing and executing business strategy.

Have you ever been to one of those strategy offsites which feels great, energising and engaging at the time, but once you get back to the office you realise nothing has really changed?

I like to call this "strategy theatre". It's mostly for entertainment. It pretends to be strategy. It looks a bit like strategy. But it isn't.

Real strategy takes time and effort. It involves hard choices.

Strategy Away-days, Strategy Offsites or just Strategy Days have a terrible reputation for being a waste of time. For indulging out-of-touch executives in their ivory towers. For producing strategies that just sit on the shelf. Until next year's strategy day comes up with the next one.

But, well run strategy offsites can play a vital role in a well designed strategy development and execution process.

Here are 14 tips for running a strategy day that actually delivers results.

1. Don't expect to build a strategy in a day

Rome wasn't built in a day. Neither will your strategy be. But that doesn't mean you can't do meaningful work in a day.

Strategy is a process, a conversation, a way of thinking, planning and executing.

It's not an event or a deliverable. It's not annual strategy day.

But a strategy away day can be a valuable part of that conversation. Just don't assume its enough on its own.

Be clear on what you will and won't achieve on your strategy day. And be clear about how you will achieve everything else you need to achieve to develop and execute a strategy successfully.

2. Remember that it's still a meeting

A strategy day is a particular kind of meeting. But it is still a meeting. So all of the usual good practice for meetings applies.

Set clear objectives.
Set a clear agenda.
Communicate both up front.
Distribute any pre-reading, allowing plenty of time for people to actually read it.
Make sure the pre-reading is relevant, concise and of a very high standard.
Make any expectations of what you want done in advance clear with plenty of warning.
Think about who you actually need there. There is a perceived status attached to attending strategy away days. But who do you really need there? And who will really add value?
Keep to time. But be flexible if you need to be. You can't rush strategy.

3. Choose the right venue

Choosing the right venue is an important first step.

There are two objectives:

Minimise distractions.

Encourage people to turn off their mobile phones, tablets and laptops. Discourage them from 'checking into with the office' or 'popping back to their desks' during breaks. Each interruption breaks their flow. Takes them out of 'strategic thinking' mode and back to day-to-day fire-fighting mode.
Allow space to think.

Getting people to carve out a whole day to think about strategy is a good starting point. But it is difficult to think strategically when you're crammed into a stuffy windowless room. Find a venue which provides plenty of space to move around. Find a new environment that encourages creativity. Find an environment that doesn't remind them of the immediate day-to-day problems which will still be waiting for them tomorrow.

For both of these reasons, it is often best to leave the office for an offsite venue.

4. Bring people into the room

Many people aren't naturally strategic thinkers. Even those that are often live there lives in a much more tactical fire-fighting mode. So the first thing you need to do is to set them up to spend a day thinking differently.

The right venue will help (see above).

But the first agenda item is critical for setting the scene and for setting up the participants. This could be:

An inspiring introductory talk.

This could be delivered by an external speaker or by one of the participants. It should be on a topic or topics of particular relevance to the organisation at that point in time. But it should be forward-looking and expansive. It should focus on 'the art of the possible', and not on the challenges of the past. It should focus beyond the organisation - beyond the industry even - rather than on the organisation itself. It should throw up questions more than answers.
An inclusive question.

An inclusive question is a question that everyone in the room can answer, and for which there are no right or wrong answers. It should be phrased so that the answers are positive and connect people. The aim is to get people out of day-to-day problem-solving mode, and primed for thinking strategically. A good example is: What is the one thing that makes you most proud to be associated with this organisation?
Set expectations.

A more conventional opening is to ask each attendee to state their expectations of the meeting. Ask them to complete the sentence: "I'd be happy if by the end of today we'd ...". Record their answers on a flip chart.
Name the elephant in the room.

Whilst it is best to start the day on a positive note, sometimes you can't avoid the fact that there are one more shadows hanging over it. Perhaps the organisation has just posted a particularly poor set of results, lost a large contract, or is facing a hostile takeover. In that case, there is no point in trying to sweep them under the carpet. Allow participants to name them. To get them off their chest. Write them down on a flip chart. They are more likely to be able to move past an issue if everyone is clear that it is out in the open.

5. Understand when to be divergent and when to be convergent

Developing and executing strategy requires a combination of divergent and convergent processes.

Divergent processes involve gathering data and generating ideas. Casting the net as wide as possible. Using macro scanning and brainstorming. Imagining. Asking 'what if?' Thinking about benefits. In divergent processes, there is no such thing as a bad idea. No stone that should be left unturned.

Convergent processes involve analysis and making choices. Narrowing things down. Focusing and prioritising. Choosing what you will do as well as what you won't do. Planning. Considering feasibility and costs.

But as much as developing and executing strategy requires you to alternate between the two, it is important never to mix them.

We've probably all heard that you should never evaluate the ideas generated during a brainstorming session. This is because brainstorming is a divergent process, and evaluating is a convergent process.

So decide if the purpose of your strategy day is divergence or convergence, and design the day accordingly. If you must do both on the same day, aim for divergence before lunch and convergence after lunch.

6. Work on the business, not in the business

Your strategy day is an opportunity to talk about the bigger picture. About the shape of the business. Which markets should it be in? How should it compete in those markets? What should it look like in 10 years time?

It is not an opportunity to dive into the operational minutae of your existing business. To identify and fight fires.

Those things are important, of course. But indulging in them on your strategy away day will take people out of strategic thinking mode and into operational mode. And more often, those issues are better delegated to other people.

7. Make visible notes as you go

Obviously, you want to remember all the good stuff that people talked about.

But if people see the notes, it makes it easier for them to feel heard and then to progress to the next thought without worrying that their great insight will be lost.

There are a number of different ways of achieving this:

Flip charts,
PostIt notes on a board,
On-screen capture.

Remember that the note-taker wields enormous power in the room. How you capture the notes makes a big difference. Who's words do you use? What do you leave out? What do you include? So choose that person wisely. I've seen many a session all but destroyed because note-taking was delegated to a junior person who did not really understand the nuances of what was being discussed.

Sometimes it makes sense to let delegates take then pen and draw what they're describing for themselves. That should be encouraged. Not just because it allows people to share their thoughts more clearly. But also because it creates a sense of movement and energy in the room.

On-screen capture has the advantage of making it easy to distribute exactly what was captured immediately after the event. There will be plenty of opportunities to refine and develop the output later. It's usually hugely valuable to get out an accurate record of what was actually discussed as soon as possible.

8. Be clear on the actions

You don't want your strategy day to be nothing more than a talking shop. So make sure you draw out clear actions. Actions don't need to be strategic decisions themselves. An action can be to:

gather more data,
consult with more people, or
work up some options,
to stop doing something, etc.

Use (simple) templates to send everyone out of the room to continue working but in alignment. And be clear how and when you will follow up.

9. Plan a post-event communication

If you take any number of senior decision-makers out of your business for a day, people will notice.

And they will start to speculate. And talk. Especially if the company is facing difficulties or uncertainties. If not handled well, that can further erode trust and alignment.

These days, it is quite common to share diaries. Either generally, or with subordinates or support staff. So it is worth thinking about how your strategy day appears in peoples diaries. This is part of the communication.

Then, plan a general communication with a few days of the meeting. You may not be able to talk about exactly what was discussed. But there is always an opportunity to say something positive.

10. Where is the data?

Strategy should be an evidence-based process. All-day workshops don't always lend themselves to that.

Consider what data you need before the workshop. Do you want to distribute it ahead of time? Or do you want someone to present it on the day?

Record actions to gather and distribute data after the workshop. Make sure they are assigned to the right people. One technique is to do a round at the end of the workshop. Ask everyone what, after the day, they most wish they knew now.

Predistributed data is better for convergent processes. Divergent processes tend to generate data needs after the workshop.

See also:

11. Use a facilitator

There are a number of reasons to get an external facilitator:

Participation: Using a facilitator means that everyone else gets to participate fully. Let the facilitator worry about process, time-keeping, etc.
Objectivity: Using an external facilitator ensures they are objective, and have no vested interests.
Skills: An experienced facilitator should have the right skills. These include facilitation skills, strategic thinking, and possibly even industry knowledge. But make sure they are a generalist so that they are not bringing any bias into the process.
Cost: Hiring a facilitator may be a little bit more expensive. But it is worth it to ensure you get the most value out of taking a number of expensive senior resources out of the office for a day.

12. Don't confuse strategy with team-building

Team-building is another great reason for having an away day. A strategy away day may have some team-building benefits. But don't confuse the day.

A strategy day is all about the business. A team-building day is all about the people and the inter-personal dynamic.

Think back to the difference between working on the business, and not in the business, above. Also, you will need a different kind of facilitator with different skills for a team-building day.

13. Don't mix other issues into it

Resist the temptation to tackle other issues 'while we've got everyone in the room'.

Your strategy day is designed to get everyone thinking strategically.

Every time you do something other than strategy, it draws people back into their day to day firefighting mode and out of strategic thinking mode.

For the same reason, you should avoid letting people step in and out of the meeting. When they do, they then miss part of the conversation and thread of logic. But as importantly, their thinking pattern changes.

But be pragmatic. If disaster strikes during the day you will have to adjust. There is no point in having the perfect strategy if the business was destroyed while you were designing it!

14. Get people to move

Strategy days can be quite intense. The session immediately after lunch can be particularly challenging for many people. It isn't called the graveyard shift for nothing.

A little bit of movement reinvigorates the brain.

Sometimes it's enough just to ask people to change seats. Some people believe that simply changing seats is enough to change people's perspectives.

Another technique is to play a little game for a few minutes. A little bit of fun can enhance creativity. But try to make it a game connected to the strategy or the strategy process. Remember this is not a team-building day.

The strategy day has a bad reputation. But done well, it can make a valuable contribution to a broader process for developing and executing business strategy. And now, you know how.

See also:

Using online research to build an evidence base

Business strategy must be evidence-based or it is just wishful thinking. (Tweet this)

As Jim Barksdale famously said: "If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine."

But how exactly do you build an evidence base?

1. Get good at Google

You'd be amazed at how much quality data is available on the Internet. And Google is there to help you find (almost) all of it.

But using Google can be a bit like trying to drink from a fire hose. There is just too much information. And most of it is not very good. The bad and irrelevant information drowns out the useful information.

So you need to get good at using Google to sift through the dross to find those nuggets.

There are lots of good resources to help you use Google more effectively. It is definitely worth familiarising yourself with these. (Note: Not all search tips are equally useful for strategy. But I think that will be obvious enough.)

Some of the more useful tips I have found are:

Use quotes to specify precise words in a specific order. This can be helpful when searching for a specific quote, a proper name, or a specific report where you know the title.
Put a minus sign in front of words to exclude them. For example, if you're looking for smartphone technology other than the iPhone, you could search for "smartphone -iphone".
Use the | bar to search for one word or another. For example, "Apple | Microsoft" will search for pages containing either or both terms.
Put a tilde (~) sign in front of a word to look for synonyms. For example, "~classes" will search for classes or lessons or coaching, etc.
Use "site:sitename.com" to search within a specific topic only.
Use ".." to search between two numeric values. For example, "financial results 2015..2021".
Use "location:placename" to search relative to a specific location.
Use "filetype:" if you know what you are looking for is a specific filetype. For example, "filetype:pdf".
Use the tabs. Click the "news" tab if you're looking for recent news stories. Click the "images" tab if you are looking for charts. This is particularly helpful as the better quality research sites will often use charts to represent their data and analysis.

Remember that most of the time you're trying to improve your search criteria to eliminate that which is not useful.

The other challenge can be to tap into the specific jargon which people use when writing about the industry you are interested in. If you've worked in that industry for a long time that's usually not a problem. But if you're an outsider or consultant, you should make a priority to master the language used.

It can be a bit hit and miss. Especially when you're starting with a new topic, line of enquiry or industry. So you have to keep trying it from different angles until you get it right.

2. Get good at scanning the results

No matter how good you get with Google, you're still going to need to process a lot of material to get the evidence you're looking for.

The first trick is to learn to recognise the reputable sources of information in the industry you're researching. Which are the quality edited journals? Which are the quality research companies? You can usually spot their URLs in the Google search results before you even click through to the page.

Then you look into the text itself. Which pages are spouting un-substantiated opinion? Which are written by lazy journalists trying to fill column inches or be the first to break a story without really understanding it? And which are providing high-quality, in-depth analysis backed by evidence and data?

"If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine.”

- Jim Barksdale (tweet this)

Where there is data, is it of a high quality. Is it clearly described and defined? What is the sample size? Are the conclusions statistically significant?

What is the quality of the analysis? Is it clearly and logically reasoned? Does it make basic mistakes like confusing correlation and causality?

You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince. When you're doing research you will have to scan and discard a lot of information. A lot of it is poor quality, repetitive, or not quite relevant to the topic you're researching. It takes time.

3. Get good at ChatGPT

The development of ChatGPT and other generative text models has been a huge boon for developing evidence bases. Think of ChatGPT as a combination of steps 1 and 2 above.

You can ask ChatGPT a question and it will provide an answer based on having scanned large parts of the internet for you. It uses a conversation interface. So if you need it to elaborate on or explain any parts of its answer, you can ask it to do that for you.

The secret to using ChatGPT is to phrase your questions (called prompts) well. The clearer you are about what you want to know, including the context in which you are asking and the level of detail you want, the more likely you are to get high-quality and useful answers. There are lots of guides on how to do this, but at the end of the day it boils down to practice and working out what works best for you.

There are alternatives to ChatGPT also, such as Google's Bard. You may want to ask both and compare the answers you get.

4. Focus on the contradictions and inconsistencies

Don't get lazy and only look for data which easily supports your views. This is known as confirmation bias. It is a well-researched phenomenon.

Look for as wide a range of evidence as possible.

Data sources which contradict each other or contradict the opinions of experienced people within your business are often the most interesting.

Assuming the data sources are credible, and the experience people are indeed knowledgeable, these contradictions often lead to the best insights.

Instead of assuming that one or the other must be "wrong", dig deeper. Look for some explanation under which both can be right.

Have you found an exception to a rule? Something which is true under one set of circumstances, but not under another? Have you uncovered an implicit assumption or bias in thinking? Have you found something that used to be true but no longer is? If so, what has changed?

Such seeming contradictions and inconsistencies provide the starting point for more considered analysis, insight, and sometimes strategic breakthroughs.

5. Make excellent notes

Once you've found the evidence you're looking for, it is important to keep good notes. You need to be able to recall what you've found easily. This could be because you've got a report to produce, or because you're in a meeting and someone is asking you to back up what you're saying.

You can use a general-purpose note-taking tool, like Evernote. But general-purpose tools don't know what your notes mean. Nor do they know how they should be organised. So often, you end up searching through your notes just like how you were searching for them through Google in the first place.

Alternatively, you can use a special-purpose tool like StratNavApp.com. StratNavApp.com is specifically designed for organising evidence for business strategy. It will organise your notes for you using familiar strategy analysis models. Evidence gathered in this way typically supports PESTEL analysis, Porter's 5 Forces analysis, and the Threats and Opportunities in a SWOT. StratNavApp.com will help you to connect the evidence you gathered directly to these analyses. It will also maintain the links back to the original sources of the information.

Not only will it make it easier for you to find them again, but it will help you develop your strategy analysis as you collect your evidence.

StratNavApp.com supports this with a convenient 'clipping' tool. Once you've found a web-page of interest, simply highlight the relevant text and click the button. StratNavApp.com will pull it through into the app, categorise it and link it into your existing analysis. Follow these instructions to install the clipping tool in your browser.

StratNavApp.com also integrates with Grammarly.com. Grammarly.com will help you to ensure that your notes are clearly and accurately written.

Conclusion

Evidence is the bedrock of good strategy. Get good at finding and interpreting it. (Tweet this)

What are your top tips for researching evidence? I'd love to hear your thoughts or questions in the comments.

See also:

7 top tips for strategy analysis

Strategy analysis is the bedrock of good strategy. In this post, we look at 7 top tips for doing it well.

1. Know your tools

You can't be a mechanic without the right tools.

Nor can you be a strategist without the right tools, frameworks and methodologies.

Using the right tools is the most basic requirement of strategy analysis.

You will need a wide range of tools at your disposal. You will need to know both how and when to use each one.

Remember that not all tools are useful in all circumstances. And that not all analysis yields results.

Much of it will end up on the cutting room floor.

See: Essential tools for Strategy Analysis

2. Take an external perspective

Avoid being too introspective.

Companies have a tendency to tell themselves stories. Particularly about what they're good at. It's natural. They've invested time and energy into creating what they got. They want to believe they're good at it. They want to take pride in what they've done.

And if they tell themselves the same stories often enough, they start to believe they are true.

Strategy analysis requires you to look beyond those stories.

One way to do this is to take an external perspective. How do your stakeholders see your business and your market?

Your list of stakeholders should include your customers, distributors and suppliers. Anyone the business relies on to succeed. Consider existing stakeholders and target stakeholders.

Ask what your customers would see as your strengths and weaknesses - relative to your competitors.

Ask how industry trends might affect your suppliers and distributors.

Read industry reports. Attend conferences. Join online forums. Get out there and talk to people.

If appropriate, get an external review of your analysis.

3. For insight, present data, facts and interpretation

Opinions are a dime a dozen.

As Jim Barksdale said:

“If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine.” (tweet this)

Strategy analysis relies on data. Facts. Evidence.

You can ask people for their opinions. But then use those opinions to work out what data you need.

Does the data confirm or disconfirm the opinions? What does that mean?

Data can come from lots of different sources. Internal sources include operational and financial reports. External sources include industry reports and primary research.

You can present data in lots of different ways. There is an art to presenting data in the manner which best reveals its meaning.

Annotate your data with insights, conclusions and interpretation. Draw the story out of it. But be careful of inferring causality when all the data shows is a correlation.

4. Embrace the ambiguity

No matter how good your data, things are seldom conclusive.

If you've asked lots of different people and drawn on lots of different data sources, it's unlikely they will be.

Expect to find contradictions and gaps.

One way to deal with ambiguity is to use scenario planning.

Even then, strategy analysis is uncertain. Part of being in business is taking risks. Sometimes you just have to take a chance. But make it an informed decision.

5. Keep repeating

Once you've completed your analysis, don't expect people to get it the first time.

Remember, you've been working on this for some time. You're familiar with the material. But your audience probably isn't. They're probably distracted by other things.

So keep repeating it. Keeping trying different ways to get your message across. Learn what works and what doesn't work. Keep repeating what works.

Don't make the mistake of moving to the next stages - articulation, planning and execution - assuming that everyone will remember the analysis. People forget - sometimes quite quickly. And then the strategy starts to drift away from the analysis. It usually reverts back to 'the way we've always done things around here.'

6. Never stop analysing

Strategy development and execution is not a linear process.

As Helmuth von Moltke the Elder said:

"No plan survives first contact with the enemy." (tweet this)

As soon as you start executing your strategy things start to change. Things don't work out quite the way you planned. Stakeholders don't respond as you'd expected. Competitors fight back.

So strategic analysis is an ongoing process. In fact, strategy is best thought of as a loop. Analysis, articulation, planning, execution and back to analysis.

See: the Strategic Learning Methodology

7. Use intuition to help you know where to start

But, where do you start? There is so much data out there it can be daunting.

That's where intuition comes in. It can be your own intuition if you have experience in this area. Or you can talk to other people with experience and ask them for their intuitions.

Use intuition to help you form hypotheses. What do you think is happening. Then start looking for data to confirm or disconfirm those hypotheses. It is important to look for both confirmation and disconfirmation. Otherwise, you could fall victim to confirmation bias. This is where you see only evidence that supports your assumptions, and don't see evidence which contradicts them.

8. Use intuition to help you know where to stop

Too much of a good thing can be bad for you. Analysis paralysis is a real problem.

Sooner or later you have to make a call and take action. That action will produce feedback which provides more data for further analysis.

But if you don't take action, you will just keep spinning your wheels and analysing the same data in ever-increasing levels of detail while the world passes you by.

12 techniques to help you do a better SWOT analysis

The humble SWOT analysis lists an organisation's Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It remains one of the most popular models in strategic analysis.

But is simplicity and power make it notoriously difficult to do well.

In this article we will look at several techniques to help you do a better SWOT:

1. Brainstorm a quick and dirty SWOT

Brainstorming is probably the default way of doing a SWOT analysis. Whilst it is not the most robust approach, it should not be dismissed entirely. Particularly if you are looking for

a very quick result or
a starting point for further work using some of the other techniques described below.

You can improve your brainstorm by including a broad cross-section of employees and outsiders such as consultants, customers, suppliers and distributors. You can also make use of SWOT checklists.

2. Work in reverse order

An outside-in approach is almost always better than an inside-out approach for strategy. So it makes sense to start with the external factors - the Opportunities and Threats - before moving on to the internal factors - the Strengths and Weaknesses - that will allow you to exploit or avoid those opportunities and threats.

3. Start from your Business Model Canvas

A much more structured approach is to start with a Business Model Canvas or enhanced Business Model Canvas of your as-is or to-be organisation. Work through each element in each section of the canvas and do a mini-SWOT of that element. Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses regarding that element. And consider what trends might impact it positively (opportunities) or negatively (threats).

You don't need to have a long list of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats for each element. But the process of working through them in this way will yield a much more thorough SWOT analysis.

4. Start from your Value Chain Analysis

You can use a Porter's Value Chain of your as-is or to-be organisation in much the same way.

If you've already used a Business Model Canvas or enhanced Business Model canvas to improve your SWOT, then you will already have considered your Core processes. So all that remains is to consider any Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats relating to your Support processes.

5. Use a PESTEL Analysis

A PESTEL analysis is a great way to identify a wide range of opportunities and threats your business faces. For each consideration identified in the PESTEL analysis, simply ask how it might help or hinder your organisation. You may also be able to identify threats and weaknesses by asking where your organisation is particularly well or poorly placed to respond to the trends in your PESTEL.

For a very thorough analysis, consider the possible impact of every item in your PESTEL analysis against every element in your (enhanced) Business Model Canvas or Porter's Value Chain.

6. Use a Porter's 5 Forces Analysis

You can use a Porter's 5 Forces analysis very much like you use your PESTEL analysis to identify opportunities and threats.

7. Use a McKinsey 7S

The PESTEL and Porter's 5 Forces analyses focus on factors outside of the organisation itself. A McKinsey 7S analysis looks at factors which are directly under the organisation's control. Consider the strengths and weaknesses for each of the 7 dimensions in this analysis. Also, consider the alignment between them as a source of potential strength or weakness.

8. Mine your Customer Analysis

If you've already used your (enhanced) Business Model Canvas to improve your SWOT, you will already have considered each of your customer segments. But don't stop there - scour all of your customer analysis for clues to what should be in your SWOT.

What do your customers say they value or don't value about your organisation's products and service, and how you deliver them? If they don't buy your products and services, what do they buy instead?

9. Mine your Competitor Analysis

Competitor analysis is a great source or insight into your organisation's strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Which competitors are gaining or losing market share and why? Are their target markets shifting over time? What capabilities are they investing in, and what kinds of skills are they hiring? Which employees or customers are leaving you or your competitors and where are they going? What do your competitors say in their press releases and marketing material to persuade their investors and customers that they will be successful?

When think, strengths and weaknesses, you need some point of comparison. Strong or weak compare to what? Competitors (and substitutes) provide one point of comparison. (Customer expectations provide another.)

10. Be specific - avoid platitudes in your SWOT

When listing their strengths, most organisations say things like "our people are our greatest asset" or something similar. But don't settle for that. Ask: What specifically can your people do, that customers, distributors or other stakeholders value, that is different and better than your competitors? The more specific and quantifiable you can be, the better.

See also:

Are your strategic insights insightful?

11. Back your SWOT up with detailed analysis

Usually, when you see a SWOT analysis it is in the form of simple lists of short statements of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. But don't stop there. For each statement, back it up with detailed evidence and analysis. What data support the statement? What examples illustrate it? The more detail you can provide, the more compelling your SWOT analysis will be.

Don't be afraid of including contradictory evidence and data. Strategy is a complex and often ambiguous subject. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. Including contradictory evidence and data will increase your credibility. It will also allow stakeholders with contrary views to feel that they have been heard. Most importantly, it will help you to remain more alive to the possibility of your analysis changing as the situation evolves.

Your detailed analysis could include evidence and data about not only your organisation but also about your customers, partners competitors, etc.

12. Prioritise what you include in your final SWOT

Used correctly, these techniques will generate a vast quantity of information for your SWOT. A good SWOT analysis, however, is usually brief and to the point. It highlights only the absolutely key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in a way that engages, connects with and focusses key strategic decision makers.

It is therefore important to prioritise your findings. Prioritise strengths and weaknesses by impact. Prioritise opportunities and threats by impact and likelihood. Don't be afraid to combine related items. Or to separate more complex items out into their constituent parts.

Once you've prioritised your SWOT analysis, exclude the least impactful or likely factors. Don't discard them, though. You may want to continue to keep an eye on them in case circumstances change and they become more significant again.

StratNavApp.com supports all of these techniques in a collaborative online environment. Why not try it for free right now and start producing a better SWOT analysis that makes a real difference to your organisation?

See also:

The consistently popular SWOT analysis