Defining strategy

- The most valuable companies in the world are not there by accident. They have great teams, they execute incredibly well, and there's some luck along the way. But behind every great company is a great strategy, and we're here to learn what makes for a great strategy together. Some people might use the word "strategy" to mean a lot of things. It could mean higher level thinking or getting out of the day-to-day details. But to me, it means something very specific. It's about looking at all of the opportunities in front of your organization and deciding which is the one for us. I'm Dan Shapero, chief operating officer at LinkedIn, and we're going to spend some time together to learn how to think strategically. Over the past two decades, I've had a chance to be an entrepreneur, a management consultant, a product and business leader, and over that course of time, I've learned about a set of frameworks and perspectives that I've used to refine my art of thinking strategically, and we're going to learn that together. Now, whether you're a small business or a Fortune 500 company, strategy is one of the core things you can do to create value for your organization, but how do you do it well? It all starts with a question. Of all the things that we could do as a company, where are we going to focus our time and attention? It's almost as if you're at the beginning of a mountain range, looking at all the peaks, and you're trying to ask yourself, "Which the one is the one that we're going to pursue, which is the mountaintop that we are better positioned than anyone else to achieve?" That's where we're going to start our discussion, and I'm looking forward to it. (light music)