Strategy Tactics First Look

What is a strategy?

According to the former dean of the Rotman School of Management Roger Martin, interviewed in a recent Harvard Business Review podcast, there is a separation between planning and strategy. “‘Plans typically have to do with the resources you’re going to spend. Those are more comfortable because you control them,’ Martin explains. ‘A strategy, on the other hand, specifies a competitive outcome you wish to achieve, involving customers wanting your product or service. The tricky thing about that is that you don’t control them.’”

So, there is a difference between the traditional concept of strategy, specifying an outcome or resources of which you don’t have control, and the approach in the Strategy Tactics deck. The name itself is a bit of an oxymoron. “Strategy” is traditionally differentiated from “tactics.” Strategy is actually part of a threeple: Objective – the outcome you want to attain, Strategy – the approach or path you choose to take, Tactics – the steps you take to attempt to attain the objective through the strategy. Pip decks Strategy Tactics authors Ben Mosior and David Holl encourage an applied strategy approach that keeps in mind the big picture, the outcome, and the strategy, including the individuals and resources that you do not control, but quickly turns the focus to the resources you have at hand that can be brought to bear to create change.

The Pip Decks Strategy Tactics approach relies on influence from two contemporary theorists, Simon Wardley, creator of “Wardley Mapping,” outlined in his online, open source book on the topic at medium.com/wardleymaps, and Jabe Bloom, a writer and thinker who describes himself on his website as “interested in strange problems.” I would describe both individuals as interested in the spaces between learning or doing and the awareness or creative process that empowers learning or doing.

The Strategy Tactics deck produced and distributed by Pip Decks includes 56 cards containing tactical strategy recipes to help teams and individuals develop a future vision and then convert the vision into actionable steps to move businesses forward. In that regard, the deck holds a middle ground between planning and strategy.

Strategy Tactics Deck Objectives

As described above, traditional MBA programs have historically taught a rather Platonic separation between strategy and tactics. Like planets in a convergence, they might, at pivotal moments align, but never the twain shall meet. In that approach, you strategize, implement tactics, evaluate the tactics to see if they attained the strategic outcome, and then develop new tactics. Strategy is set for the long horizon while tactics are adapted to fulfill the strategic position. Traditional strategy positions tend to last years if not decades, while tactics can change based on each new campaign or product launch.

Let’s take an example from pricing strategy. If a company wants to be a discounter, they have two choices: Everyday Low Pricing (EDLP) or heavy discounting, High-Low, or Promotional Pricing. Walmart, Costco, and Sams Club are examples of the EDLP model. It doesn’t mean everything is low price, but it does mean that once the company sets prices, they can’t suddenly switch, introducing coupons, discounts, or percentages-off to attract customers. Joann’s Fabrics, on the other hand, uses heavy coupon driven discounting, a high-low pricing strategy. At any one time, a customer can get 30-50% off select items and may be able to apply a 20% discount on their entire order by using their app at checkout. Both the Walmart and similar companies and coupon-happy retailers like Joann’s Fabrics are strategic discounters, but these companies have chosen different pricing strategies to introduce their value proposition.

The tactics in this scenario for Walmart and friends are the pricing negotiations they make with suppliers, floor layout to highlight product pricing, and advertising that promotes their “every day low prices.” Joann’s tactics are their coupon cycling. Not every category or item is on sale at any one time. By rotating through coupons they encourage their customers to visit regularly for fabric one week, notions the next, and of course, some customers will purchase items at their full, premium prices, simply because they need a yard of fabric, a crafting book, crimping shears and so forth.

Conversely, brand marketing is focused on maintaining high prices with little discounting and absolutely no coupons. The goal is to establish and manage attitudes, beliefs, and ideas around the company and its products or services so they are sought after, and customers remain willing to pay a premium. Brand marketing is a premium pricing strategy, and brand marketing is one approach among several focused on maintaining both consistent prices and high margins.

It can be argued that it is no longer beneficial to maintain this rigid separation between strategy and tactics. Today’s marketplace is much more complex than the market of the 1980’s, 90’s or early 2000’s, so in essence, competition and innovation culture has created an opportunity, and potentially a necessity, for a blended “Strategic Tactics” approach to management.

The way that plays out in the Strategy Tactics deck by Pip Decks is to examine each problem through both a strategic and tactical lens. It asks questions like: How can we approach each thing from sourcing, to pricing and on to position in the market with a strategic eye? How can we balance methodology with innovation and competition?

The approach looks at where we are in the market, our current pains, and what the future might look like if we remain the same. It then invites us to ask what does the future might look like if we change our current approach? By examining multiple futures and pathways, teams and leaders can establish shared goals that can bring down the barriers between where we want to go and what daily activities we do to get there.

Strategy Tactics Deck Structure

The 54 cards in the deck are organized into eight categories: Strategy Systems, Purpose, Identify, Connect, Evolve, Adapt, Plays, and Lead. Each category has several specific recipes that provide activities, processes, and thought prompts to engage individuals and groups in tactical strategy.

The Strategy Systems comprise several cards that provide a pathway from the big picture to actionable steps and back to the big picture again. To provide an example, the Strategy System card titled “The Basics” starts with three cards from the “Identify” category, one from the “Connect” category, and one from the “Evolve” category. The first concept concerns people – who will the work serve? It moves on to the “Promise Proposal” card: What is your organization’s promise to the audience? Then we dive into the details with “Seeking Specifics,” wherein we examine the moving parts that make up the offer. The goal is to determine if the parts are already working well or if we need to build support structures to fulfill our promise to the customer. After that, we work with the “Value Chain” card. Where are the materials coming from, who touches them, and how long does the process take? Can we rely on the value chain to deliver consistently? Lastly, we go big again, evaluating changes in the market and looking at internal and external drivers to help determine if we are making something that matters and that is valuable to others.

Strategy Tactics Deck Solutions

Using the Wardly Map Strategy System card, we are encouraged to work from customers through generative ideas, into divergent thinking and custom design, then to convergence and clarification, and ultimately to commodification. The model combines elements of design thinking, design research and product or industry lifecycle. In today’s market, that’s probably the most important “big picture” model any organization or leader can maintain.

The subsequent cards get into the details on various components of this big picture, allowing you to become tactical, working on actionable steps while maintaining a relationship between the elements and the whole.

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