Post navigation Strategy -- what it should be In an earlier post I discussed a number of common features in business strategies that indicate they may be a bit suspect.  I promised to follow up with the flip-side -- what good strategy should be.  Here it is. A good business strategy messes with the DNA of your business -- if you're not finding it difficult and demanding, you're not doing it right. Strategy -- in pretty much any context -- is a deceptively simple process underpinned by potentially complex layers of data collection, diagnosis, theory building, policy development, planning, execution and review.  Unfortunately some management consultants present that in exactly the opposite order; that is they tell you that strategy is a complex process (otherwise why would you pay them to help you?) and give you the impression that the underlying processes involve things like 'visioning' and 'aspiration'.  My previous post had lots to say about things like that, some of them libellous if I'd said them about an individual or company.  At its most basic, good strategy is: Knowing where, what and who you are. Deciding where, what and who you want to be. Identifying all the limiting factors, barriers, competition and constraints that could impede the transition from 1 to 2, along with the degree to which they can be influenced by local action (stuff you can do) and to what degree they might be influenced by near-to-medium term macro effects (stuff you can't do). Designing and implementing