Strategy - what the @*%! is it anyway. James Caig, Head of Strategy, True Digital

1. Hello.
James Caig
Head of strategy, True Digital
@jamescaig

7. What the @&*! is it
anyway?

9. 1. What is strategy and why do we
need it?
2. What makes a strategist?
3. What should they be doing for you?

11. “STRATEGY
IS GOD”

12. O
S
T

13. I want to lose weight
Lose ten kilos
Diet (eat better, exercise more)
Record calorie intake and exercise output
Visualise ‘thinner me’
Use stairs instead of the lift
Join up with other dieters
O
S
T

14. Morris Ernst, 1933
Publish Ulysses, legally
Win court case before publication
Sort Judge and Jury
Make it about literary opinion
Get prosecuted under import laws
Get myself arrested
O
S
T

15. Steve Jobs, Apple, 1997
Survival
Simplification
Products
Style
Management systems
Team structures
O
S
T

16. It’s not strategy until
it’s written down

18. “THE STRATEGY
KERNEL”

19. The diagnosis
A guiding policy
Coherent actions

20. The diagnosis
A guiding policy
Coherent actions
The obstacles in the way of success
Signposting your approach to dealing with the
obstacles
Feasible actions and resource commitments
designed to carry out the guiding policy

22. The future is wobbly

23. Craigslist disruption map
Source:Budd Caddell https://medium.com/nobl-collective/culture-is-more-than-a-ping-pong-table-d8c634e475f

25. Q: Did you end the year working to the
same marketing plan as you started it?
92%
8%
NO
YES
Source: Aegis / Advertising Association, 2014

29. Strategy brings focus
and gives you a better
chance of controlling
your own destiny

30. 1. What is strategy and why do we
need it?
2. What makes a strategist?
3. What should they be doing for you?

33. Common sense
Curiosity
Brevity

34. “I think science is not about absolutes.
Science is about honesty.
The idea that scientists are some kind
of priests that have unique access to
knowledge about nature is nonsense –
in many ways I see it as the codified
application of common sense.
It’s like plumbing."
Source: http://gu.com/p/49je3/sbl

35. “I think science is not about absolutes.
Science is about honesty.
The idea that scientists are some kind
of priests that have unique access to
knowledge about nature is nonsense –
in many ways I see it as the codified
application of common sense.
It’s like plumbing."
Source: http://gu.com/p/49je3/sbl
strategy
Strategy
strategists

36. “I think science is not about absolutes.
Science is about honesty.
The idea that scientists are some kind
of priests that have unique access to
knowledge about nature is nonsense –
in many ways I see it as the codified
application of common sense.
It’s like plumbing."
Source: http://gu.com/p/49je3/sbl
strategy
Strategy
strategists

37. Source:
RSA
Student
Design
Award
Winner
https://
vimeo.com/
128238282

38. “Poetry gave me great pleasure. As a schoolboy I took intense delight in
Shakespeare. Pictures gave me considerable, and music very great, delight.
But now my mind has become a kind of machine for grinding general laws out
of large collections of fact. The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and
may be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by
enfeebling the emotional part of our nature.”

39. “The narrative arts greatly widen our
perceptions of human experience, and
enable us – vicariously, or as a fly-on-
the-wall witness – to see into lives,
conditions and experiences which one
might never encounter in practice.”

40. Read.
Research.
Be open-minded, ask questions.
Of business, people, history, fiction, art, the future.
Seek different sources, learn counter-arguments.
Reconcile and understand.
Create new connections.
Create competitive advantage.

41. Read.
Research.
Be open-minded, ask questions.
Of business, people, history, fiction, art, the future.
Seek different sources, learn counter-arguments.
Reconcile and understand.
Create new connections.
Create competitive advantage.
And write.

42. Research like an
academic. Write
like a reporter.

43. 1. What is strategy and why do we
need it?
2. What makes a strategist?
3. What should they be doing for you?

44. Constant
Optimisation
Richard Huntington, Saatchi & Saatchi
Periodic
Disruption

45. Data gathering and
synthesis
Knitting together a wide
range of sources to
uncover insight and distill
thinking that sharpens
focus.

46. A good insight is fresh, deep, focused
and directional.
Faris Yakob

47. A good insight is something you didn’t
know before. Something that may
change the way you think about the
problem.
Dave Trott

48. A good insight is when you realise the
business problem is a behaviour change
in disguise
Pats McDonald

49. FACT: People tend to feed their pets once a day
OBSERVATION: They feed them at breakfast and dinner time
INSIGHT: People feel guilty eating in front of their pets
Kevin Drew Davis

50. FACT: People tend to feed their pets once a day
OBSERVATION: They feed them at breakfast and dinner time
INSIGHT: People feel guilty eating in front of their pets
Kevin Drew Davis

51. FACT: People tend to feed their pets once a day
OBSERVATION: They feed them at breakfast and dinner time
INSIGHT: People feel guilty eating in front of their pets
Kevin Drew Davis

52. FACT: People tend to feed their pets once a day
OBSERVATION: They feed them at breakfast and dinner time
INSIGHT: People feel guilty eating in front of their pets
Kevin Drew Davis

53. Facilitation and
collaboration
Work with analytics,
media, UX and design
Structure and lead
workshops
Develop the fundamental
skills that give confidence
to a client and a team

54. Story telling
Make data tell a story
Bring others along with
a compelling vision of
the future
Hone a well-crafted
rationale to a business-
changing creative idea

55. 1. What is strategy and why do we
need it?
2. What makes a strategist?
3. What should they be doing for you?

56. Go start some fires.
Thank you.