'What do strategists do?' & how a lack of understanding of it is wasting billions of dollars. $$$

Critiquing strategists has become the flavour of the season.

So here is an alternative perspective -not backed by some graphs but by real inputs.

One of the biggest myths about strategy is that it's only about presentations, research, and data points, and acronyms...lots of complicated acronyms.

That's BS ( Bull Shit ??)

Those things are a small, manual part of a strategy.

The most important part of the strategy is insight and finding the best way forward. Because 'forward' is the way businesses and people like to move.

It's also about going beyond the 'way forward' to the best tips to accelerate, the tools and systems you need to have in place for that

& most importantly when the shit hits the fan ( And in business 'shit always hits the fan' at least once) ; figuring out the most effective way to deal with it..not always the perfect way but the most effective way ( knowing the difference is also part of strategy )

?? Try and build a successful business without a strategy and if you succeed please let me know how

Strategy is essential & a lack of understanding of it is wasting billions of dollars. $$$$

Not millions, but billions !!

?? Even a half-decent strategist would have said that Byjus, Oyo, WeWork,Made.com, Casper, Zepto, etc are overvalued / bad business models. Or guessed 1-2 years back that Amazon will enter health tech or Disney's power move will be integration or Netflix will have to use ads (we predicted all 3)

...that's part of strategy ????

(This prediction was shared in 2020 end to 2021 beginning on livestreams and podcasts. Then I wrote this post for linkedin & Insta a year back.)

??? A strategist would have told Mygate well before their misadventures what they were supposed to do & ideally, told them how to do it. That's strategy.

without the insight that what humans want are not faster horses but actually to move faster, we wouldn't have had cars.

Creative ideas don't jump out of thin air they are a response to an insight.

?? Taking edtech as an example a strategist wouldn't have just predicted but tried to solve it too. For example, about 2.5 years ago, I predicted that Byju's and the entire tech space was a sh** show . Understand that this is at the peak of the edtech scene & that it didn't require smartness...it just required asking two basic questions:

Do I believe that humankind will always be locked in because we wont find a solution to Covid ?

or more importantly

Do I believe that kids and parents enjoy remote studying?

The answer for both these two was NO. Thus the edtech model being practiced had no future.

?? But there were edtech models that had a future & there was a way current edtechs could move in that direction. I have written multiple posts on that-Physicswallah proves it, so does Scalar or some of the vocational edtech companies.

?? As a strategist you just don't spell it out, , but often test their hypothesis (ps-I am also a marketer).

In 2021 & early 22 (testing your strategies)

?? I tried to connect with one of India's edtech unicorns & the other soonicorn with a solution which was basically around cutting down media spends & instead focussing on:

1. gamification (ie via Product Led Growth),
2. Content ie Social,but education-related not unrelated stuff like this
3. K factor ie Referral / Loyalty

The response: NONE

?? I then reached out to, desperately reached out to two of Vietnam's prominent edtechs because Vietnam's startup ecosystem was rapidly evolving & funding coming in ; also I was in Vietnam then. I even offered to do this project at a lower cost & stay on in Vietnam, but the concept of 'not using lead gen the traditional way or this thing called K factor as a north star metric seemed crazy to them.'

?? Then last year Gaurav Munjal the founder of unacademy tweeted this in a response to a tweet by Tejeshwi Sharma on the same lines: (basically affirming the hypothesis above)

When 91% Decrease in budgets has no impact in revenues that means either the strat or marketing team who did this did not know how to do their job or there wasn't a strategy in place

But despite all the above, I won't blame the ones who are criticizing strategists.

A strategist's job description has been messed up because of expensive MBA-type consultants & influencers now bullshitting their way. People who call themselves strategists but whose skillset is limited to making presentation decks and excel sheets or using graphs & acronyms, or suggesting complicated pyramids in order to sell the new trend or make them sound intelligent are to blame for the downfall of the strategist.

That is not strategy!

So the solution for you -as a business owner or CXO when trying to hire a strategist?

....next time a strategist shows you a fancy graph or uses an acronym or talks about a trend -just ask these questions:

1. What does 'this' mean for my business?
2. Is this the best way possible for my business?
3. Or alternately 'is there an easier way' & what's the cost benefit analyis

"Can this be easy" is one of my favourite questions & I believe I picked it from one of Tim Ferris books.

The other one I like (not Tim Ferris for this one)

what if we forget our existing beliefs or assumptions?

(Not to be done often)

4. And finally...What's the execution strategy? From strategy tools to a team or marketing stack on how to achieve our goals more optimally.

If someone can answer most of these then you have the right person.