Digital strategy is not business strategy

City sky line - business vs digital strategy
In business we operate in a world of lose definitions. Strategy is a word that often finds itself contorted to fit different meanings and circumstances. I’m personally a fan of Michael Porter’s definition that strategy should 1, define a value proposition, 2, determine what a business is not going to do, and then 3, align the company with the value proposition.

Digital strategy falls under the third point. It aligns customer technology with the value proposition. However a good business strategy should consider digital.

Naturally, one may ask “well which comes first the business or digital strategy?” The answer is that the two need to be symbiotic. Digital creates new ways of delivering value to the customer. Essentially what we need is digital savviness in business strategy and business focus in digital strategy.

Ultimately when developing either strategy, we need to keep it simple.

If you’re looking to define a business strategy, I highly recommend the visual business model framework by Alex Osterwalder.

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David Sealey is a trusted adviser to senior executives on getting the most from their investment in digital and data. David created Storm81 as a place to share his passion for business, digital technologies, multichannel marketing and everything else around these topics.

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