Work towards simple

The other day I was asked for my opinion on a strategy for an international FMCG conglomerate.  

The document that was sent through to me was a 148-page slide deck that needed to be transmitted via Dropbox.

Obviously a lot of time had gone into creating this dense and bulky tome, but no effort had been put into getting it down to 'simple'.

Editing down lots of options to the bare impactful minimum is where the immensely hard work of strategy lies.

There is nothing impressive about a 148-page pile of mental vomit.

The skilled strategist is the one that can get the concept down into a few lines that carry so much weight and power in their selection that they almost by sheer magic produce the co-ordinated, coherent action that either dissolves the challenge, or unlocks the right opportunity.