"Strange as it may sound, sacrifice in the right places is often the answer and the springboard for the long-term prosperity for you and your company. I will put it this way—the sacrifice you make determines your fate."
- Do Less Better, page 4
"A clear strategic course begins the process of coherence, and once everyone is on board, wise leaders shouldn’t deviate."- Do Less Better, page 38
Everyone talks about strategy but few truly understand it. As John explains, strategy is often confused with goals or objectives, but strategy is not the what, it is the how. And understanding your strategy and making sure everyone else does too is the first step to achieving focus.
John recommends asking the following questions to define your strategy:
Once you know the answers to these questions, you can define your core business. This is where you should spend your money and resources—this is what you should do better. This can also be used to craft a short mission statement that can help both internal staff and external customers understand what it is you offer.
And while going through the above exercises, remember that once you know what your core business is you also have to figure out the how: how are you going to deliver on this and become the best at it.
"The most important question a CEO must answer is ‘What should we do?’ Once he or she has taken care of that, the next question is ‘How should we do it?’ This brings us back to the strategic options: Are we going to do more with more? Are we going to do more with less? Are we going to do less, better?"- Do Less Better, page 38
Strategy has to begin with the CEO, whose job is to define what the company’s core business is and how it will be delivered. And CEOs that are true leaders use strategy to also create a winning culture: they define where the focus is, where it should not be, and what is rewarded along the way.
This is not easy to do, especially when there is opposition or challenge. John experienced this first hand: his approach to saving his company was not one the board approved, so he nearly lost his job on the way to saving the company.
And since every CEO needs to get buy-in on their vision, having their teams create a manifesto will help both staff and customers know what the company offers and stands for. The below checklist, which John provides, can help create one:
"If you want differentiation, you have to ask yourself this question: what am I prepared to sacrifice to get it? Differentiation in marketing requires giving up a benefit or two or three to make a compelling promise."- Do Less Better, page 136
Differentiation requires doing less: it requires choosing something you will focus on to do exceptionally better. Lack of focus and doing more by definition means that a company cannot differentiate. This applies to marketing, branding, execution…and even staff. Determine what you do best, what you need most, what you want to offer and spend your resources on that one thing. Ensure all teams are aligned, ensure your messaging is on target, and ensure you hire the right people who can help you execute on this.
Keep thinking “do less better.” Hire the fewer right people who can help you focus and stay on track, and pay them more. Trim your project lists and execute well on the ones that make the cut. Make informed decisions based on your sales, your strengths, and your market.
The above is not limited to a type of product or service or to any given segment. And the brand names and logos that we recall are the companies that have successfully focused, differentiated, and delivered. Think Google, Apple, Nike, and Chobani.
Companies often “expand” to try and improve sales and profits, but if the expansion is not aligned with their core business and carefully planned and executed, the results are the opposite of what they hope for. Instead, although seemingly contrarian, refocus on your core and how you can be better at that alone. As John shows from his personal experience, this will lead to improved profitability and morale, and in a world where competition is fierce, doing less better is the only way to succeed.
Before becoming an author of business books and historical fiction, John Bell was a CEO, global strategy consultant, and a director of several private, public, and not-for-profit organizations. A prolific blogger, John’s musings on strategy, leadership, and branding have appeared in various journals such as Fortune, Forbes and ceoafterlife.com. “Do Less Better. The Power of Strategic Sacrifice in a Complex World,” was released by Palgrave Macmillan USA in January, 2015. This book teaches leaders how to recognize the complexity within their businesses and reveals how they can simplify and streamline through specialization and sacrifice. For leaders, innovators, and entrepreneurs who need help embracing the practices that foster agility, foresight, and resilience, “Do Less Better” provides a tool-kit of road-tested strategies.
