The world’s leading authority on sandwiches
One of the things I’ve told almost all the strategists I’ve managed or coached is to have a point of view. Yes, you have to be good at your craft and also have the horizontal capabilities all strategists need. A point of view is a little different. It’s the lens you often look through to see what your clients are facing and what their customers want.
I learned the value of a point of view from Bobby Flay. I used to watch a show on Food Network called The Next Food Network Star. It was a reality TV competition among amateur chefs to see who had the kitchen and camera skills to deserve their own show on the network. One of the things Bobby Flay coached in the competitors was to have a point of view - a unique way they looked at food, or an ownable style they brought to their craft. One competitor I remember - a guy named Jeff Mauro - chose for his point of view sandwiches. (It worked out for him - he got a show eponymously titled Jeff Mauro the Sandwich King.) Jeff is an accomplished chef and can whip together a lot more than sandwiches. But his point of view gave him something to focus through, and it gave other people something about him to focus on. It’s not his whole person, but it’s a useful rubric for him to begin with.
I’ll put it in strategist terms. For a while my point of view was brand values. I did a lot of research on the topic, I wrote blogs and articles on it, even gave a SXSW presentation on it. Three things resulted, which created a sort of virtuous cycle for me:
I had a way of looking at clients’ businesses that they hadn’t explored as fully themselves. My point of view was a fresh perspective. My expertise earned me credibility.
Whenever clients identified brand values as an area of exploration, I was called in as the “brand values guy.” It made me more visible and more valuable to the agency.
When my colleagues would see new research or examples of brand values they’d send them to me. This made it really easy for me to stay current and even continue expanding my expertise.
The caveat to having a point of view is to make sure it doesn’t make you a hammer looking for a nail. Not everything client problem can be solved with brand values, just like sushi wouldn’t make a great sandwich. It can give a strategist a way in or some texture, but be careful that it doesn’t consume your entire approach. Your point of view is just that - a single point for gleaning understanding, but not the full perspective.
Buddhist monk and author Thich Nhat Hanh puts it more insightfully than I could:
“All views are wrong views. Any view is just from one point; that’s why it’s called a point of view. If we go to another point, we have a different perspective, we see things differently, and we realize that our first view was not entirely accurate. We need to continue our understanding or we will be imprisoned by our views.”
And that’s really the strategist’s job. Not to be right or dogmatic - but to identify and contribute as much perspective as possible.