Strategy is a strange field to work in.
For starters, it's not even a distinct field at all.
Business strategy, military strategy, marketing strategy, social strategy, brand strategy, cultural strategy, design strategy, strategic design, GTM, etc. – on the surface, they don’t really seem to have much in common besides being about future facing decisions under uncertainty. Which sounds more like a branch of game theory than a distinct professional field – a little like life itself.
Let’s zoom in on our specialty, the “creative” flavors of strategy (brand, cultural, design, marketing).
Most people in this domain didn’t major in it, but came into the profession through design, art, writing, architecture, music, fashion, or other odd angles. If you’re one of these, chances are you’re very familiar with your earlier field’s canon; its history, heroes, key works. Coincidentally, you probably wouldn’t be able to recite the canon of the type of strategy work you’re doing (spoiler alert: neither could we, but we’re getting there).
Strategy’s boundaries are amorphous and its outputs are abstract and/or NDA’d. Its most talented operators might work under inscrutable job titles.
No wonder a recurring question from our first Autonomous Strategy workshop was, "What is strategy, really?". The answer is fluid, but in the video taken from the workshop, we go through some definitions that have stuck with us, including the one closest to our hearts:
“Strategy is the art and science of moving into a position of advantage in an adversarial environment”
(also: “Strategy is a form of cope in situations in which no one is in total control”)
With our upcoming workshop, Autonomous Strategy Lab, we aim to dig deeper into what strategy means in and as a practice. Together, we'll explore hard strategy questions, what makes them challenging, and how to tackle them – whether solo, with machines, or against them. Plus we’ll discuss how we’ve handled some of the more intense strategy bombs thrown at us over the years at Nemesis HQ.
It’s the best to time to be strategic about our roles as a strategy operators.
Understanding what, why, and how we do what we do offers clarity and confidence amidst the uncertainty that creative and knowledge work faces today. At its best, strategy is an open world game, where whenever one’s at loss, there’s a higher order game one can choose to play, with or without AI.
Read more about Autonomous Strategy Lab on our website where you can also find the sign up link. The workshop takes place on Sundays in June, kicks off June 1, and also works if you can’t make the live sessions. We’d love to have you join us!
P.S. Paid Substack subscribers get a special rate, as always
P.P.S. Email us at info@nemesis.global with any questions!
P.P.P.S. Read what people have to say about our workshops here
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