Tactics and feedback
Strategy takes decades to prove. Tactics prove themselves in months.
Everyone in this industry says they are good at strategy. It is an easy thing to say, because the verdict arrives ten years later, long after the mandate was signed. We would rather be judged sooner.
Move time forward.
Drag the marker. On the left, what you know about a tactical mandate. On the right, what you know about a claim to be good at strategy.
Month 3
A tactical mandate
- Goals agreed and written downMonth 1
- First opportunities presented90 days
- First capital deployed6 months
- First partner commits to invest in the country12 months
- Every goal reviewed against its milestones18 months
Illustrative. Each mandate sets its own milestones.
A strategy claim
What makes a goal tactical.
- ObservableEvery goal is broken into things that either happened or did not. A meeting held. A deal sourced. Capital deployed.
- EarlyThe first results are due within months. If we are on the wrong path, the sovereign learns it while there is still time to change course.
- FalsifiableWe say in advance what should be true if the approach is working, and what would prove us wrong.
Strategy belongs to politics.
A national strategy is a political decision, and it should stay one. We can help think it through.
What we are accountable for is the next step: who does what, by when, and what it produced. Tactics are measured in months, not in ten-year plans.