Storming the Castle with a COR Strategy
“Strategy” is a murky concept. Everyone seems to have different ways of defining it, describing it and certainly when it comes to creating it. I am also always surprised with how strategy, goals, tactics, approaches and campaigns all get jumbled together in the same definitional soup. I have been in so many meetings with c-suite execs and functional leaders where they so confidently articulate their strategy, but it’s really just a goal. I was speaking with a prospective client in the marketing space recently and they said they had a strategy developed, but just needed some help in their execution of it. Sounds great – I love bringing a strategy to life. However, they couldn’t produce anything for me to review, and when they described it, they said, “We want to be the leading marketing agency that embraces AI for our clients to give them a market advantage.” That’s a great aspirational goal to have, but it’s not a strategy.
The best way I’ve found to describe strategy is to imagine that you’re in the Middle Ages and you’re going to storm a castle. You’ve likely seen Robin Hood, Lord of The Rings or Game of Thrones, so you get the visual. Lots of things go into how you'll storm the castle, but not all strategies:
“We’re going to take that castle by dawn!” (that’s a goal)
OR
“We’ll shoot arrows at the tower guards!” (that’s a tactic)
OR
“We’ll have one team attack from the left flank and another from the right flank!” (getting closer, but it’s missing the ‘why’)
A strategy is the approach you take based on your unique advantages, which are discovered through examinations of all things hindering you and/or helping you as you strive to reach your goals in the most effective and efficient ways possible. The best strategies have sound research and rationale behind them, but the best strategies also fit on one page.
Yes. One page. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication (as DaVinci once said).
When I was running business development and marketing for a national marketing agency, there was no defined approach to creating client strategy. Most strategies created for clients were just enhanced project plans. It wasn’t until a prospective client asked the follow-up question, “yes, but how do you create strategy?” that I decided I would embark on creating a process for the agency to use. Why me? Well, I’m kinda wired for it. I’m a “Yellow” in the HBDI and a “CS” on the DISC, so I am naturally inclined to see the big picture, how everything interconnects and be conscientious about how processes get created. Because of this propensity to continue examining things, my thinking has continued to evolve since that time, taking other factors into account and adjusting the process to produce more insights.
This latest evolution examines 13 elements in an intentional order, beginning with your reason for existing, then looking inward and gradually shifting to looking outward. In an increasingly complicated and competitive landscape, you can’t conquer what’s ahead of you without applying your advantages. This is COR Strategy.
To understand more about COR Strategy, and the elements we examine to create your competitive advantage, download the following overview.
The 13 Elements of COR Strategy
If you want to talk through how this process could work for your company, contact me at colin@cowensrun.com.
Let’s storm the castle.