STRATEGY Knowledge Bytes


Strategy Trumps Tactics - A winning strategy will accommodate a multitude of tactical errors and omissions. Excellent tactics, however, in the absence of a winning strategy, are unlikely to sustain success over an extended period.


Qualities of a Winning Strategy - Design a strategy that ensures long-term, as well as short-term success; differentiate in multiple dimensions; move in ways that are difficult for competitors to discern.


Offense Is Your Best Option - A strong offense is better than a strong defense because you control the terms of the competition (time, place, pace, intensity, and type of engagement, etc.).


FOCUS Knowledge Bytes


Changing The System - To successfully execute a strategy, you need a sharply focused plan for overcoming system resistance. The first step is to understand the system’s characteristics and the techniques you can use to affect it.


Centers of Gravity - The extent and probability of execution success is directly proportional to the number of system Centers of Gravity affected and the speed at which they are affected. More


“Good Enough” Plans - Don’t aim for planning perfection. Aim for a “good enough” plan and vigorously execute it now. Improve it as you move.


SPEED Knowledge Bytes


Speed Wins! - In the vast majority of situations, time is NOT on your side — the slower you move, the less your chances of achieving your goals, large or small.


Organize for Success - Create the optimal organizational structure for executing your strategy, a structure that allows you to be fast, nimble, and continuously self-adapting.


Parallel Approach - To increase the probability of success in execution, launch many precisely targeted actions in parallel. Remember that you do not need every action to be successful. You just need to make a critical mass of the right kinds of things happen quickly.