'The Messenger' is a Reminder: Strategy Before Tactics...

Honestly, I’m not sure if I heard of The Messenger before yesterday.

Which is probably part of the problem the site had.

But the bigger point to make is that the collapse of The Messenger is a reminder to get your strategy right before you do anything else.

I took a look at the site’s Wikipedia this morning and saw a clear lack of strategic vision evident from the jump.

Which I got to after reading a WSJ piece on the site shutting down that made me think, “there wasn’t really anything going on there.”

The final nail for me, reading a Washington Post piece that discussed the business model as “outdated”.

What I teach my 13 year old: “Just because you can do something that doesn’t mean that you should do it.”

In other words, just because you have an idea and someone will throw money at you, it doesn’t mean you should start that business or just throw things against the wall to see what sticks.

As I’ve talked about over and over, the strategic framework looks like this:

• Your Ambition: “What does success look like?”

• Who is the customer?

• Why you?

• What resources do you need to be successful?

• What actions are you going to take?

You have to follow this in order.

If you don’t know what success looks like at the start, you can’t go further.

If you don’t know who is buying what you are selling, don’t pass go.

If you don’t have a unique reason for existing, forget it.

And, without the resources to fulfill your mission…you are likely to always be limping along or you are going to be raising money at a disadvantage.

Your choice!

What’s your take on this?

What about the entire media business right now?

Let me know in the Slack or reply to this note!

Dave