In 18 months, ARR jumped from £40M to £68M, margins tripled, and our PE backers made 6x their money—simply by running the Opposite Test on their "strategy."
Here's how it started.
The boardroom was tense. Three hours into the strategy review, the CEO was getting defensive.
"Look, our strategy is clear," he insisted, clicking through his deck. "Customer satisfaction. Innovation. Operational excellence. Digital transformation. Best-in-class products."
I let him finish. Then, I asked one question.
"Pick one—say, customer satisfaction. What's the opposite?"
He paused. "Customer dissatisfaction?"
"Right. And is that always commercially stupid?"
The silence stretched uncomfortably.
"Think about it," I continued. "Ryanair built a £6 billion business on customers who hate the experience but love the price. Some luxury brands deliberately make customers wait and beg."
The penny dropped. His face went from defensive to horrified as he realised his 47-slide strategy deck contained precisely zero actual strategic choices.
The £50 Million Lesson
This isn't an academic exercise—it's your next board conversation, and you need to lead it.
Because TechCo's problem isn't unique, you've confused Operating Imperatives (things you must do to compete) with Strategic Choices (things that make you win). Or in simpler terms, you've mistaken table stakes for real strategy.
It's a distinction Roger Martin articulates brilliantly, and once you see it, you can't unsee it. Your companies are drowning in operating imperatives while starving for real strategic choices.
Operating Imperatives are table stakes. No software company chooses unreliable systems. No retailer chooses rude staff. The opposite would be stupid.
Strategic Choices are different. The opposite isn't just viable—successful competitors are doing exactly that.
Let's run the Opposite Test on your top three priorities right now.
The Ryanair Revelation
Want to see this distinction create billions in value? Let's fly from London to Barcelona.
British Airways and Ryanair both need safe planes, licensed pilots, and working booking systems. Those are operating imperatives—the opposite is stupid.
But watch their strategic choices:
BA: Make flying pleasant (ok, so I should have chosen a different airline!) at reasonable prices
Ryanair: Make flying miserable at unreasonable prices
Michael O'Leary didn't wake up thinking, "let's have unsafe planes." He woke up thinking, "Every comfort we remove is another pound off the ticket price—what trade-offs will customers actually accept?"
BA flies to Heathrow. Ryanair flies to airports you need a geography degree to find. BA includes services—Ryanair charges for everything, including printing your boarding pass at the airport.
Both strategies work. Both companies profit. That's the test.
When opposite choices both succeed, you've found real strategy.
The Two Lists That Changed Everything
Back to TechCo. Once the CEO understood the distinction, we rebuilt their strategy from the ground up.
"Sort everything into two buckets," I said. "Things where the opposite is stupid, and things where the opposite could work."
An hour later:
Operating Imperatives (opposite is stupid):
Reliable software
Professional support
Secure systems
Accurate billing
Strategic Choices (opposite is viable):
Nothing. Empty. Zero.
They literally had no strategic choices. They were trying to win by being generically "better" at everything.
No wonder growth had stalled. No wonder talent was leaving. No wonder margins were compressed.
Finding Real Strategic Choices
"Who's your most successful competitor?" I asked.
"CloudCorp. They're crushing it."
"What do they do that you don't?"
The head of sales jumped in. "They only serve enterprise. Minimum £1m contracts. Two-year commitments. They turn away anyone smaller."
"And you?"
"We serve everyone. From £1k SMEs to enterprises. Month-to-month contracts. We pride ourselves on flexibility."
"So you've chosen the exact opposite of what's working?"
The CFO's face went white. "80% of our revenue comes from customers over £100k, but 90% of our costs go to supporting the small ones."
There it was. The strategic choice wasn't "enterprise vs everyone." It was "focus vs drift."
CloudCorp chose focus. TechCo chose nothing—and that's still a choice, just an unconscious one that was killing them.
The Strategic Surgery
What happened next was brutal. Over three months, TechCo made three genuine strategic choices:
First: Enterprise-only. They fired 2,000 customers. Fired them. Sent formal letters suggesting competitors. Revenue dropped 20% overnight. The board panicked.
But burn rate improved 40%. They'd bought 9 months of runway without raising capital.
Second: Annual contracts only. No more month-to-month bleeding. Sales screamed they'd lose deals. "Then lose them," the CEO said. "Wrong customers."
Cash flow transformed. Churn plummeted. Predictability soared.
Third: High-touch implementation required. Ninety-day minimums. Dedicated success managers. Competitors offered instant setup. TechCo chose depth over speed.
The opposite of each choice wasn't stupid. Plenty succeed with SME focus, flexible contracts, and self-serve options. But TechCo chose differently. Deliberately. Painfully.
The Brutal Truth About Operating Imperatives
Here's what you're missing: Operating Imperatives matter, but they're about benchmarking, not differentiation.
You need good IT, professional service, and quality products to survive. This is what consultants are helpful for. Hire McKinsey to tell you cybersecurity best practices. Copy them. Move on.
But for Strategic Choices? Never hire someone who says, "We've done this for your competitors." That's exactly what you don't want.
Strategic Choices Require Courage, Not Consultants.
The Portfolio Payoff
Eighteen months after TechCo's strategic surgery:
ARR: £68m (70% growth)
EBITDA margins: 34% (from 12%)
Burn rate: Down 40%
Runway: Extended 9 months
Sales efficiency: 3x improvement
Exit multiple: 6x
The PE partner leaned back. "How do we replicate this?"
Simple. Stop confusing table stakes with competitive advantage.
Your Portfolio Reality Check
This week, audit your portfolio:
List each company's "strategic priorities"
Run the Opposite Test: Stupid or Different?
Count real strategic choices (target: 3-5 max)
Resource the choices, benchmark the imperatives
Warning: Most portfolios have 15 operating imperatives, zero strategic choices. They're optimising commodity businesses instead of building differentiated ones.
If the opposite of your strategy is stupid, you don't have a strategy. If the opposite is what successful competitors do differently, now you're onto something.
That's not semantics. It's the difference between a 6x exit and a 2x exit.
Time to check which game you're actually playing.