Strategy: The art of the trade off
Strategy is often described as a plan or a roadmap, but in practice it is something much more human and much more demanding. Strategy is the art of choosing what matters most, and just as importantly, choosing what will not. Every organisation, regardless of size or sector, lives within constraints. Leaders must make decisions about time, capital, capability and risk, and these decisions always involve trade offs.
The challenge is not that trade offs exist. The challenge is that they require clarity, conviction and communication. This is where many strategies become overcrowded, unfocused or disconnected from the organisation’s real capacity to deliver.
Effective strategy is created when leaders understand the choices in front of them and are willing to commit to a path that reflects both ambition and reality.
The trade offs that matter most
While every organisation faces its own context, three categories of trade offs appear consistently across C-suite, founder-led and board conversations.
1. Ambition versus capacity
Most organisations can imagine more than they can execute. Ambition is an admirable and necessary quality of leader as growth or impact requires the confidence to pursue opportunity, but sustainable growth and long-lasting impact,1 requires leaders to match ambition with capability. Good strategic decisions recognise where investment is required, where capacity needs to be built and where it is wiser to sequence progress over time. Great strategic decisions involve deliberately agreeing what an organisation won’t or can’t do.
2. Speed versus perfection
Leaders often feel pressure to move quickly, especially in competitive or uncertain environments. But speed without discipline can create confusion, rework and fatigue. High performing teams focus on moving fast with clarity, not chasing perfection, and knowing when good enough will create more value than delay.
3. Pay off versus risk
Every strategic choice carries potential benefits and potential downsides. Leaders must assess not only the desired outcome but also the level of risk the organisation can carry. When leaders understand these dynamics, they can make decisions that maximise value while protecting resilience and long-term performance. The upside of a decision has to be realistic, but so too does the assessment of the likelihood of a risk crystalising (not just the consequence).
Strategy as a process of challenge and choice
Leaders often seek the “right” strategy, but what they truly value is a clear process that helps them make decisions with confidence. This involves:
testing assumptions
framing realistic options
assessing risk and resilience
clarifying what matters most
deciding what to stop, not only what to start
Boards and executive teams benefit from external perspective here. Not to add complexity, but to strip it away. Strong advisory work simplifies choices, challenges thinking and helps leaders reach decisions that feel both ambitious and achievable.
It also involves all leaders signing up to the principles or filters that are used to then prioritise all the possible actions they will take or investments they will make. This allows for what we call Radical Prioritisation. It is radical as it requires enormous discipline, alignment of incentives, and A LOT of transparent communication up and down the organisation.
Execution is where trade offs become real
A strategy is only proven in execution. This is where trade offs become visible in resource allocation, leadership behaviour, culture and day-to-day decision making. Organisations that execute well do a few things consistently:
they communicate priorities clearly - and how these priorities were decided
they share what they have decided the organisation will not do - the trade offs
they establish simple, repeatable operating rhythms
they resolve ambiguity quickly
they monitor progress frequently and adjust early
they maintain alignment across the leadership team
Execution is not a project plan. It is a leadership discipline; a way of working.
Why clarity matters more than perfection
Strategy is not about predicting the future. In a contemporary, globalised, complex world, it is foolish to believe you can confidently predict exactly what is going to happen. That does not mean there are an infinite number of futures. It is possible to plan for the most probable scenarios and the choices that best prepare the organisation to act with clarity and confidence as these scenarios evolve. Leaders who navigate trade offs well understand that:
strategy is a series of choices
every choice has a consequence
focus is more powerful than breadth
alignment is more valuable than detail
momentum is created through disciplined action
Perfect strategies do not exist, but clear strategies do. Clarity helps people make better decisions, engage with purpose and understand how their work contributes to the organisation’s direction.
Creating lasting impact through purposeful trade offs
Trade offs can feel uncomfortable. By definition it involves having to give something up, even when that thing may have a lot of value attached top it. But they are the foundation of meaningful strategy. They signal commitment. They sharpen priorities. They make best use of the finite resources every organisation has. They help leaders distinguish the essential from the optional.
The organisations that achieve lasting impact are not those with the longest strategy documents or the most data analysis. They are the ones with leaders who are willing to make choices, communicate them simply and follow through with discipline.
Strategy, at its heart, is the art of the trade off. It is how leaders create clarity, build momentum and shape the future of their organisation.