Strategy ≠ shopping list

And why the right kind of "growth" matters

"What do you think?"

My work-friend's question was genuine. It felt awful to say what I really thought.

"It's a shopping list, not a strategy."

I've read a lot of strategies and strategic ideas by this point in my life. I've seen everything from stupendous to stupid-squared. But the one variant of bad that bothers me to no end is to mistake buying stuff for strategy-making.

If your strategy is dependent on the purchase of some new gadget or whizz-bang, then you have no strategy.

Put it the other way. If you could buy your way out of a problem on Amazon, then you wouldn't need strategy at all, would you?

Nevertheless, so many strategies and strategic-documents are wish-lists for Santa Claus to drop magic strategic problem-solving presents down chimneys in late December.

How can we spot the difference? How can we tell if our strategy is about the stuff or really about our strategy?