Eric Partaker on Identifying a Flawed Business Strategy: ‘Confidence is Not a Moat’

In a recent LinkedIn post, Eric Partaker discusses a common pitfall he observes in business strategies: mistaking descriptive statements about a company for a genuine strategic plan. Partaker, an experienced CEO coach, highlights how many leaders, despite their confidence, are essentially running “me-too” plans without a true competitive advantage.

The Illusion of a Superior Offering

Partaker opens by recounting an interaction with a CEO in his accelerator program who described their strategy as having “the best service. The best platform. The best team.” He immediately challenges this notion, stating that such descriptions are merely reflections of internal perception rather than a viable strategy.

“That’s what a CEO in my accelerator called his strategy. It isn’t one. That’s simply a description of how you feel about your company.”

This sentiment, Partaker notes, is widespread. He observed a similar situation during a session opening where a speaker made a comparable statement, which led to a moment of quiet reflection among attendees who realized they had adopted similar language.

The Competitor Test for True Strategy

To help leaders differentiate between a real strategy and a mere description of perceived superiority, Partaker proposes a simple yet effective test. He asks whether a competitor would acknowledge the company’s offering and differentiate it, or if they would simply claim to offer the same thing but execute it better.

“The test is this… Would your competitor say ‘they do that, but differently’? Or ‘we do that too, we just do it better’. If it’s the second one, you’re running a me-too plan with confidence attached.”

According to Partaker, if the latter is true – if a competitor can easily claim superiority in execution – then the company is not operating with a unique strategic advantage. He emphasizes that confidence alone does not create a sustainable competitive edge.

Addressing the Common Strategic Blind Spot

Partaker, who has coached over 650 CEOs, identifies this misidentification of strategy as one of the most frequent issues he encounters within strategic planning documents. To combat this, he has developed a resource to help businesses critically evaluate their plans.

“I’ve coached 650+ CEOs, and this is the most common thing hiding in a strategy deck. So I put every question I use to pressure-test one onto a single page.”

This one-page tool, which he offers for free, is designed to provoke the necessary critical thinking and identify potential strategic weaknesses before they lead to prolonged periods of stagnation. He stresses the importance of moving beyond self-congratulatory descriptions and developing strategies that offer genuine differentiation in the marketplace.