A new idea from Alex M H Smith that I heard at the “Strategy Mavericks” session organised by Lisa Carlin yesterday: strategy needs to be ‘sexed up’. A lot of effort is spent making the strategy correct, but not enough on making it sexy.
‘Sexy’ is not a word that I would have thought of in relation to strategy, but I agree with the sentiment. A strategy needs to be presented in an appealing way so that the people who are going to execute it are excited by it. An idea that holds no appeal will not inspire people to action.
So how to make a strategy ‘sexy’? This is the art of communicating well: translate abstract ideas into tangible ones, use metaphors, tell stories, link to what matters.
In 2011 I translated the ambition of Philips to double in size into “Our goal is to improve the lives of 3 billion people a year by 2025.” Philips today has it as “We aim to improve 2.5 billion lives per year by 2030, including 400 million in underserved communities.”
I don’t know if this qualifies as sexy, but I’m glad that it’s meaningful enough to be sticky.
© Veridia Consulting, 2024
