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When you work with your customers, are you working on an initiative that will change or improve the value proposition to your customer and position yourself favorably as compared to your competitors? Some examples are:

• Launching a new product or service (new model of smartphone).
• Adding features to an existing product or service (subscription service instead of one time payment).
• For the same product or service, changing the way a product is created (hybrid version of a gas car) or service is delivered (online movies versus cable).

Some “softer” examples of the above are: demonstrating gender equality, giving back to the community, and being sustainable. These don’t add value to the core offering, but influence decisions on whether to work with your organization.

Or, are you working to implement the decisions taken around “how to deliver” the value proposition? The customer usually does not care about this. Some examples are:

• Outsource work that was previously done by employees.
• An upgrade to your ERP software.
• Improving recycling of waste generated by your manufacturing process.
• Implementing Six Sigma and streamlining business processes.

We won’t debate which is more important. Sequence (strategy before operations) and alignment is key.

Be clear on what you are working on, because the definition of success and competencies required are different. “Strategy” sounds more glamorous, but the blocking and tackling in “Operations” is what makes the powerpoint plans work!