Short-term wins vs. Long-term growth - A false dichotomy.

Short-term wins vs. Long-term growth - A false dichotomy.

There's always this perceived tension between short-term wins vs. long-term growth.

I generally find it to be either...

a) A false dichotomy - because if you figure out the right long-term plan, you can take quick incremental steps in the given strategic direction to drive short-term outcomes while building towards sustainable and meaningful long-term innovation.

b) A bad tradeoff - Even if there's a juicy (hard to pass up!) short-term win that isn't aligned to a long-term strategy, it's generally a lousy tradeoff that both costs more than you'd expect and returns much less than you'd hope. Thrash, distraction, and tech/business/ops debt combined with lackluster outcomes all conspire to just make it a shit deal.

Instead, do the work.

a) Take the time to develop a strategy
b) Articulate a clear vision for the ideal future state
c) Develop a roadmap of thin slices that get you from here to there
d) Ship each slice, one by one

This drive short-term growth on the way to long-term sustainable and disruptive change.