I Have a Strategy (No You Don't): The Illustrated Guide to Strategy

Q & A with Howell J. Malham, Jr., author of I Have a Strategy (No, You Don't)

"Strategy" is one of the most overused and least understood words in business. Even folks who are really, really good at strategy misuse and abuse the term, often talking about one thing, but meaning something else. This is one way of trying--I'll stress, trying--to establish some sort of baseline for the basic terms we use to give voice and shape to our strategic imaginings. No doubt, there will be plenty of confusion down the road, and lots of other fights just waiting to happen during the design/build process. But arguing over what "strategy" is, or isn't, should not be one of them.

I think the better question is, did these little guys really need a book? The answer, of course, is "yes." Here's why: Larry and Gary have been alive and well--on bar napkins, scraps of printer paper, and dry erase boards in different parts of my world for a long time. They've been working as a Greek chorus--that doesn't speak a lick of Greek--recapitulating the insights and ideas that have emerged from working sessions with clients and colleagues over the years. Together, these guys seemed like a safe, smart way to scrutinize . . . and push-back. To lean on insights, to find the weak spots. Sometimes, their exchanges--created as doodles during meetings--revealed a completely different line of thought that, though seemingly irrelevant, would lead to brave new worlds of inquiry and discovery. As it turns out, Larry and Gary have an awful lot to say (and teach) about many different things, but only when somebody else is doing the talking. They're like benign hecklers, really, who can deepen a live experience with some constructive interruptions, and who have a reason for being only when--or perhaps because--there's somebody else on stage with a working microphone.

The book has, I think, some wonderful examples of strategy in action, intended to show the reader how to use this thing called "strategy," which is anatomized in the opening pages. They are a part of the story, but they are not the point or purpose of a larger story. The meta is: knowing something--a word, a lesson, a fact--is not the same as understanding it. And a mutual understanding, coupled with a transcendent interest, is the beginning of a beautiful collaboration. Knowledge without understanding, for me, is just trivia. And a smattering of "trivia," without context, without comprehension, is worse than dangerous. It's useless.

No--they're not based on anybody from my life, past or present. They might be unequal parts of an alter ego. We are, as Mr. Whitman said, a multitude. But unlike Mr. Whitman's "multitude," these little guys don't contradict me. One another, yes. Me, no, praise be. I will say this: I think Gary is a mite smarter than Larry. I suppose that's because there's not one drop of guile in that little amorphous blob of his. Sometimes, though, Larry gets it right. But he's usually right for the wrong reasons, which I guess isn't really right at all. Is it?

For some reason, I picture Larry on a La-Z-Boy recliner reading a newspaper, occasionally agreeing out loud with something that he says HE said while Gary sits on a floral sofa and scrapbooks. It's either that or sleeping. For some reason, I think they sleep a lot.