Everything Became Strategy, But Nothing Is

In this three-part series, we explore the essence of strategy, how it has been diluted, and how to build a winning marketing strategy. In this second article, we analyze how strategy has lost its meaning and why this is a problem for businesses. The other parts cover the core of marketing strategy and building effective marketing strategies.

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Everything Became Strategy, But Nothing Is

In the modern business world, the word “strategy” is used so broadly and frequently that its meaning has become diluted. What was once a powerful concept for guiding long-term decision-making has become a catch-all term applied to everything from small, short-term plans to tactical decisions. As a result, many businesses have lost sight of what strategy truly is and why it’s essential for sustainable growth.

This article will address three key questions to help you understand this problem and how to solve it:

1. Why did strategy lose its meaning through being diluted?
2. Is this actually a problem?
3. What can we do to fix this?

By the end, we’ll have redefined strategy in a way that provides clarity and guides businesses toward a more effective, long-term approach.

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Why Did Strategy Lose Its Meaning?

Strategy has become diluted for several reasons, and understanding these factors is the first step toward reclaiming its importance. Here’s why it happened:

1. Confusing Strategy with Planning:
   A key reason strategy has lost its clarity is that it’s often confused with planning. Strategy sets the long-term framework, guiding a company’s actions and decisions. Planning, on the other hand, is about specific, short-term actions aimed at executing that strategy. When businesses confuse the two, they start labeling detailed plans—like a marketing campaign or product launch—as “strategies,” which blurs the line between tactical execution and strategic thinking. The result is that strategy becomes associated with immediate actions rather than long-term direction.
2. Mislabeling Tactical Moves as Strategy:
   Tactical decisions, such as running a seasonal promotion or launching an ad campaign, are often mislabeled as strategies. While these actions are important for day-to-day business, they don’t represent the broader framework of decision-making that true strategy encompasses. This overuse of the term reduces strategy to short-term moves rather than the comprehensive, long-term guide that it should be.
3. Over-Application Across Functions:
   Today, nearly every department has its own “strategy,” from marketing to product to social media. While it’s crucial for each department to have a clear plan of action, labeling these as full strategies is misleading. In reality, these should be considered sub-strategies or micro-strategies that serve the overall business strategy. This over-application of the term dilutes its meaning, causing companies to lose sight of what strategy is supposed to accomplish.
4. The Influence of Ego:
   Another often overlooked reason for the dilution of strategy is the influence of egos in business. Many people want to feel like strategists, assuming that strategic thinking is a role everyone should play. The reality, however, is that not everyone should be involved in high-level strategy. We all need to plan our work in terms of tactics and execution, but if every employee was responsible for strategy, it would be like having too many captains on a ship. The result would be chaos. Real strategy requires a select group of leaders who understand the company’s long-term goals and how to steer the organization toward them. By over-assigning strategy to everyone, businesses risk losing the clarity and focus that comes from having a unified, carefully crafted strategy.
5. Short-Term Thinking:
   The increasing emphasis on short-term results has also contributed to the dilution of strategy. Businesses often focus on achieving quick wins—like boosting quarterly sales or generating immediate leads—and mistake these efforts for strategic thinking. However, real strategy is about creating sustainable, long-term value. Short-term goals should serve the broader strategy, not replace it.

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Is This Actually a Problem?

Yes, the dilution of strategy presents several significant challenges for businesses. When strategy loses its true meaning, companies experience misalignment, fragmentation, and a tendency to prioritize short-term results over long-term success. Here’s why this is a problem:

1. Lack of Alignment:
   A diluted understanding of strategy often leads to misalignment across the organization. When every department has its own “strategy,” without regard for the overall business strategy, teams may end up pursuing conflicting goals. For example, marketing might focus on short-term customer acquisition, while product development is working on long-term innovation that doesn’t immediately support those efforts. This lack of alignment results in wasted resources, inefficiency, and a failure to achieve the company’s overarching goals.
2. Fragmentation:
   When strategy is applied too loosely across different departments, businesses become fragmented. Instead of working toward a unified vision, various teams pursue their own disconnected goals. This fragmentation weakens the company’s ability to move forward in a coherent direction, as each part of the business is pulling in a different direction. A strong, unified strategy is essential for maintaining focus and ensuring that every department contributes to the same long-term objectives.
3. Short-Term Focus Over Long-Term Value:
   The confusion between strategy and short-term planning often causes businesses to prioritize immediate gains over long-term growth. While hitting quarterly targets and driving quick sales are important, they are only meaningful when they align with a broader, long-term strategy. Without that alignment, companies risk undermining their future success for the sake of short-term results.

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What Can We Do to Fix This?

To address the dilution of strategy, businesses need to refocus on the true definition of strategy and ensure that it guides long-term decision-making.

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First, it’s crucial to return to a clear and precise definition of strategy. Strategy should be understood as:

"A consciously chosen set of milestones, beliefs, and actions that align with a business’s environment, available resources, and competition, aimed at creating a specified form of long-term value for both the organization and its stakeholders. While strategy should provide a stable foundation for execution, it must also be dynamic and continuously adaptable to changing circumstances."

This definition highlights that strategy is about making intentional decisions that align with the company’s broader goals and environment. It also emphasizes the importance of creating long-term value, rather than focusing solely on short-term wins.

From this point on, we can focus on the steps:

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Formulate Strategy Top-Down, Move Information Bottom-Up:
In business, strategy should be created by leadership, but it must be informed by insights and data from across the organization. This is what we mean when we say strategy should be formulated top-down, but information should flow bottom-up. Leaders are responsible for setting the strategic direction, but it’s the employees who provide vital information about market trends, customer feedback, and operational realities. This dynamic allows everyone in the company to influence strategy while ensuring leadership maintains responsibility for clarity and direction.

Failing to maintain this top-down strategy and bottom-up information flow can lead to two major issues:

‍Lack of Clarity: If leadership doesn’t clearly communicate the strategy to the rest of the organization, employees may struggle to understand their role in its execution, leading to poor implementation.

‍Lack of Accurate Information: If the leadership team isn’t receptive to insights from employees, they may base their strategy on incomplete or inaccurate information, resulting in a strategy that’s misaligned with the company’s resources, market environment, or competition.

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Distinguish Between Strategy, Sub-Strategies, and Micro-Strategies: It’s essential to clearly differentiate between these different levels of planning:

1. Strategy: The overarching framework that guides the business’s long-term decisions and actions. It is focused on sustainable value creation and aligned with both the company’s internal resources and external market conditions.
2. Sub-Strategies: These are specific strategies that support the broader business strategy. For instance, a marketing strategy is a sub-strategy that focuses on how the company communicates its value to customers. It operates within the larger business strategy but has a more focused scope.
3. Micro-Strategies: These are tactical, detailed plans that support the sub-strategies. For example, an email marketing campaign is a micro-strategy within the larger marketing strategy. Micro-strategies help execute specific goals but must always align with the broader strategy.

A common question that arises here is, “Isn’t this just a plan?” The answer is simple: Yes, it is a plan—but it must also align with the business strategy. The key difference between a micro-strategy and an isolated plan is that a micro-strategy is part of the larger framework that ties back to the company’s long-term goals.

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Focus on Long-Term Value Creation: To counteract the focus on short-term results, businesses need to reorient their strategies around creating long-term value. This means prioritizing sustainable growth, customer loyalty, and innovation, rather than short-term wins like boosting traffic or sales for the next quarter. Long-term value creation ensures that the company’s efforts are aligned with lasting success, not just immediate gains.

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Unify Efforts Across the Business: Finally, businesses must ensure that all departments are aligned with the overall business strategy. Sub-strategies and micro-strategies should be designed to support the broader goals, not operate independently. Regular communication and collaboration between teams are essential to ensuring that everyone is moving in the same direction, working toward long-term success.

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Conclusion

The overuse and misapplication of the term “strategy” have caused it to lose much of its original meaning, but this is more than just a language problem—it has real consequences for businesses. By confusing strategy with planning, mislabeling tactical decisions as strategic, and allowing egos to overcomplicate the process, many businesses have fragmented their efforts and lost focus on long-term value creation.

To fix this, we must return to a clear and precise definition of strategy. By distinguishing between strategy, sub-strategies, and micro-strategies, and ensuring that every part of the business is working toward a unified vision, companies can regain clarity and focus. The ultimate goal should always be long-term value creation, ensuring that every decision contributes to sustainable growth.

In the final section of this three-part series, we’ll explore the building blocks of strategic success in marketing.

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Want to regain clarity in your marketing strategy? Contact us for a strategic review and see how we can help align your marketing efforts with long-term business success.

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