Why strategy is not enough

I’ve written a lot about the importance of taking a strategy-first approach. After all, without strategy, it’s just a lot of cleverness.

But strategy alone is not enough.

You may be a brilliant strategist. But if you can’t bring that strategy to life in a brilliantly creative way, your thinking will get ignored.

We need more creative people to be great strategists. To understand research. To have a grasp on analytics. And most importantly, to understand the customer journey.

This is the kind of mind that can develop a market-moving idea and then bring it to life in a way that creates and sustains attention and interest.

We could try and ask strategist to learn brand storytelling and design, but this is a tough road. And honestly, I haven’t seen anyone do this. On the other hand, I have seen some really good creative people develop into excellent strategists.

These are rare and valuable folks. And if you’re looking to develop something powerful, you should seek them out.