What is the number one element of good strategy? I say, negation. Good strategy is not just clear about where one is playing and the basis on which they will hold advantage. Good strategy is also about clarity on what one is not, where one won’t play, the things one won’t do. Good strategy is the art and science of negation.
If your organizational or personal strategy lacks the negation aspect, then it’s not strategy. It’s something Steve Jobs often said about focusing and the ability to say ‘No’ to thousands of things. We live in a noisy world, there are millions of paths to take. One must be clear about which paths they are choosing not to take. One must increasingly be ruthless about saying no.
Businesses find themselves trying to serve every customer. Businesses must be clear about the people that they’re not serving. It’s painful but it must be done. People such as Nassim K Taleb call this method ‘via negativa’ and in the good words of Charlie Munger, “you must know where you don’t want to go.”
If there’s one skill that every business leader requires, it’s learning to say no to those million paths so that they have space to say ‘yes’ to that one critical path. Strategy thus is the process of negating, and through negation one can successfully differentiate themselves.
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