Hey there,

Welcome to the 2nd edition of the StrategyHub behind-the-scenes newsletter. Last edition I shared why I decided to make StrategyHub.

Today I want to talk about the strategy mistakes that I see people making.

Let’s be honest, there’s a tonne of strategy advice out there, but people inevitably find themselves lost in the maze of abstract theories, books, and frameworks.

I take a lot of pride in the fact that more than 150,000+ people here and on social media trust me to provide them with raw, informative strategy case studies without the fluff.

This is by design... I tried my absolute best to create a format that is optimised for being practically useful and value-dense, and I’m doing this again with StrategyHub.

In practice, improving at ‘strategy’ today comes down to developing 3 things:

  1. The ability to figure out what to do and what not to do (and why)

  2. The ability to consistently generate data-backed insights to generate and validate hypotheses

  3. The ability to document and communicate ideas with clarity, confidence, and persuasiveness

A great strategist does all 3 really well.

So where do people go wrong?

Here are the 5 reasons I see most often…

  1. Over-indexing on ‘strategy theory’.

‘Strategy’ has changed. Once upon a time, companies relied solely on frameworks and abstract debates to make strategic decisions. Anyone looking to add value to strategic problems and progress in their career had just one option: spend years learning from highly conceptual ‘business strategy’ literature.

Today, ‘strategy theory’ is often outdated and doesn’t reflect how modern businesses operate, so time spent here doesn’t tangibly drive impact for their company or career.

  1. Relying too heavily on gut instinct rather than data.

In the internet-era, anyone can use free information available online to strengthen their work with hard data, bring valuable hidden insights to the table, and become an indispensable value-driver on strategic projects.

But most fail to leverage available data sources to inform their thinking.

  1. Struggling to communicate complex ideas persuasively.

We’ve all met brilliant people who can’t articulate what they know best.

Even brilliant strategic ideas fall flat if not effectively communicated. Many struggle to articulate their strategic thinking in a clear, compelling way to stakeholders.

  1. Not focused on action.

A strategic problem is only solved when you commit to a specific direction.

Too often teams spend hours, days, even months talking around in circles, without the confidence or data to land on a decisive action.

  1. Failing to adapt to changing conditions.

The internet business landscape evolves and changes incredibly rapidly.

Ignoring (or not knowing where to find) emerging trends, changing customer preferences, and market dynamics is a classic oversight.

I see these issues everywhere. But there are so many low-hanging-fruit and practical skills that you can adopt to overcome them.

That’s why the core philosophy behind StrategyHub is practicality.

Specific tactics, useful free dashboards, ready-to-use templates, and screencast demos of techniques and tools I’ve accumulated in Big4 consulting, at Atlassian, and now in building Strategy Breakdowns.

How do you become more strategic?

I’d be curious to hear more about what you do to improve your ‘strategy skills’, and if you have anything you’d add to the list I outlined above?

Cheers,

— Tom

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