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 dominance in battle, the emphasis on the passing game in football, occupying the shelf space at eye level in retail, etc.
In business digital space, what constitutes “high ground” or the plane from which you have the greatest advantage? It is difficult to define digital “high ground” in physical terms because we are dealing with a virtually unlimited arena where there is no physical higher or lower plane.
High ground in virtual space is not a trendy designed website with lots of bells and whistles. Despite a current heavy emphasis by web professionals on visual design and user experience, design and the latest accompanying technology operate on lower planes of your organization’s website strategy. That’s not to say design and experience aren’t important — they most certainly are. Yet they are not THE highest ground your site can occupy.
Your website’s highest ground — where your organization’s website will have the greatest advantage — is defined by your specialization, business objectives, brand, and positioning. Defining, clarifying, and occupying those planes puts your organization’s website in the best position for long term growth.
Before you start thinking about your website design or redesign, consider taking the highest strategic ground first.