Strategy First, Tactics Second: Lessons from Seth Godin Explore why strategy—the “hard work before the hard work”—matters more than tactics and how to choose the right moves with marketing provocateur Seth Godin.

May 19, 2025

Ready to rethink strategy and tactics? Best-selling author and keynote speaker Seth Godin breaks down the “hard work before the hard work” (strategy) versus the on‑court moves (tactics). As a pioneer of permission marketing and author of over 22 bestselling books, Seth has distilled decades of insight in his new book This Is Strategy. In our conversation, Seth illustrates what Björn Borg’s tennis strategy and Walmart’s retail play can teach you about nailing your overarching plan first, then picking the right tactics to follow it.

From Borg’s cross‑court rally plan to Walmart’s choice not to out‑Amazon Amazon, he demonstrates why a clear system is the only way to thrive. Start with your strategy, then deploy tactics that execute it under pressure:

• Define the Rules – map the playing field, competitors’ strengths, and system biases
• Choose Your Plan – select a clear, repeatable approach that neutralizes opponents’ advantages
• Deploy Tactics – execute specific actions that bring your strategy to life

True success comes from defining a winning plan before deploying tactics that execute it.

📸 Photo by Abby Greenawalt

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What Does Strategy Truly Mean

At its essence, strategy is the set of choices that determine where you will play and how you will win. It’s the “hard work we do before we do the hard work.” Seth argues that without a strategy, tactics are like random hits in the dark—inefficient and unsustainable. This involves:

1. Understanding the Playing Field: Map your market, audience, and competitive landscape.
2. Identifying System Biases: Recognize inherent advantages or disadvantages—distribution channels, customer habits, and regulatory environment.
3. Selecting a Unique Position: Choose how you will deliver distinct value better than anyone else.

This framework falls squarely within thought leadership and business leadership disciplines, guiding organizations to focus on high-impact opportunities rather than scattering resources across commodities.

Who Should Own Strategy vs. Tactics

Determining who is responsible for strategy versus tactics is critical:

• Executive Leadership: CEOs, CMOs, and executives craft the overarching plan—defining targets, positioning, and long-term vision.
• Managers and Directors: Translate process into operational programs, allocating budgets and approving major initiatives.
• Individual Contributors: Implement tactics—campaign execution, content creation, sales calls—within the strategic framework.

Seth underscores that strategic thinkers must empower tactical teams with clarity of purpose and guardrails, while tactical teams must communicate feedback and on-the-ground realities upwards to refine strategy.

When Is the Right Time to Revisit Your Strategy

Markets shift rapidly. Revisiting strategy should follow a cadence aligned with external and internal indicators:

• Annual Strategy Cycles: Conduct formal reviews once a year, aligned with fiscal planning, to assess market changes, new competitors, and organizational capabilities.
• Quarterly Check-ins: Evaluate key metrics—market share, customer feedback, campaign ROI—to detect strategy drift and make minor course corrections.
• Event-Driven Triggers: Significant disruptions—new regulations, emerging technologies, major competitor moves—demand immediate strategic reassessment.

By embedding strategic review into regular rhythms, organizations maintain alignment and avoid “tactics traps” where energies focus solely on execution without strategic recalibration.

Where Do Strategy and Tactics Play Out in Business Operations

Strategy shapes high-level decisions and resource allocation, while tactics execute those decisions in specific contexts:

• Product Development: Strategy defines which market segment to serve and the key differentiators, while tactics determine feature roadmaps, Agile sprints, and A/B test experiments.
• Marketing & Sales: Strategy chooses brand positioning, customer personas, and channels; tactics involve email sequences, ad creatives, and direct outreach calls.
• Customer Experience: Strategy commits to values like “delight at every touchpoint”; tactics include support scripts, chat responses, and UX design tweaks.

Understanding these distinctions is important to clarify individual roles and prevent overlap that breeds confusion and inefficiency in your organization.

Why Strategy Beats Tactics in the Long Run

Tactics without strategy often deliver short-term gains but fail to build sustainable advantage. Seth offers these reasons why this is paramount:

1. Alignment: A well-designed roadmap ensures that disparate tactics—marketing campaigns, product features, partnerships—work together toward a unified goal.
2. Differentiation: A well-chosen strategy creates a unique market position that tactics alone can’t replicate.
3. Resilience: Strategic clarity allows organizations to adapt tactics quickly in response to disruption, avoiding panic and fragmentation.
4. Efficiency: Strategy focuses resources on high-return initiatives, preventing waste on tactical experiments with low strategic value.

These principles intersect with innovation and branding & marketing philosophies that value coherence and authenticity over fragmentation.

How to Define the Rules of Your Marketplace

A foundational step in strategic planning is defining the “rules” of your domain:

• Market Structure: Who are the incumbents, challengers, and niche players?
• Customer Behavior: What habits, needs, and pain points dominate?
• Distribution Dynamics: Which channels—retail, online marketplaces, partnerships—drive market access?
• Regulatory & Economic Factors: What constraints and supporting mechanisms exist?

By mapping these rules, leaders gain a panoramic view of where opportunities lie and which tactics will likely succeed given the contextual forces at play.

What Lessons Tennis Tells Us About Business Strategy

Seth draws from Björn Borg’s tennis approach: driving McEnroe crazy with relentless cross‑court shots. The lesson for business is:

• Identify an Opponent’s Weakness: Just as Borg refused to play McEnroe’s power game, businesses should avoid markets dominated by stronger players and instead exploit less-defended niches.
• Stick to Your Strengths: Borg’s stamina and consistency outlasted McEnroe’s volatility—similarly, organizations should play to their core competencies rather than chase every trend.
• Pick Tactics That Serve Strategy: Cross‑court tactics fit Borg’s physical style; in business, every tactic—from pricing promotions to content angles—must align with the broader competitive approach.

These analogies bridge strategy and creativity, demonstrating that a successful plan leverages deep self-knowledge and competitive insight.

Who Are the Critics of Tactics-Only Cultures

Organizations obsessed with tactics often reward “busyness”—a barrage of initiatives with no unifying purpose. Critics include:

• Strategic Planners: Who lament being sidelined by urgent but misaligned tactical campaigns.
• Brand Managers: Those who see brand dilution as each tactical push pursues different short-term gains.
• Innovation Leads: Who struggles when tactical urgency crowds out space for experimentation and long-term bets.

By giving the strategy its due weight, companies can overcome these tensions and align across functions.

When Tactics Should Prompt Strategic Review

Tactics offer real-time feedback that can reveal a plan’s flaws:

• Campaign Failures: When marketing conversion rates plummet, ask whether the plan managed customer needs or positioning.
• Sales Slumps: When new offerings don’t sell, evaluate if strategic value propositions resonate.
• Customer Churn: When retention dips, reconsider strategic promises around experience and loyalty.

Using tactical outcomes as diagnostic tools ensures methods remain grounded in market reality.

Where Strategy Guides Resource Allocation

Budgets, personnel assignments, and technology investments reflect strategic priorities:

• Budget Weighting: Allocate larger shares to strategic pillars—flagship products, core markets—before funding peripheral tactics.
• Talent Deployment: Assign top talent to strategic initiatives while supporting tactical roles with scalable teams or external partners.
• Technology Choices: Invest in platforms that reinforce strategy—analytics for customer segments, collaboration tools for innovation teams—rather than chasing the latest hype.

These decisions integrate business leadership and technology plans, ensuring coherent execution.

Why “Safe Is Risky” and How to Build Courage

Playing it safe often means playing by the incumbent’s rules, leading to direct competition where you’re likely weaker. Instead, Seth urges:

• Permission to Fail: Create safe environments for strategic experiments—small budgets, clear minimal viable outcomes.
• Storytelling for Buy-In: Use storytelling to articulate strategic experiments as learning opportunities, reducing fear of failure.
• Incentive Structures: Reward learning over perfection—acknowledge both strategic wins and instructive failures.

Building organizational courage transforms risk into a strategic asset rather than a barrier.

How to Deploy Tactics That Execute Strategy

Once your roadmap is clear, tactics become straightforward:

1. Select High-Impact Moves: Identify the 2–3 actions that most directly advance your strategic goals.
2. Pilot and Learn: Launch with small-scale tests—landing pages, limited-time offers, prototype events—to gather data.
3. Measure Against Strategic Metrics: Evaluate tactics not by immediate outputs alone but by strategic contributions—brand lift, long-term engagement, and network growth.
4. Scale or Pivot: Double down on effective tactics; re-strategize or retire those that underperform.

This cycle ensures tactics stay aligned with strategy and adapt to unfolding insights.

What Happens When Strategy and Tactics Align

Organizations where strategy and tactics are in harmony experience:

• Accelerated Growth: Focused efforts yield compounding returns.
• Brand Cohesion: Every touchpoint reinforces a consistent narrative.
• Employee Engagement: Clarity of purpose energizes teams, fostering inspirational & motivational cultures.
• Innovative Momentum: Strategic guardrails free creativity within defined boundaries, driving sustainable innovation.

These outcomes illustrate the full power of strategic discipline combined with tactical agility who benefit yields to:

• Entrepreneurs: Avoid spreading scarce resources too thin across multiple tactical plays.
• Marketers: Build coherent branding & marketing campaigns that reinforce strategic positioning.
• Sales Leaders: Focus prospect outreach on segments aligned with core strategic offers.
• Creative Teams: Channel creative energy into strategic themes, enhancing work satisfaction and impact.

Seth’s provocation resonates across roles—it’s a universal call to think bigger before acting.

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