In Brief
- Decide which projects to discontinue to focus on initiatives with full contribution to business goals.
- Neutralize competitors by constantly evolving your product to meet customer expectations.
- Plan strategic activities at times of higher energy and schedule rejuvenating breaks.
- Cultivates 3 types of communities to generate valuable relationships that accelerate growth.
- Engage outside experts to gain fresh perspectives and enhance your strategic vision.
These 10 principles are guiding my strategic work and that of dozens of coaches and companies who have decided to use our tools. This note is in two parts.
They are the result of careful analysis of STRTGY results and work with our clients, cross-referenced with the latest industry trends.
If you want to access the 2024 ones you can do so here, it is a collection of more than 200 reports. Accessing it will entitle you to a preview of the 2025 collection, which will be ready very soon and will be organized in a very well-organized database with a little surprise.
In the first part we talked about
- Micro-Budget
- Proxy
- Measurement
- Zero compromise
- Automations
Today we continue with
- Subtraction
- Competition
- Personal energy
- Network
- Extended Board
Read them carefully and incorporate them into your strategy.
Share these notes with those who are working with on the strategic challenges of the new year.
And keep me updated on your progress, I care.
ALWAYS MAKE PROGRESS ⤴
Antonio
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6 – Decide what to stop doing
Adding new projects to the already long list of ongoing ones is always easier than stopping and considering what to eliminate. But let me ask you: when was the last time you decided to stop doing something? And more importantly: how do you figure out what to stop doing?
Many companies continue to follow editorial plans, business initiatives or projects that no longer bring results, but which no one stops for fear of creating problems. Often, instead of getting things in order, they prefer to add … a new strategic project!
You may have heard it, but strategy is the art of deciding what not to do!
With MAKE PROGRESS®, you have tools and routines to identify what works, eliminate what is not needed, and redistribute resources where they are needed. One of the most effective tools in our Toolkit is the Project Alignment, which helps teams develop two core competencies:
Self-Alignment: self-aligning current initiatives.
To achieve self-alignment, each team must survey projects, assess their alignment with strategic objectives, and identify those that are not generating value. Each project is linked to a clear objective, a meaningful metric(OMTM) and an accountable person, and ranked according to its contribution to the strategy:
- Full contribution: the project fully supports the strategy.
- Partial contribution: requires correctives to effectively support growth.
- Zero contribution: the project does not contribute to the strategy and can be eliminated.
Self-Planning: planning the execution of initiatives.
Having clarified the relevant projects, the next step is to independently define priorities and timelines, categorizing the initiatives into four groups by scanning the list in this exact sequence that frees up time makes priorities emerge:
- To Kill: projects to be eliminated to free up resources.
- Business as Usual: routine activities.
- High Priority: relevant initiatives that require attention.
- Top Priority: the most important, to be treated with maximum focus.
7 – Rethink the competition
If you have at least once thought that your business and business results have been compromised by the growing influence of competitors in the marketplace, this principle could transform your approach over the next 12 months.
I invite you to reconsider competition not as an inevitable battle, but as a potential internal design error. Don’t see the competitor as an enemy to be fought, but as a variable to be neutralized, making it irrelevant to your business and your customers’ choices.
To do so, it is necessary to look at the market from two perspectives.
Market as access to solutions
The first perspective is that of the market from the perspective of people. A market exists when there is a homogeneous pattern of decision-making: people choose solutions that solve their problems in a relevant, socially accepted way and with performance perceived to fit their decision-making parameters. In this sense, the market can be seen as a set of collective decisions to achieve a specific goal.
In job-to-be-done theory, people do not choose products for their intrinsic value, but for their ability to perform a job better than alternatives. However, there is one crucial detail: people’s expectations grow each time they reach a new level of performance. Unlike animals, humans possess imagination, which when applied to decision-making results in the capacity for self-improvement(self-betterment). This dynamic is crucial in the evolution of consumer decisions and the choice of the next product.
You know when you learn a new Excel formula and suddenly feel more productive, so much so that you want to apply it everywhere? At that moment you have reached a new level of performance and imagined a better version of yourself: a more efficient and accurate manager. This happens with every product: people who start using it quickly reach the highest achievable level of performance and, at that point, try to surpass it.
What happens then? Either you and your team evolve the product in sync with the customers’ evolution, or they will look for an alternative that allows them to improve further.
Breaking the promise
So here is the second point: customer loyalty cannot be taken for granted. People are not loyal to the product, but to the improvement it enables. When they encounter an obstacle, they look for a new solution that allows them to evolve.
For example, those using Excel may, at some point, find it limiting and opt for more advanced tools such as Google Looker or Tableau for reporting. This shows that it is not customers who are inherently unfaithful, but often it is your team that breaks the initial promise: to help customers improve by solving a specific problem.
This is especially the case when the product is managed one-sidedly. Take, for example, companies that reduce support costs by implementing automated systems such as bots or unhelpful FAQs, delegating problem-solving to customers. These systems, which are often frustrating, are among the leading causes of cancellation or termination of contracts.
Another example is a marketing agency that manages projects exclusively through a ticketing system. Although this approach reduces costs, it significantly slows response and resolution times, hurting client outcomes and compromising overall effectiveness.
These are examples of one-sided optimization that sacrifice user experience to reduce costs. Instead, think about how much you would be willing to pay for human, understanding, and responsive assistance in situations critical to your business.
What to do in the next 12 months
Stop seeing competition as a problem. You cannot control the speed at which competitors innovate, but you can manage the evolution of your products in ways that increase both customer acquisition and retention. This leads to lower marketing expenses, lower churn rates, and higher margins.
To achieve this goal, invest in understanding what your customers really want and how they use your product. Use interviews, data and metrics to integrate these insights into your design system. Create an organization capable of constantly intercepting the behavioral evolution of your customers.
8 – Cultivate your personal energy
During the past year, I have realized that there is a resource even more valuable than time: your personal energy. This resource is limited and deserves to be optimized with great care.
You can have the best strategies, the most solid plans, and the best-prepared teams, but without the energy to carry them out, everything grinds to a halt. Cultivating your energy is not a luxury or a matter of superficial well-being-it is a strategic choice that directly impacts the quality of your decisions, your productivity, and your ability to inspire those you work with.
Imagine your energy as a battery: in the morning it is fully charged, but it gradually drains throughout the day. The problem is not only how much energy you have, but also how you use it and what your priorities are.
This principle invites you to think about two key aspects: your charging efficiency and the prioritization of your activities.
Charging efficiency
To keep your “battery” at peak performance, it is essential:
- Get enough sleep: give yourself an adequate number of hours of sleep to ensure clarity, energy and a positive outlook. Lack of sleep can lead you to see things pessimistically and make decisions you may regret.
- Take breaks and vacations: devote time to activities that rejuvenate you, or take scheduled breaks.
- Take care of your body: this is not an invitation to have abs, take cold showers and eat keto (unless you really like all that) but I will leave you with this proverb: “A healthy man has a thousand desires, a sick man has only one desire.”
Effectiveness in prioritization
Carry out the most important and high-impact activities at times when your energy is at its highest, reserving the more mechanical or routine tasks for when you feel least energetic. It is not lack of time that is the real obstacle, but the ability to plan and distribute activities strategically.
To best manage your energy plan how you are going to use it on three time levels by drawing a wave:
- Daily: plan your day by alternating activities that give you energy with those that consume it. Incorporate moments of recharging to keep you efficient.
- Weekly: organize the week by balancing moments of intense work with restorative activities. Group draining tasks into blocks to manage them more effectively, leaving room for moments of rest.
- Annual: book vacations and recharge times in advance. Scheduling these breaks will not only give you a goal to aim for, but will also save you money. For example, booking summer vacations in January has always had a positive effect on my productivity and my wallet.
9 – Expand the network with intention
Owning a community is now essential for anyone who wants to develop their business. However, to simply view the community as a group of potential customers is reductive. I invite you to make a small shift in mindset and intentionally cultivate three types of communities.
Community of customers
People you can help directly. This is often the most obvious one. You can build it on your own or with the support of marketers. A well-curated community makes the difference between companies that must continually rebuild their presence and those that establish valuable conversations with their users. The former burn resources on ineffective marketing campaigns, while the latter build lasting relationships.
Internal community
People you work with. As a leader, it is critical to align your vision with theirs. Treat your team as an internal community, even if it consists of only one person. Spend time sharing with them ideas, notes and content that you find useful. In this way, you can inspire them and help them understand the present and future of your business. As your team gets to know you and share your vision, you may find that they will begin to anticipate your needs, almost as if they are reading your mind.
A peer group
A group of people who inspire you and from whom you can simply listen. While the first two communities require communication work, this one is a listening space. Look for people who are further along your path, who have already achieved the goals to which you aspire. This private community is a place where you can gain information, generate ideas, and find solutions. You can access a level of thinking that will accelerate your evolution and that of your other communities.
To cultivate these communities, dedicate a budget of time and resources. This is not just a financial investment, but a commitment made with intentionality and heart. If done well, the return will be inevitable.
10 – Create an external board
Small companies are often focused on operations, and sometimes the leader does not find an appropriate sparring partner among his or her staff to discuss strategy. This is understandable, especially today, in an environment where many small companies are achieving significant profit levels.
One of the metrics that is changing rapidly due to the introduction of artificial intelligence is turnover per employee. In the past, a healthy metric in Italy was considered to be around 100,000 euros per employee. Today, thanks to automation and technological tools, it is possible to imagine companies reaching 1 million euros per employee. This is radically transforming the business landscape, making teams smaller and increasing the importance of focused and strategic leadership.
As the market has evolved, traditional managers focused on controlling teams and distributing activities have become obsolete. How do you find a new way to strategize and equip yourself with an equally effective strategy team? This is where the importance of an external board comes in.
An external board offers the opportunity to engage with experts who can identify bottlenecks and dead ends that might escape your internal perspective. Here is how you can structure this process that I personally use at STRTGY:
- Document your strategy: use tools such as those at MAKE PROGRESS® to create a short, clear and comprehensive presentation of your strategy.
- Identify areas of difficulty: focus not on operational skills, which can be acquired easily, but on vision difficulties and areas where you lack experience.
- Engage a trusted expert: Search your peer network (see previous point) for an experienced and trusted person with whom you can openly share strategic information. Invite her to a workshop in a neutral, relaxed location away from your office to encourage free and constructive discussion.
- Ask for disinterested feedback: present your strategy as you would your partner and explicitly ask him or her to act like one, to gain practical and honest insights.
At the end of this day’s work, you will gain valuable information that you could not get from your internal team or by leaving the strategy locked in a drawer. Even implementing just one piece of advice you received could more than repay the investment of this day.
Therefore, my final call on this list is to build an external board composed not of consultants, but of peers who share with you an interest in mutual growth. Involve them regularly in reviewing your strategy in an honest and disinterested way, focusing on the areas where you have the most difficulty with your vision.
2025 will be a big year
Here is a recap of all 10 principles for your convenience and where to start to implement them.
- Micro-Budget. Divide financial, talent and time resources to improve planning control and accuracy.
Start by: dividing the budget into financial, talent and time micro-budgets and monitoring them regularly. - Delegation and decision-making. Reduce bottlenecks and increase decision-making effectiveness with the “Me, You, We” method.
Start with: clearly defining who is responsible for decisions and documenting them in a shared system. - Measurement. Move from vague expectations to real-time data-driven management to guide the team.
Start with: implement tools such as the KPI Book to monitor progress. - Priorities without compromise. Protect strategic goals from distractions to maximize long-term impact.
Start with: set aside specific time for priorities and treat them with discipline. - Automations. Automate repetitive tasks to free up time and improve operational efficiency.
Start with: document recurring processes and implement the first process with MAKE.com. - Subtraction. Eliminate projects and activities that do not generate value to focus resources on what matters.
Start by: designing your Growth Machine and linking projects based on their contribution to each gear. - Competition. Neutralize competition by continually evolving your product according to customer expectations.
Start by: interviewing at least 5 new customers and 5 former customers. - Personal Energy. Optimize your energy to improve decision-making, productivity and inspiration at work.
Start with: plan your day based on your energy cycle. - Network. Intentionally cultivate a network of customers, collaborators, and peers to accelerate your progress.
Start with: create a shared document with your team about creating a business community. - External board. Compare regularly with experts to get outside perspectives on your strategy.
Start by: documenting your strategy and choosing the first expert for a focused comparison.
