Focus IV

If a business is really successful, then there is usually a good strategic logic behind that success...

The pattern of attacking a segment of the market with a business system supplying more value to that segment than the other players can--is called focus.  Here the word "focus" has two meanings.  First, it denotes the coordination of policies that produces extra power through their interacting and overlapping effects.  Second, it denotes the application of that power to the right target.

If a business is really successful, then there is usually a good strategic logic behind that success, be it hidden or not.  But the truth is that may companies, especially larger complex companies, don't really have strategies.  At the core, strategy is about focus, and most complex organizations don't focus their resources.  Instead they pursue multiple goals at once, not concentrating enough resources to achieve a breakthrough in any of them.

ACTION POINT:  Do you have a directed focus, supported by coordinated policies?