I once halted a strategy retreat 12 minutes in. The CEO had flown all his regional heads to a lakeside resort, loaded PowerPoint decks, and had consultants ready. But when I asked him, “What’s the problem you’re solving?” he looked at me, blinked, and said, “We want a strategy.”
That’s like a man erecting a structure before knowing whether he needs shelter, a shop, or a shrine.
Here’s the real order of business, something many consultants won’t tell you:
a) Start with your mission. Not the nonsense you slap on your website, but your true reason for existing. Why should the market care that you exist?
b) Set real ambition and objectives. Not dreams, targets, specific, measurable, ruthless, clear, and simple.
Eg:
“By December 2026, increase market share in Uganda’s building materials segment from 18% to 35%, launch in Kenya and Rwanda with 2 active distribution partners per country, and grow EBITDA from UGX 5B to UGX 8.5B.”
c) Then and only then do you earn the right to design a strategy. Strategy is not your destination. It’s the GPS that connects where you are to where you need to be, given the terrain, the traffic, and your fuel tank.
You don’t invent strategy. You discover it after a brutal strategic analysis.
Who are your customers?
What trends are shaping them?
What are your blind spots?
What are your unfair advantages?
Most executives jump straight to the diamond labeled “Strategy!” without doing the upstream work. And then they wonder why their plans sit on shelves.
And here’s the part no one wants to hear: A brilliant strategy without aligned people, incentives, structure, and culture is a beautifully wrapped gift with nothing inside.
If your HR, finance, and IT policies don’t scream your strategy, then your strategy is a lie.
As Mr. Strategy, I tell clients that strategy must be earned. It’s not where you start, it’s where clarity ends.
Would you like a practical checklist to test if your strategy is truly aligned or just theoretical fluff?
I remain, Mr. Strategy.
