Strategy Isn’t About Looking Smart. It’s About Making the Business Money.

By Filip Ivankovic

Director, New Rebellion

Filip has led enterprise marketing functions, managed a $40M budget and delivered 30% growth on a $200M base. An ex-CMO with experience across agency, client and vendor roles he understands where marketing delivers and where it gets stuck.

New Rebellion was built to create something sharper. A model that connects strategy to delivery, fast.

Strategy can sound impressive. It often does. Decks full of frameworks. Diagrams with arrows. Big words like synergy and optimisation.

But great strategy isn’t about intellectual theatre. It’s about making the business money.

Clearly. Sustainably. Without the guesswork.

The Point of Strategy Is Progress

Strategy should answer a simple question:

“What’s the smartest, most effective way to grow this business?”

That means fewer diagrams, more direction.

It’s not about being clever for the sake of it. It’s about turning insight into advantage.

Revenue. Margin. Market position. Strategy should move one or more of those things.

If it doesn’t, it’s not strategy. It’s decoration.

Smart Doesn’t Always Mean Strategic

Looking impressive is easy. Delivering outcomes is what separates strategy from theatre.

Here’s what happens when strategy becomes performative:

Complexity gets rewarded over clarity
Progress gets stalled by perfection
Teams stay busy but outcomes stay flat
The focus shifts from customers to internal approval

In other words, it looks great in the boardroom but doesn’t deliver at the front line.

The Shift: From Planning to Progress

Strong strategy is grounded in action. It’s built to be executed. That means:

Aligning with commercial priorities
Simplifying what matters most
Investing in what will shift the needle
Creating a clear line between decisions and outcomes

When this happens, you build a system that supports growth, not just activity.

You make smarter bets. You learn faster. You reduce waste. And your team knows what success looks like.

There’s No Value in Complexity Without Clarity

Strategy isn’t the place to prove how smart you are.

It’s the place to prove how well you understand the business.

The best strategic plans:

Use plain language, not jargon
Prioritise actions, not pages
Are made to be shared, not shelved
Drive measurable impact, not just applause

That doesn’t mean lowering the bar. It means raising the standard for what good looks like and refusing to waste energy on things that don’t matter.

The Opportunity

Most organisations don’t need more strategy. They need strategy that works.

That’s the opportunity.

To step back.

Ask better questions.

Focus on fewer, smarter moves.

And make sure every decision gets the business closer to where it needs to be.

Because the best strategy doesn’t just sound good. It makes money.