Defining and driving value as a strategist

I’ve seen such a large number of interpretations of value recently and wanted to put my own stake on what it means to me.

In its simplest form, you’re helping someone through something they’ve never gone through before.

In its most complex form, you’re working on novel problems either as part of a business or on your own as an entrepreneur.

Obviously there’s quite a gradient between those two things and so we need to be more specific about what value looks like & how to drive value as an executive strategist.

What does value look like?

Value in my mind is finding a novel business problem and using creativity & smarts to deliver an innovative product.

While some folks may include motivation here (yes, this is of value to the appropriate people), it isn’t the main outcome of the exercise itself.

We want to do work that’s so inspiring it makes people emotional and makes them feel better.

This is the root of all innovation as it were and is how you’re going to grow something into a very big business.

By growing and entangling the value propositions in business, this is how we support a better world.

Applying these principles

Sourcing the ideas

As an AI & software strategist, I’m reviewing news articles daily and sifting through big problems facing the world to find ones that I have a solution for.

It isn’t just news articles though. We’ll also get into World Economic Forum reports for example and see how the macroeconomics is changing and what that means for the business environment.

The news articles though also include some of the latest advances in AI and what problems are being solved by other groups in the field. From a strategist’s point of view, this keeps the mind pliable with creativity and allows us to not only imagine solutions to the problem in front of us, but also have solutions for problems the business is likely to face down the road.

Some of the big issues right now include:

1. Global instability of the supply chain
2. Climate change
3. Political instability
4. Emerging technology and job loss
5. Equality/equity across a range of outcomes

When making a business idea, these are some of the things considered for implementation purposes.

Putting the idea to the test

Personally, I find myself with a backlog of about 20 ideas which is why I share my methodology of business generation here.

As humans, we have to grow to meet the challenges in front of us instead of thinking that someone else is coming to save us; while it’s great to have a romantic view, it actively disempowers you from making your own contribution to the state of the world as an active problem solver instead of a passive problem solver.

Active problem solving becomes incredibly important at the executive level as you need to be an active business partner and contribute your fair share to the advancement of the company; a large number of jobs depend on you being successful and there’s no room for error.

Here, we’re going to actually talk to customers in a very simple way and just consider the creation of a waitlist for example for folks who might be interested in what we have to offer.

The amount of effort put into the waitlist as well should be proportional to the size of the ask if you need an investment to get the idea going; $5M is different than $20M or $100M for example.

Regular testing and customer feedback is also important so that you understand you’re going in the right direction.

Scaling the business

Assuming the basics of the business have been validated, all that needs done is to scale the business which includes sales, marketing, payroll, performance management, multiple management layers as appropriate and more.

The systems used will change and adapt as the business takes shape and what works in the small company might not work at a different stage in the company lifecycle.

For example, smaller companies may use LinkedIn Sales Navigator as their initial sales outreach channel and it’s very accessible when you consider a 3-10 person company for example.

That will change as you reach 15-20 and perhaps you now need a new sales channel and phase that in in addition to the use of Sales Navigator and begin doing a basic level of omni-channel optimization so you can focus your sales reps where you expect them to make the most money.

Even more is also knowing how to fold in the different departments of marketing, engineering, project management and more as the business begins to roll out.

Running with the idea

At some point, it’s just a matter of committing and trying to grow the idea. There will be a lot of outreach and perhaps only a few deals reached, but that’s ok as you start to get the business under your belt more. Keep in mind that some products or services are just harder to sell than others and that is ok as well.

You don’t want to force anything, but you do want to be forthcoming and honest about your capabilities.