What is strategy? Mushy middle of objectives and tactics

Too many times lately I have heard the word “strategy and strategic” used and is seems like when it is used nothing is in common. I read a great post about what is strategy from the mediapost search insider and I think that is what made me cognisant of the use of the word.

Strategy gets caught in the mushy middle of objectives and tactics. Some people align the word with objectives or goals and some align the word with tactics and some conversations can mean two completely different things if you lean one way and others another.

Found a good simple explanation-

• objective=goal
• strategy=how to reach
• tactic=one specific method of implemented strategy

So a real word example is- the objective is to increase sales, the strategy is to use a multi-channel marketing campaign increasing awareness for new consumers, while the tactic is generating a buy one, get one program.

However, too many times the tactic listed above would be considered the strategy. And maybe it is a strategy, but it does not look at the whole picture of what the objective is, and often times, that is where the disconnect happens and strategic thinking breaks down. People focus on a tree and not the forrest.

 

Microsoft now passes on Yahoo

Microsoft announced that they will no longer seek to acquire Yahoo whether it be a friendly acquisition or a proxy battle. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer made the announcement Saturday and the reason was that the economics demanded by Yahoo did not make sense. He also made a pass at the recent partnership with Google, and that the partnership would make an acquisition undesirable for several reasons.

The question now is, will Google come out further ahead now that Microsoft has passed. Google has already shown success with Yahoo on the small test of search results in the past few months. Google can now deal with Yahoo knowing that Microsoft is not going to be in the near future, and look to expand their display capabilities.

Microsoft states that web advertising is still their goal, and that they will just go about it on their own. Stay tuned, sure someone in the big three will be in a M&A mood.

Cops 2.0? Yes, TV has come into the interactive age

No longer is it just enough to watch great cop chases anymore on late night reruns. Now you can interact with the audience and have your point of view expressed with Cops 2.0. The only difference from the original Cops show is that the bottom 25% of the screen is now for viewers to do an online chat forum about the show.

I think this might be one of those ideas that sounded really good in concept, but failed to be successful on launch. The show is currently on G4TV. I personally don’t know if I could handle a chat window on the bottom of the screen while watching some police chase, or drug bust. However, I think the idea might be better suited for other TV programs, just think of sports fans talking trash all game long.

This is a huge step in interactive engagement. Just because it does not meet my standards of quality TV, it shows that there is a segment that is just waiting to break out of the mold and be all about the chat/TV option. I can only imagine this technology while watching American Idol. America would have the option to voice their own opinions about the performance and Simon’s lovely comments.

Just because I don’t watch Cops 2.0, I believe we are on to something big with TV 2.0. It will be interesting to see what Samsung continues to do with their See’n’search platform/