How often have you heard people say, “Our strategy is to become the biggest and the best?” This isn’t strategy. Strategy is not the what. Strategy is the how: How will you become the biggest and the best?

Of course, within that definition, there are good strategies and bad ones. Good strategies help to define a company or differentiate a brand. But that seldom happens without sacrifice, without giving up something to strengthen the chosen niche.

You can’t be all things to all people. Or can you?

Today, shareholder and customer demands have never been greater. Leaders and managers are expected to do more, to do it better, faster, and at lower costs. Strategic focus is taking a back seat because people find strategy constraining. They won’t admit it, but they secretly want to be all things to all people; hence, the quest to seek every opportunity to boost sales and profit.

Most of these opportunities fall outside of the company’s core competency or the positioning of the brand. The fallout? An organization taken in several nonstrategic directions.

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