My favourite definition of strategy is an “informed opinion on how to win.” Strategy is one of those slippery words and everyone has their own take. This makes me a little nutty, but such is life.

The kind of strategy I practice lives within the walls of a creative agency. Creative agencies do all kinds of strategy work these days. From brand  → creative → marketing → social  → content → design → communication → and more!

I believe strategists benefit from flexing in many applications of the craft. Most importantly, I believe strategists must understand the operating principles of strategy: (1) understanding the purpose of the strategy, (2) identifying the right problem to solve (3) developing an informed opinion on how to solve said problem, and (4)  empowering others to do their job.

If there’s one thing I learned running a small strategic consultancy, it’s that few businesses are looking to buy strategy; they’re buying outcomes. In my world, that means strategy operates in the service of world-class creativity that changes the status quo for our clients.