A manifesto of vignettes, This Strategy proposes to distil in a concise and lucid fashion, strategies that would enable not just entrepreneurs, but also aspiring individuals to pursue their aspirations. Consisting of two-hundred and ninety-se slim Chapters, this latest book by American author and a former dot-com business executive, Seth Godin is a fast paced read interspersed with riveting real-life examples of both success and disaster in terms of strategy – or a lack of it.

Godin places emphasis on what he terms to be four ubiquitous and omnipresent elements, time, games, empathy, and systems. These interlocking quadrants feed on and support each other. Time plays a crucial role since strategies play out over time. The presence of multiple individuals/players each holding out a myriad of outcomes is representative of the facet of games. Empathy results in people not seeing what you see or not desiring the same things as what you want. Finally, systems that are created wherever there is a human element. Working together creates systems that may turn out to be enduring, if not ever lasting.

Throughout his book, Godin stresses upon the need for a strategist to focus upon serving the “smallest viable market.” While it is very tempting to succumb to the allure of scale in terms of number of customers, number of products sold and revenues generated, it is catering to the smallest viable market that would provide the necessary traction for the future. Successful businessmen and leaders are unrelenting in their quest to expend their efforts, time, and costs on a specific/niche group. Such groups not only enhance, exacerbate, and embellish the network effect, but also lead to fostering connections that are repetitive, meaningful, and virtuous.

The Corporate Industrial complex, according to Godin, always works overtime to buck the trends that rail against maintaining status quo. The system keeps drumming the metrics of market share and profits into the veins of many an unsuspecting and seasoned entrepreneur. However there have been instances where the system has been made malleable to move away from the conventional. Dutch journalist Tuen van de Keuken’s efforts to name and shame unscrupulous chocolate companies and complacent and complicit Governments, led to the establishment of Tony’s Chocolonely (since his was the only voice that was crying aloud). Today Chocolonely has garnered 20% of the Netherlands chocolate market.

Godin also cites the examples of acclaimed artists such as Andy Warhol, Rembrandt and Kehinde Wiley while elaborating three key ways in which efforts may be directed at a project: Chores and tasks, leverage, and emotional labour. Chores and tasks consist of the jobs to be performed by the project owners themselves. Leverage refers to the exact opposite. If resources need to be delineated and used judiciously, there needs to be outsourced functions that may be executed by people other than the project owners themselves. Finally, emotional labour deals with inculcating and assimilating new skills, identifying, and implementing real change. The artists referred to above followed this principle to the core. They not only built their own studios, and hired craftspeople, but also leveraged their skills by hiring others to contribute.

Godin also warns leaders to not get enmeshed in the entrapment of agreement and assent. A leader must know when to say “no” in the strictest and most uncompromising of terms. “When you say yes to everything, you end up doing nothing important,” writes Godin. Repeatedly saying yes not just has the adverse impact of diluting projects but would also result in the vulnerable leader losing credibility in the eyes of his customers and the markets.

This is Strategy – a rousing nudge for the learned and the lay to not lose sight of strategy, irrespective of the type of business they may be engaged in.