A Cascade of Choices
Why are some brands able to succeed spectacularly where so many fail? When the people aren't better or worse — not harder working, more dedicated, bolder or luckier than anyone else?
Oftentimes, it has to do with an organization’s way of thinking about the choices they make. Some organizations have a clear and defined approach to strategy, a thinking process that enabled individual managers to make clearer and harder choices, while others don’t. A company’s approach to strategy is what makes the difference.
Although good strategy seems difficult to define, it isn’t. Strategy is easily definable. In the simplest terms, it’s an integrated set of choices about winning that uniquely positions a brand so as to create sustainable advantage and superior value relative to the competition. It’s the answer to the five interrelated questions in the cascade of choices:
- What is your winning aspiration?
- Where will you play?
- How will you win?
- What capabilities must be in place?
- What management systems are required?
These choices, and the relationships between them, can be understood as a reinforcing cascade, with the choices at the top of the cascade setting the context for the choices below, and choices at the bottom influencing and refining choices above.
