Strategy

Space is an important aspect of strategy. A central Soviet strategy in World War II was to trade space for time against the advancing and superior German forces. The Soviet Union needed more time to ramp up military production, gather resources, train soldiers, and prepare a counterattack. They “traded” (at great cost) geographical space, which […]

Operating in, occupying, and controlling physical space is a foundational strategy concept applied to everything from warfighting to business marketing to sports. Dominating the “high ground” — the most elevated terrain or plane — provides distinct advantages like vision, defensibly, and offensive capability. The application of higher ground strategy is everywhere: the criticality of airspace

This is the first installment in a short series on the concept of space in strategy and how it applies to website strategy. Much of what I share I learned as an intelligence officer in the Air Force and student of military strategy. One of the most rudimentary principles of strategy is taking, occupying, and controlling space. And

In 1983, I bought my first computer (an original IBM PC) with the money I saved in junior high. I could see computer proficiency would give me a significant academic advantage in school over my peers, who were saving their money to buy cars. I also bought a dot matrix printer even though electric typewriters

In the not so distant past, professional service organization’s thought of their public facing website as the be-all and end-all of their digital presence. As social media grew in general popularity, most organizations have sent digital “shoots” out to explore communication possibilities beyond their website. Larger organizations eventually recognized social media’s marketing potential and have

Would you pay your digital agency $200 to swap out a PDF on your organization’s website? You might have to if your website is tied into their proprietary Content Management System (CMS). That’s the situation one leader I talked with faced when he took over the organization. Would you keep paying your digital agency to

“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” – Sun Tzu, The Art of War The relationship between website strategy and the tactics used to implement that strategy can be cloudy. For example, the CEO wants to “adjust” the content on the page, but doesn’t tell

Your organization’s website is an island in a vast digital sea. Its job is to connect you to the outside world. Is your website a bridge or a pier? I’ve been writing about website strategy using the metaphor of building bridges to your clients. You need a clearly defined website strategy to know where your

Smarmy, inspirational business clichés are not my thing, and anything having to do with “bridges” likely falls into this category: https://bit.ly/2Z39f8z However… Josh Earl in his excellent email marketing newsletter mentioned “building bridges” to a list of potential dream clients through daily, targeted micro interactions via social media, hand written notes, video, etc., and it

They carried all they could bear, and then some, including a silent awe for the terrible power of the things they carried. —Tim O’Brien, in The Things They Carried In O’Brien’s widely acclaimed book on the Vietnam War, he tells the story of a platoon of American infantrymen through the things they carry—letters from an unrequited