How short - term tactics can destroy a strategy

We live in a world of short-termism, where immediate results are expected. And it pervades everything. Whether it’s driven by expectations from investors, holding companies, customers, employees, and, outside of business, the electorate or sports fans – we’re all pressurised to deliver. And tactical activities are seen as the way to drive this.

In marketing circles, a recent article in Marketing Week raised this question: ‘Has the advent of digital pushed a generation of marketers into roles focused on tactical execution to the detriment of developing strategic skills?’

Over half (52%) of the more than 3,500 respondents to Marketing Week’s 2025 Career & Salary Survey say their business has a skills gap in marketing strategy.

From our experience of enabling culture change in over 50 businesses over the last 25 years, the same issue of focusing on tactics, rather than strategy, is all pervasive too.

Here are some examples of tactical briefs we’ve received – as paraphrased questions, followed by our response to these:

•Can you help us with this year’s initiative to bring about culture change? No, change is about having a long-term game plan which can’t just be divided up into annual events.

•Can you get our people to become proud of working here? No, this can’t be the starting point. First, you need to set out what you want your people to be proud of.

•Can you just help us sort out the problem we have in a particular department/location/branch? No, this can only be sorted within the context of what the overall business needs and how everyone must collaborate to meet these needs.

•Can you just make a quick fix? We don’t need anything more than that. No, not really. The root cause of an issue needs to be identified first so that it can be dealt with before it re-occurs.

All these NO responses may sound negative and unhelpful.

But the reason for these responses is this. There must be total big picture clarity on both the business strategy and the brand promise to customers, before any form of execution is pursued.

Strategy sets out the end goals. Every activity, no matter how large or small, must work towards those.  And if some inevitable firefighting is needed along the way it should be addressed as part of that journey. Not as a separate action point.

Another reason why there’s so much tactical activity at the expense of sticking to a longer-term strategy is the temptation to chase the data.

There’s so much demand to hit immediate targets, whether they are weekly or monthly sales figures or, for the workforce, their KPIs.

Yes, of course, meeting targets is important. But if strategy is translated into a story on what the business is looking to achieve over the next year or more, the characteristics of any such story must be considered.

Stories hardly ever form a straight line between their starting point and end. Our own lives are like that.

In business, there are always ups and down along the way and battles to be fought. But winning these battles should be seen as a way to get back onto the path to success. Not as an end in themselves.