Over the past few months, I've poured my energy into a landscaping project in our front garden.

It's been a back-breaking labor of love, and it got me thinking about how gardens can serve as a great parallel to the business world. They demand focus, attention, and meticulous planning, and remain under constant threat (cue the weeds! 👎).

Lately, I've noticed several posts on the distinctions between strategy, strategic plans, and daily tactics. So, here's my take, inspired by our garden project.

Vision

A vision is not just a lofty ideal; it is the driving force that propels individuals and organizations forward. It provides a sense of purpose and direction, igniting passion and commitment. When your vision is crystal clear, it becomes a North Star, a beacon that illuminates your path to success. It fuels innovation and empowers you to overcome challenges with unwavering determination. Your vision should be audacious, and almost beyond attainable, pushing you to reach new heights and exceed what others thought was possible.

Your vision should stretch your boundaries and inspire greatness in everything you do. Embrace it, nurture it, and watch as it transforms your business and the world around you.

Nike’s vision to "bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world” is an aspirational vision that serves as a destination that drives their actions. They could have instead set a more traditional vision “to become the world’s best running shoe by 1990” but it would not have delivered the same aspirational result.

In our case, our garden vision was to create a space for our young family to play and create lifelong memories, where local wildlife could thrive, and where our home would ultimately increase in value.

Strategy

Your strategy is the framework that sets out how you will achieve your vision. Contrary to popular belief, it's not a roadmap that outlines the steps and decisions needed to reach your goals. Instead, it’s a framework that helps your team make decisions when it comes to the crunch. It’s an articulation of where you will play, and how you will win over a given timeframe (and a winning scenario doesn’t necessarily mean you are competing at the cost of others).

In the business world, consider the "One-Product Strategy." Many successful startups have achieved remarkable results by focusing all their resources and marketing efforts on a single flagship product or service. By doing so, they simplify their strategy and ensure all their energy is channeled into making that one offering exceptional.

In our garden project, our strategy decisions were to select plants that are well suited to our local soil and climate and keep maintenance low to align with our hectic schedules. This strategy led us to plant mostly native coastal Australian plants. We also wanted to keep costs minimal so this led to the decision to do most of the work ourselves when time permitted.

OKR (Objective and Key Results)

Increasingly popular, OKRs (Objective and Key Results) are a framework for setting clear goals and measuring progress towards those goals. OKRs help ensure everyone is aligned and focused on achieving the same objectives.

The objective component of the OKR framework should be the connection articulating what needs to happen today, whilst moving you towards your vision. Objectives are the logical steps, opportunities, and customer problems that you need to solve in order to move your product forward and break down the vision and strategy, into bite-size chunks.

On the other hand, the key result component measures the efficiency of actions taken to accomplish the objective. They serve as a vital gauge, ensuring that businesses stay on track and achieve their desired outcomes. By intertwining objectives and key results, organizations can make meaningful progress, all whilst enabling their team to work autonomously.

“To win in the global marketplace, organisations need to be more nimble than ever before.”

—John Doerr, Author of ‘Measure What Matters’, a handbook for setting and achieving audacious goals.

Now that we've planted our garden, consider an example of an OKR for boosting growth. Just as businesses define clear objectives for tracking revenue success (not always the best OKR due to lagging indicators, but let's not spoil a good story), we might set a specific objective for summer, like increasing our hedge size by 30%.

Initiatives / Experiments

Experiments involve trying different approaches or methods to discover what works best and deliver the biggest impact on key results. They are about learning and adapting.

In the business world, this might take the form of testing new landing page content or targeting your market with different marketing messages to see what works best.

Just as in gardening, where we're experimenting with automated irrigation schedules and various ways of applying fertiliser and mulch, businesses can benefit from experimentation.

Books like "Testing Business Ideas" by David Bland emphasise the value of experimenting with new business concepts and models. It's a practical guide that provides tools and strategies for testing and validating business ideas, ensuring that your efforts are focused on what truly resonates with your target audience.

These experiments, whether in the garden or in business, are small improvements that may achieve better results. Let’s see what happens!

The Science Behind Strategy

Research has shown that businesses with well-defined strategies outperform those without them. According to a study by the Harvard Business Review, companies with a clear, well-communicated strategy had a 60% higher return on investment than those lacking strategic clarity. Just as a well-planned garden yields better results, a well-executed business strategy leads to better customer and business outcomes.

Key Takeaway

In both gardens and businesses, the core elements of vision, strategy, measurable objectives (OKRs), and adaptability are crucial for success. People often confuse strategy with tactical plans, but just as our garden strategy guided our plant choices, a well-crafted business strategy guides decision-making for your team - it creates craved freedom and autonomy, but still provides the guardrails to protect from tangential initiatives.

So, the next time you're tending to your annual business review, remember my garden 🌻. With the right strategy, a sprinkle of experimentation, and heaps of dedication, you can transform any vision into a vibrant reality!