Alex Smith - What is strategy?

The Future Talent Learning Podcast

Access the podcast transcript here.

Episode Summary

What is strategy? Is it a complicated plan that no one understands? A unique offering that’s hard tomaintain? A business buzzword while the boots on the ground do the....y’know... work!

To answer these questions, Ross G and Ross D are speaking to Alex Smith, founder of Basic Arts. Alex created Basic Arts to help organisations where strategies are disjointed or confused. Which sounds like pretty much every organisation.

We discuss:

• What a good strategy looks like
• Famous (and not so famous) examples of brands with an effective strategy
• How strategies can be developed.

Episode Timestamps

• Introduction - 00:00-01:54
• What is business strategy and why do so few companies have one - 01:54-05:06
• Examples of effective business strategies - 05:06-20:36
• Key elements of a good business strategy - 20:36-25:37
• How to develop an effective business strategy - 25:37-28:49
• Wrap up - 28:49-29:55
• One thing I learned this week - 29:55-38:01

Additional Information

In ‘One Thing I’ve Learned This Week’, Ross D shared that Hollywood studios store old film reels in a salt mine in Kansas. You can read more at: https://klaq.com/thousands-of-priceless-movie-reels-are-kept-in-a-salt-mine-in-mo/

Alex shared the story of the Savannah Bananas and their ‘circus’ routine, see: https://advertiser-tribune.com/news/339878/savannah-bananas-minor-league-baseball-team-or-circus/

And Ross G discussed Michael Mann’s interview about 1995 drama Heat on The Rewatchables podcast: https://www.theringer.com/2021/11/2/22758064/the-three-heat-with-bill-simmons-chris-ryan-and-michael-mann

You can find out more about Alex at: https://basicarts.org/

His newsletter is online at: https://basicarts.org/the-way/