The best advice I have received in a long time was from a client who insisted that I become competent with Michael Porter’s work on strategy. It is clearly still a work in progress but I now realize that without a sustainable competitive advantage you will eventually fail. Growth for growth’s sake improves short term revenue but could destroy long term profitability. This Forbes post is excellent:
“GE has failed the cocktail napkin test. If you can’t explain your strategy to someone on the back of a cocktail napkin, it’s too complicated. The best-performing organizations have a single, overarching strategic posture that everyone in the organization understands.”