What is more important to achieve a task or goal? Strategy or expertise?

Both.

Expertise (skill) is important.

So is strategy.

Expertise comes first.

Let's take the example of a haircutter/barber --

You can’t be a successful haircutter/barber, unless you have the skills to cut hair.

The more time you spend cutting hair, the more expertise you develop.

You become faster.

Your results are better.

People come back to you, because they are satisfied with the results.

Expertise comes first.

Where does strategy come in?

Strategy is what you will need to make sure your haircutting business thrives.

You have to be in the right place.

You have to offer your clients the right experience.

You have to pay attention to your client’s needs.

If you have competition, you will have to figure out a way, to give your clients something no one else gives them.

People do not like to take risks.

If your client is mostly happy with you, they will keep coming back to you.

Even if they are not perfectly happy with you, they might keep coming back to you.

The reason for this, is because humans are more comfortable with the familiar.

The longer they have been your customers, the longer they will stay your customers.

But, as a haircutter, you cannot take your customers for granted.

You should be professional.

You should be on time.

You should keep your appointments.

You should be easy to reach.

You should keep up with the times.

You should use new tools, if they work better.

You should also keep up with the latest tastes, styles, and trends.

Strategy has to be developed, looking at your area of expertise, your competition, and your clients.

Your location may be important to your clients.

If you move to a different location, your clients may not be willing to drive to your new location.

They may not have the time.

If they are older, they may not like to drive distances.

You may have to offer home services, to those who are not willing to drive to your new location.

On the other hand, your decision to move to another location may be strategic.

You may decide you will lose some of your old clients, but you will have more clients in your new location.

Or you may decide you will have more upscale clients, who will pay more for your services, at the new location.

Or, if you are currently in a location, where there's a lot of competition, you may strategically decide to move to a location, where there’s less competition, and you can be sure of a steady stream of customers.

These are all strategic decisions.

This example, using a barber/hairdresser, explains the need for both expertise and strategy, to succeed in a field.

Some ways of making an income may involve mostly strategy.

Selling knock off tee-shirts outside concert venues, is an example.

Selling flowers outside a funeral home, is another example.

Selling flowers on Valentine’s Day, or other holidays, is another example.

A temporary business - such as doing one-time sales of something, as listed above - requires less strategy than a permanent business.

You only have to think about, where to set up your stand, and at what price to offer what you are selling.

If you are in a business you want to be in for years to come, it's a completely different thing.

Being professional will require you to walk the fine line between the quality of your service, and the quantity of customers you take on.

If you are too greedy, and focused on handling as many customers as you can, you will rush through the service you give each customer.

Your customers will notice it, and the quality of your work will be affected.

Being too greedy may ultimately destroy your business.

The five obstacles to a long-lasting business, (obstacles you have control over) are greed, laziness, ignorance, fear, and over confidence.

If you pay attention to strategy, none of them will hold you back.

Whatever your business (or line of work, for that matter), you will accomplish more, if you use both expertise and strategy.

Sometimes a new strategy will appear out of nowhere, almost magically.

You will get an idea, and then, an even newer idea, turns out to be more perfect.

Whatever you have planned for this year, position yourself to use both expertise and strategy in your efforts, and you will do well.

Even if your job is just delivering mail to people, guess what - you can be strategic...

Minoo Jha

 · 6y

How do you define effectiveness?

Hi, You asked, How do you define effectiveness? Here’s an example: Lessons from a Postal Delivery Lady: The lady who delivers my post taught me these 3 valuable lessons in personal efficiency: Familiarity breeds speed. Experience leads to ideas. A system can save you time. Whenever the postal delivery lady goes on vacation, these lessons become painfully clear to me. There is a day and night difference between her speed and efficiency, and whoever substitutes her. First, the substitute is usually late in getting to our apartments, because the route is unfamiliar. Then after they get to the apartments, they take twice as long, (sometimes even three times as long) to get the mail into our individual boxes. Here are some reasons… They do not know which mail belongs in which box (there are 40 boxes and each box is identified only by a three digit number). Also, they do not have a system to get through the mail efficiently, like our regular postal lady. Our regular postal lady had been delivering mail to our apartments for over 10 years, and has developed a time-saving system: First she opens all 40 mail boxes. Then she puts the generic junk mail in all the 40 mail boxes. Then she puts our individual mail in our individual mail boxes. Then she locks up all 40 mail boxes. She is done. Whereas here’s what an inexperienced substitute does. They open the first mail box, put the junk mail in, then put the individual mail in, then close the box. They move on to to the second mail box, and do the same thing. They repeat this process, till they’ve finished all 40 mailboxes. This process takes them double or triple the amount of time, than if they had followed the regular postal lady’s process. So at the end of the day, one person has worked harder and longer, but completed the job in twice to three times the amount of time. And one has worked less hard and for fewer hours, but completed the job in half the time. The second person is an example of effectiveness.