Strategic Overload? Why Your Business Needs to Do Less

We're living in an age of abundance, and that's as true for strategy as it is for anything else. The business world has caught on that a good strategy can drive success, and that's great... right?

Not always. More often than not, businesses are drowning in too many strategies. We know that strategy is essential for tackling complex problems, but when you try to pursue a dozen different ones at once, you lose your ability to be effective. Instead of pushing one boulder up a hill, you're trying to push ten—and it just doesn't work.

Michael Porter, the legendary business strategist and author of Competitive Strategy and Porter’s Five Forces framework, famously said, "The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do." It seems many businesses have either forgotten this principle or never truly embraced it. The result is a crippling inability to focus.

The Problem with Saying "Yes" to Everything

It's understandable. You have big goals and high aspirations, and it's difficult to turn down a promising idea. We claim to understand that "less is more," but in practice, it's easier to say "yes" than to make the difficult choices required to say "no."

This "yes to everything" culture rarely ends well. It overburdens teams who are often already on the verge of burnout, and it creates a strategic plan with ten competing priorities instead of three integrated ones. When your strategies aren't aligned, success in one area can come at the expense of another. This is where a strong strategic planning function becomes critical.

The Power of Elegant Strategy

Instead of ten competing ideas, an elegant strategy focuses on a few core principles. These principles are not only fewer in number, but they are also designed to support each other, creating momentum and traction. The result is a positive ripple effect felt across the entire organization, not just in one department.

A skilled strategic planner helps leadership resist the temptation to overcommit. They create a space for real insight and perspective to emerge, helping leaders move from simply looking at options to seeing what's truly important. This process requires patience, but the payoff is immense. It allows leadership to confidently commit to the few areas that will yield the biggest impact.

Ultimately, strategy isn't about having a complex plan—it's about getting results. If your strategies aren't designed to deliver on your goals, they're nothing more than window dressing. Don't let an abundance of strategies keep you from achieving your most important outcomes.

Does your business suffer from too many strategies? Let us know your thoughts and how your business handles the “Yes to Everything” conundrum.