CONVERSATIONS

It’s not that strategy has been tested and found ineffective - strategy demands the discipline of conversations that matter, ongoing trade-offs and long-term commitment. However, strategy often gets abandoned before it has a chance to succeed.

Strategy is not a set-and-forget process; it’s about continually laying the foundation for the next conversation that matters.

Consider the construction of the Great Pyramid as a strategic metaphor. It wasn’t built in a single day, or even a single year. Over roughly 20 years, a workforce of 20,000 to 30,000 skilled labourers placed approximately 2.3 million blocks - each carefully positioned to create a winning structure that has endured for millennia.

Just as every stone in the pyramid built upon the work that came before it, strategy is a continuous process. Each time we revisit it, we’re not simply checking a box - we’re placing the next foundational block that will support future conversations and guide long-term action.

Yet history shows us what happens when firms fail to treat strategy as an ongoing process:

• Blockbuster dominated movie rentals but failed to adapt as digital streaming emerged. Instead of building on its position and evolving, it stuck to its outdated model and ignored shifts in consumer behaviour - ultimately losing to Netflix.

• Kodak invented the digital camera but clung to its film-based business, afraid of disrupting its own success. By failing to build on its innovation and embrace the digital shift, it fell behind and filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

• Encyclopedia Britannica was once the gold standard of knowledge, but it resisted digital transformation while Wikipedia and search engines revolutionized access to information. By the time Britannica adapted, it had lost relevance.

Each of these firms ultimately treated strategy as a fixed plan rather than an evolving process. They failed to continuously lay the next block, leaving gaps that others capitalized on.

Strategy requires ongoing commitment, iteration, and refinement. When done regularly, it transforms our individual efforts into a winning legacy.

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