How to be straight about strategy

Strategy’s a bit like love, the word that is. Its use and abuse leaves audiences easily confused.

This is especially pertinent in the sustainability arena where there are at least four common uses.

A Sustainability Strategy could be:

• An operational strategy that ensures your business contributes to sustainable development.
• A marketing strategy to communicate your sustainability efforts to a mass audiences.
• A stakeholder communications strategy – a plan to ensure influencers (e.g. NGOs, investors, raters/rankers, policy makers) are well informed about your sustainability efforts.
• A sustainability reporting strategy – a plan that defines how, and how thoroughly, you report on your sustainability performance.

When talking strategy, it’s good to be clear about exactly what strategy you’re talking about.

Read our thoughts on what makes a good operational strategy here.