Strategy the core in a storm of information

As the amount of information available to marketers continues to grow, the crucial importance of strategy as an organisation’s north star is more valuable than ever, writes Lilian Sor.

Lilian Sor is the chief strategy officer at Howatson+Company.

More than ever, organisations and creative agencies alike seem to be calling on the need for more strategy and strategists to light the way forward.

The juxtaposition of course is budgets and timelines are ever shrinking, at the same time the deluge of data and information we can access is exponentially increasing. What should an organisation’s C-Suite and agencies guard in order for strategy to survive, and thrive?

Be lateral, not literal.

The inimitable Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies at Kings College London, defined strategy as “the art of creating power” but also reminds readers that creating power is an art, and a creative act in and of itself.

Though we are blessed as marketers to have more information at our fingertips than ever before, strategists must remember that taking a linear and literal approach to the trail of information provided means you’ll ultimately land where your enemy thinks you will, and you’re dead in the water. The point of strategy has always been to distil the facts and figures at hand to know where it’d be wise to land (and where your competitors think you will), and then doing something wonderfully but rationally, different that takes your enemy unawares.

In an age where data and spreadsheets can dominate our days, marketers and agencies must align to beat the predictable with something beautifully unpredictable – an art great sportspeople, warlords and entrepreneurs have all known is the secret to winning.

Chase speed, precision and intuition in equal measure. In business, speed is of the essence. And, we are blessed to live in an age with instant access to the amount of information that we do. But often analysis paralysis leads to the avoidance of facts and the lean towards light fiction. However, having access to more information doesn’t mean we need more strategists to do more. It means businesses need to invest in the infrastructure and talent to make the synthesis of information quicker and easier for marketing strategists, so less time is spent in the weeds of analysis, and more time is spent in the realms of how we find new places and spaces to win.

Don’t fall for the battle of extremes. Don’t interpret the above as a belief in technology over humanity. We are an industry that loves drama, and that often means pitting extremes against each other – synthetic data vs qualitative studies. AI vs human graft. As controversial as he may be, the outspoken Gary Vaynerchuk was right in saying we need to be less “Red” or “Blue” about our arguments, and embrace the magic in the middle. The purple, as he calls it, is where it’s at.

Let’s stop pitting theories, methodologies and teams against each other, and find the magic in the best combination of them all. At Howatson+Company, we believe in intersectionality, where neither tech, nor creative or even strategy is more important than the other. It’s the intersection of our diversity that finds the “purple” to the problems we’re presented. As the words emblazoned on the walls of an old agency said, “none of us are as strong as all of us”.

One template can’t rule them all. I’m wary of those professing to have a single strategic model that can simplify problem solving to such an extent that it can be overlaid on all clients and situations.

Back to the wisdom of Professor Freedman, he states: “If people rigidly follow the kinds of formulae you get in strategy books, you’re bound to make mistakes because you won’t be looking at the actual situation you’re facing and you’ll be trying to fit people into an imperfect model”

Strategists must step away from rigid set-piece frameworks, and instead build a rich toolbox of methodologies with proven precedent. We must provide what’s right for the problem at hand, rather than forcing whatever the “TM” model for an agency or brand may be. This also takes the shackle off the runway we give our creative colleagues, building a strategic pathway that isn’t about a forced template that constricts creativity, but a map that gives creativity somewhere meaningful to aim.

So much of strategy is about finding pattern, and knowing how to break it. If as an industry we’re sinking into a pattern of either slapdash, guesswork strategy or overwrought, overthought advice, let’s definitely lean in to reinventing it. But let’s be careful not to break and diminish the need for strategy, and strategists.

Lilian Sor is chief strategy officer at Howatson+Company.