There is such a sentence in the internal strategic memorandum of American retail bank: "Our basic strategy is to play a customer-centered intermediary role."

The term "intermediary function" means that it absorbs depositors' deposits and then lends them to others. In other words, it means that it is a bank.

The word "customer-centered" means that banks provide better services for savers and lenders in the market competition.

So you can find that the phrase "customer-centered intermediary role" is purely empty talk. Get rid of this empty cover-up vocabulary, the so-called strategy of this bank is actually a sentence "Our bank's basic strategy is to become a bank".

Similarly, the mission of Cornell University is to become a "learning university that serves the society, trains tomorrow's leaders and expands the frontier of knowledge". In other words, Cornell University is a university.

Does it feel familiar?

These words have no sense of disobedience in the context of China. China's leaders like to use empty slogans as strategies. Even worse.

This slogan even has a template:

Our company's strategy is to become the most successful company in the field of XX, achieve the goal of XX within XX years and gain a leading position in the market!

When a so-called strategy can be used in any company, it is definitely not a strategy, just a slogan.

This slogan has little practical significance, of course, it has no enlightening significance, and it is even difficult to get any effective information from it, let alone provide guidance for further planning and decision-making of enterprises.

Using tactical diligence to cover up strategic laziness is a lazy thinking disease. Symptoms are as follows:

1, easy to find but not to break.

2. Repeat.

3, the goal as a strategy

4. Take emotion as a strategy.

5, empty talk as a strategy

This disease can be cured. Tactical strategy is laziness rather than tactical diligence, because it is not so destructive. Just like having two chronic diseases is better than having one chronic disease and having a cerebral hemorrhage.

Then how to treat this disease? Go and see Richard Rumelt's good strategy, bad strategy. Every time I read it, I benefited a lot.

Richard Rumelt said: A good strategy, like a lever, can amplify the strength of individuals and groups by a hundred times, which is beyond the reach of any individual. Just as no matter how hard you try, you can't replace excellent brain power.