“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” – Michael Porter
You may want to read and reread that last line a couple of times. [It’s okay – I’ll wait…..]
I think for many of us, me included, it’s usually more along the lines of what do we do next? What is the next thing to tweet? What is the next platform to try? What is the next marketing idea stone that needs to be turned over? How do we differentiate? How do we compete?
All good questions and likely good stimulates for conversation. But, what we leave out is equally if not more advantageous in forming an effective strategy.
What are you choosing not to do this year?
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Hey Mike,
Learning what not to do, and to say no is a challenge for sure, however what lies beyond is the real prize. Createing enough clear space to actually think about things is an ever important piece of true innovation.
Good stuff,
My question is how do you decide which one(s) not to do? Or rather in some cases, which ones are ok to not do? In the world of social media, it seems as though they are all so relevant and any one of them could become insanely successful and well worth it. And by saying no to any one of them, you could be missing out on something that in turn, makes you really successful. So how do you choose and not worry about failure?
J
You rock – thanks for taking the time.
I think the business world is in constant flux. And, if you are not purging the sacred cows all the while you are taking on new and exciting things then you end up in a rut.
How do you decide. I would use MySpace as an example. Seven or eight years ago, we started using MySpace to market our Portland properties. At the same time, we were blowing up Craigslist and producing blog content. At some point in the process, we purged MySpace and CL and blogs endured. Now MS got replaced with FB and along came Twitter. To combat that, we added resource. And so it ebbs and flows. Let’s think about Pinterest for another example. I think it becomes static at some point. So, you pin as much as you can as it relates to your objective and you call it good. You then have a presence but because it has no real SEO value – you choose to let it go. Everything has a shelf-life. Everything. And, it just takes a little paying attention to notice the cycles.
That is the long way of saying be everywhere until it’s time to not be there….
M