Alex M H Smith

“Our definition of strategy From here on out, whenever we talk about strategy in this book, we’re going to be talking about this: The unique value a business provides to the market. That’s it. This is business in its purest, truest form. When all is said and done, a business is nothing more than a system designed to deliver value and receive value in return (generally in the form of cold hard cash). The more value it gives, the more it gets. Therefore it stands to reason that the most fundamental, most effective form of strategy is simply for a business to maximise the value it puts out. If you shape your business like this, so that it delivers extraordinary value to the market, value that its customers can’t get elsewhere, then it will grow and thrive as surely as night follows day. Things will just click, and success will flow so quickly and effortlessly it may shock you. Is this the only way for a business to get leverage and succeed? Clearly not. As we saw under the broader definition of strategy there are a great many other potential directions we might call “non-value” strategies: strategies that don’t have anything to do with providing value to the consumer. For example Mars, the chocolate giant, manufactures its bars more cheaply than its competitors, and uses that extra cash to buy premium shelf space in retailers. Is this a value-oriented strategy? Not at all. In fact it arguably strips value from consumers. But does it work? Certainly. It’s a classic non-value strategy. Compare this, however, to a value-focused strategy and you’ll see the difference. A good example is IKEA. Like Mars they too found a way to deliver their product more cheaply – in their case via flat-pack furniture innovations. However, the way they chose to turn this into market leverage was to use it to generate consumer value – specifically by investing more heavily in design, so punters could get cool designer furniture at accessible prices for the very first time.”
― Alex M H Smith, No Bullsh*t Strategy: A Founder’s Guide to Gaining Competitive Advantage with a Strategy That Actually Works