Strategic thinking with Rudyard Kipling
Strategic thinking shouldn’t be complicated. When I run strategy sessions, I often start with a well-known quote from Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories for Little Children:
I keep six honest serving-men
(They taught me all I knew);
Their names are What and Why and When
And How and Where and Who.- from The Elephant’s Child
You need simple answers to questions like this for customers, staff, business partners and investors:
- What is your market offer?
- Who is your target audience?
- Why are you making that particular offer, why that audience, and why will they accept it?
- How will you make your offer and how will you fulfill it?
- Where will you make your offer and where will you fulfill it?
- When will you make your offer and when will you fulfill it?
Actually, I have a seventh serving-man, but I’ll introduce Mr Not tomorrow.
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January 23rd, 2008 at 1:57 am
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February 27th, 2008 at 8:48 am
[…] Last month I wrote about using a simple poem by Rudyard Kipling as a tool in strategic thinking. I keep six honest serving-men (They taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When And How and Where and Who. […]
April 2nd, 2008 at 2:14 pm
[…] always asking people to explain their market offer. Telling it as a story, one which you carry round in your head and which you can easily relate to […]
May 30th, 2008 at 3:24 am
[…] bear it in mind when I’m using my “6 honest serving men” - Messrs. What, Why, When, How, Where and Who (with their assistant Master Not). However […]