Introduction
The terms analyst and strategist are two words that have made it into the lexicon of “business talk” but do you really know what each role brings to the table? What are the differences in the role descriptions and required skill sets? If you want to learn more about these complementary but often competitive roles, let’s jump into a quick session of “Analysts vs Strategists”.
Defining the Roles
It is important to note that many Business Analysts are Business Strategists as well and vice versa, and while being an analyst should make you a better strategist this is not true in all situations and the correlation is not automatic.
In its most basic form, an analyst performs analysis and a strategist creates strategy. According to the Business Dictionary, analysis is a systematic examination and evaluation of data or facts, by breaking it into its component parts to understand cause-effect relationships, thus providing basis for problem solving and decision making while strategy is the art and science of planning and marshalling resources for their most efficient and effective use to bring about a desired future state, such as achievement of a goal or solution to a problem (*Note the art, it will be important later). These two definitions help us create a picture of what both roles entail which we can further clarify by comparing them.
A strategist is someone who sees the whole picture, and can visualize the end-game; An analyst is the one who helps you get there
Analysts as Tacticians
Before proceeding with our comparison, a key concept to our understanding of analysts and strategists is the relationship between analysis and tactics in business. Tactics are defined by Business Dictionary as a means by which a strategy is carried out i.e. planned and ad hoc activities meant to deal with the demands of the moment, and to move from one milestone to other in pursuit of the overall goal(s). This definition draws a parallel with our previous definition for analysis as they are both concerned with achieving the end goal of a strategic goal by evaluating and responding to real time external market forces and internal capacities to accomplish tactical waypoints to get to that desired future state. Therefore, the terms tactician and analyst will be used interchangeably for the rest of this post.
Analysts vs Strategists: A comparison
It is most likely that you have heard the phrase “do the right thing… do things right” in one of its many forms and this encapsulates our comparison neatly. This is not to say either one is more important than the other but helps us differentiate what each role is most concerned with. An analyst looks at a situation and evaluates data gleaned from it to understand causal relationships and predict trends for decision making while a strategist creates and adapts the blueprint to achieve an end game while dealing with many complex, unstructured, ambiguous decision making factors along the way. Your strategists help define your goals while your analysts help navigate the path charted for achieving that goal. Both roles require similar skill sets but because of the part that unstructured decisions play in strategy, intuition is a very important factor in strategist’s decisions than that of an analyst; and this is where the art comes to the fore.
What does each role bring to a business?
Strategy and analysis are two very important functions in management that help achieve long term success. An analyst is focused on the immediate and near future, providing decision makers with the necessary information to understand and respond to changes in the company's current operating environment and discover the opportunities or pitfalls of such changes. Rather than being focused on planning, an analyst evaluates past and present facts, predicts future trends and proposes the courses of action needed to achieve tactical goals to reach a strategic future state. A strategist is always future-focused, ensuring a company makes informed decisions towards creating a desired future state. To achieve this, a strategist needs a little disconnect from all the specific details of the data pushing market forces and instead focus on the trends that the data indicates and in some situations, strategic decisions that were counter-intuitive to trends turned out to be innovative. Check out these strange strategic decisions that panned out. Some “sound” decisions don’t work out as well, check this out for some strong counter argument.
How to complement both roles?
Analysts (or Tacticians) and Strategists are not in competition, they actually complement each other. Tacticians help you stay on course to achieve tactical waypoints on the journey to the greater long term strategic objectives. Military rhetoric is one of the most popular means of explaining tactics and strategy and for good reason too, as there are very few spheres where tactics and strategy are so literally a matter of “life and death”. For example, while there are many dissenting opinions about the qualities of military leaders from WWII, it is a popular notion that Gen. Dwight Eisenhower was one the best strategist in the Allied forces, but that Gen. Erwin Rommel was probably the best tactician either side of the conflict. While Rommel won many battles and was almost certainly a better battle field general as Eisenhower never actually led in combat, the latter’s ability to coordinate a vast force of different militaries was key to the success of D-Day and the turning of the tide in Europe. While tacticians give the means for success on the ground, strategists create the game plan that ensures those successes lead to total victory. Both are essential and both are indispensable. Another interesting analogy is provided by the Business Management Decision Making Pyramid (here) with Strategists at the top and Tacticians at the next level.
Always remember; Tacticians win you battles and Strategists win you wars but both are required for Total Victory
Conclusion
In the end, business analysis and strategy are so imperative that most businesses already perform them in some way but understanding what they really entail ensures that proper focus is given to either so that greater benefit can be derived from their processes.
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