(0:00) The trap that companies fall into is that they take on too much. Their strategy is way too robust, (0:06) and they have all these different items going on, too many initiatives, all these actions, (0:10) too many things to measure, and it flops. This podcast, Business Strategy, is about the lessons (0:15) I learned while building Coltivar.com and turning around and growing million and billion dollar (0:19) companies.

My hope is that you use these strategies to grow your business and someday soon partner (0:24) with us to build a more profitable and iconic company. Please share and enjoy. (0:31) I've spent the last 15 years of my life, not just studying strategy, but applying it as (0:36) I've turned around and grown companies, generating over a billion dollars in value in the process.

(0:42) Today, I'm going to distill it down into the six things that I've learned along the way (0:46) to help you fast track your path to success and hopefully avoid a lot of the common traps (0:51) that exist out there. All right, so let's go ahead and jump in. Number one is that strategy (0:58) oftentimes is overly complicated.

Let me explain. Years ago, when I was first starting out, (1:05) I was serving on a board and this facilitator came in and he was helping our organization (1:10) to put in place a strategic plan. So he called it a strategic plan.

There's a difference between (1:15) strategy and a strategic plan. If you know me, if you've listened to my other content, you know (1:20) that I oftentimes talk about a strategy and then I talk about a plan as two distinct things. (1:26) Somewhere along the line, somebody thought it'd be cool to take a plan and a strategy and combine (1:32) those two words together to make it more sexy or something.

But a strategic plan is not the same (1:37) thing as a strategy. A strategy is an interrelated set of choices you make about where you're going (1:43) to compete, how you're going to compete, and ultimately how you're going to win. Then from (1:47) there, a plan helps you to execute your strategy.

All right, so that's first and foremost. But this (1:53) facilitator just referred to it as a strategic plan. I didn't know at the time that, but that (1:58) was a major red flag.

So if you are referring to a strategy and a strategic plan synonymously, (2:04) all right, don't do that. All right, so he comes in and he helps us to put in place a strategic (2:08) plan. So he helped us to define goals and then we set objectives.

And then under objectives, (2:14) we had initiatives and then we had actions, we had tasks, we had all these layers that were (2:19) nested below each other. And I could tell you, it was super complicated. My head was spinning.

(2:25) And then when we'd have follow-up conversations, oftentimes somebody would say, well, you know, (2:29) I was thinking about this objective and he'd correct me and say, no, no, no, no. That's not (2:33) an objective. That's an initiative.

Okay. Think about it more broadly. And they're like, okay, (2:38) sorry, initiative.

Or they would say, yeah, we're going to do this task. And he's like, it's not, (2:43) that's not the task. That's an action.

And I'm like, wow, this is complicated for the people who (2:49) are putting it in place. How are we ever going to roll this out across the entire organization (2:55) and to all our stakeholders? And guess what? We did it. It was a massive failure.

So that's lesson (3:00) number one is don't over-complicate strategy. Strategy is really simple. Like I said, it's just (3:07) an interrelated set of choices that you're making about your company's position, about its behavior, (3:14) and ultimately how it's going to win.

In other words, if I just break it down in layman terms, (3:20) there are so many priorities that are competing for our attention, especially as business leaders, (3:25) there's this opportunities and possibilities and all these distractions that exist out there. (3:31) A strategy helps you to stay laser focused on solving the number one constraint of your business (3:38) and then focusing on efforts that are going to result in the biggest upside. All right.

So if (3:44) you just think about strategy as a mechanism to help you to focus, then it becomes a lot simpler. (3:51) All right. Now at Coltivar, we put in place a strategy blueprint for our clients.

It's very (3:56) simple and it has these components. Purpose, principles, strategic problem, market focus (4:02) and position, competitive behavior, resources and returns, and ultimately a strategic narrative. (4:08) Those are the components.

That's it. And by following these components and putting the (4:13) customer at the very center, because the ideal customer profile is at the very core of the (4:18) strategy, guess what? You can roll out a strategy in your business that will allow you to achieve (4:24) value. It doesn't have to be all complicated.

It doesn't require 55 steps to create a strategy. (4:30) It can be very simple, but the key is to follow a framework that actually works. And that's what (4:36) I'm talking about today.

This is an approach that I've used over and over and over again to turn (4:41) around all different types of companies across multiple industries and of all different sizes. (4:47) All right. So that's number one.

That's one lesson that I learned is that strategy can oftentimes be (4:51) super complicated, but it doesn't have to be. Number two is that strategy doesn't require (4:57) a ton of data. I was working with a company once.

I went into their first strategy session with them (5:03) and they had a massive report that another consulting firm put together for them. (5:08) And it had graphs and diagrams and predictions of the future in the trajectory of the industry. (5:15) And sure, that's helpful to understand your macro environment.

So I'm not saying (5:18) data is bad. I love data. I think data is really, really important.

But if you're trying to predict (5:25) the next 5, 10, 15 years in your industry and you're paying all this money to acquire all this (5:30) data, it could be for naught. So that's where you just want to be careful. Or if you're delaying (5:36) your strategy, right, your efforts to put in place a strategy, to design your strategy, (5:40) because one magical day you're going to have all the data you need to make decisions, (5:46) well, your efforts may be in vain.

So don't let paralysis by analysis plague you, (5:52) because this can really slow you down. Definitely bring in data. And what I recommend is looking at (5:57) your historical performance, also understanding the macro trends that are impacting your ideal (6:02) customer profile and your company.

Of course, bring those to the table. But then put in place (6:07) a strategy blueprint that will help you to overcome your strategic problem and to drive value along (6:13) the way. Don't let data get in the way.

And please, don't spend a ton of money on these (6:19) massive reports or hiring a consulting firm to try to predict the future, because that's (6:23) just not possible. Which leads into number three. This is a huge lesson that I've learned is that you (6:30) cannot predict the future.

I do not sell prediction strategy. I sell a framework, a system, a roadmap (6:37) that helps companies to identify their biggest constraint and then put in place initiatives, (6:42) actions, and results in order to drive greater firm value, right? That's it. It's pretty simple.

(6:48) Now, when it comes to predicting the future, there are some organizations out there, (6:52) some consulting firms that will come into an organization, and they help them to craft a plan (6:58) that is built on the next five, 10, 15 years out into the future. The danger with this is that (7:05) nobody knows the future. Think about this.

What if I was selling prediction strategy to my clients? (7:11) Let's go back to 2018. If I was following this prediction-type approach, then I would be saying, (7:17) the world's going to be this and this and that, and I'd have no clue that COVID was about to strike, (7:23) which radically impacted the world. There's no way to accurately predict economic conditions, (7:30) wars, pandemics, or other things that will just pop up in your industry or for your business.

(7:36) Don't try to create a prediction strategy. Sure, you should be thinking forward into the future, (7:41) but instead, it's about the system, a repeatable system that you can follow in order to drive (7:46) results. That's what it's all about.

That's what we do at Coltivar. We put in place a system for (7:51) companies. Number four, this is really important.

Strategy is not a one-day exercise. It's not a (7:59) one-and-done event. I was talking to an executive years ago, and he's like, yeah, we get together (8:03) once a year, and we talk about our strategy.

I was like, wow, you should be talking about your (8:07) strategy every single day. Strategy and operations, they're not two separate things. Your strategy is (8:14) driving operations.

You're out there executing. You're making adjustments along the way. (8:18) So you have to have a system in place to monitor your strategy on a regular basis and make these (8:24) tweaks so you are driving value and you're achieving what your strategy actually is.

(8:29) So don't make it a one-time event. If you don't have a formal strategy in place, (8:33) you can do an offsite or you could have some type of event where you kick things off, (8:37) but just remember that strategy is an iterative process to do within your company. Build, (8:42) measure, learn.

Build, measure, learn, and make adjustments along the way. (8:47) Number five, here's a huge lesson learned. It is so easy to take on too much.

That is a common (8:54) problem that exists out there, especially for ambitious leaders. We want to tackle the world. (8:59) We want to conquer things.

And when we do this, we end up with 10 or 15 initiatives. We have all (9:04) these measures, all these KPIs, and it becomes very complicated really quickly. And the more (9:10) complicated it is, guess what? The harder it is to execute.

So when I'm advising companies, (9:16) and after they put in place a strategy blueprint, then it's time to define initiatives. And I say, (9:21) okay, let's just keep it really simple. Three to five max.

And in fact, if you just want to start (9:26) with one initiative, hey, that's better than trying to do like seven or eight. So just keep it (9:30) small and then you can always add on from there. The trap that companies fall into is that they (9:35) take on too much.

Their strategy is way too robust. And they have all these different items going on, (9:41) too many initiatives, all these actions, too many things to measure. And it flops, right? (9:46) People fall on their face because it's just way too complicated to execute.

So start off small, (9:51) start executing that, follow the system, put the system in place. Then once it's working, (9:56) you can always add on from there. Number six, and this is my final lesson learned that I'm (10:01) going to share with you, is that you can have a great strategy, right? That strategy blueprint (10:06) that I was talking about, that's really fun to do.

It's great to design, to dream of all the (10:11) possibilities and all the potential that your company has. But where businesses fall short is (10:17) with execution, right? So execution is the key. You could have the best strategy in the world, (10:23) but if your execution is terrible, then you're not going to be able to drive greater value.

(10:27) And that's really what it comes down to, is solid execution. And the reason why I've been (10:31) successful for so many years turning around and growing companies is because I follow a framework, (10:36) which I've coined as IARs, which stands for Initiatives, Actions, and Results. IARs enable (10:43) leaders to execute their strategy.

First, you set an initiative. An initiative does four things. (10:49) First, it helps you to overcome your strategic problem.

Your initiatives are the things you're going to do (11:03) to bring about your strategy. Then there are actions. Actions are the things you're going to (11:08) do to advance your initiatives.

And then you have R, which stands for results or key results, (11:12) and that's how you're going to measure the progress of your initiatives. So the IAR framework has been (11:19) really valuable for me and for all the clients that follow along with it. And this is a way you (11:24) can execute on your strategy.

Over the last 15 years, like I've said, I've worked with a ton (11:28) of companies. I've seen what works, what doesn't work. I've seen a lot of mistakes along the way.

(11:34) I've made a lot of mistakes. So hopefully you can fast track your path to success by avoiding some (11:39) of these common misconceptions and traps that exist out there in the world of business and (11:44) with strategy. If you need any help in your company with formulating a strategy or executing (11:49) on your strategy, I would love to talk to you more.

You can connect with me at coltivar.com. (11:55) And in the meantime, take care of yourself. Thanks for tuning in. Cheers.