Change your trajectory

Why the strongest companies don't defend where they are. They create where they're going.

Strategy has traditionally been obsessed with position. Where do we stand? How are we differentiated? What territory can we own? Which category do we compete in? All important questions.

But increasingly, I believe there is a more important one: Where are we going?

Markets move. Technology moves. Culture moves. Competitors move. And, perhaps most importantly, customer expectations move. A differentiated position today is not necessarily a differentiated position tomorrow. That is why I believe the strongest companies need to think less about positions and more about trajectories.

Because competitive advantage is not somewhere you arrive. It is something you keep creating.

From Meaning to Alignment to Movement

In Meaning Beyond Money, I argued that strong brands are built around an idea larger than the transaction. Meaning creates direction. 

In Alignment is the Apex Advantage, I argued that business strategy, brand and culture become more powerful when they reinforce each other around a shared ambition. Alignment creates coherence. 

But there is a third requirement: Movement.

Because meaning without movement risks becoming philosophy.
And alignment without movement risks becoming organizational harmony without competitive progress.
The real test is whether meaning and alignment give an organization the clarity and confidence to do something distinctive. To make choices.To create. To challenge conventions.To move ahead of expectations. That is where strategy becomes visible.

The Problem with Positioning

For decades, one of branding's central ambitions has been to occupy a differentiated position in the customer's mind. I still believe deeply in differentiation. But I don't believe a position is enough.

At Hatch & Co, we describe this philosophy as trajectories, not positions. Markets and consumers are dynamic, not static. Incremental improvement remains fundamental, but our philosophy is that well-timed, bold moves can propel brands ahead of customer expectations. 

A position describes where you are. A trajectory describes where you're going and the movement taking you there.That's a fundamentally different strategic question.

A company focused on defending its position naturally asks:

How do we optimize?
How do we protect?
How do we improve?

A company thinking about trajectory asks:

What could we become?

That question opens a very different conversation.

The Incrementalism Trap

There is nothing wrong with continuous improvement. Companies need better products. Better operations. Better technology. Better customer experiences. Better execution.

But there is a limit to what incremental improvement alone can achieve.

If everyone in a category studies the same customers, benchmarks the same competitors and optimizes against the same success factors, something uncomfortable can happen: Everyone gets better. And everyone starts looking more alike.

The organization becomes more efficient without necessarily becoming more distinctive. The question is therefore not whether companies should continually improve. Of course they should. The question is:

Where does the next disproportionate leap come from?

The Gamechanging Idea

At Hatch & Co, we use the term Gamechanger for a big, bold idea with the potential to become a brand narrative, business model, product or service, while also providing fuel for culture. 

We look for that idea at the intersection of four things:

What are we really good at?
What do we love to do?
What does the world need?
What can we make money from? 

That intersection matters because it prevents innovation from becoming creativity for creativity's sake.

A great strategic idea needs to be:

1. Authentic enough to belong to the company.
2. Relevant enough to matter to customers.
3. Distinctive enough to challenge convention.
4. Commercial enough to create value.

The point is not to choose between meaning and money. The opportunity is to find ideas where the two reinforce each other. That is when meaning becomes movement.

From Idea to Iconic Move

But ideas have limited market value until something happens. A strategy document doesn't change customer expectations.Neither does a purpose statement. Neither does a brand platform. Organizations create movement through moves.

A new product.
A new service.
A new experience.
A new business model.
A different way of entering or redefining a category.

Something concrete enough that customers can experience the strategy rather than merely hear about it.

At Hatch & Co, activating Gamechanging Ideas through brand design, culture design and iconic business moves is central to our brand-leadership philosophy. 

That is why I use the term Iconic Move.

Not iconic because it is famous. Iconic because it makes strategic ambition tangible. The move becomes proof of the idea.

When an Iconic Move Changes the Trajectory

I have seen this happen firsthand.

In 2013, Danski needed a new ski-holiday concept for college and university students. The answer wasn't another variation of the traditional ski trip. Together with my team, we developed an idea based on a different question:

What if we merged the energy of a music festival, College Ski Olympics and stand-up comedy with a ski holiday and created an experience the category hadn't seen before?

The result was Red Mountain Ski Festival.

The concept launched in Alpe d’Huez and combined the ski experience with an entertainment programme featuring major Danish music artists and stand-up comedians. It subsequently expanded to destinations including Tignes, Val Thorens and Saalbach. The concept was as a huge commercial success for Danski for almost a decade

But what interests me today isn't simply that the concept succeeded. It is what kind of move it was.

We didn't begin with:
How do we make the existing ski holiday slightly better?

We asked:
What could a ski holiday become?

That changed the premise.

The ski trip became a festival experience. Entertainment became part of the proposition. And the idea created a distinct way for Danski to address a younger market. 

Red Mountain wasn't a campaign for the existing product. Red Mountain was the product.

That is what I mean by an Iconic Move.

It doesn't simply communicate a position. It changes the trajectory.

The Trajectory

A position is a point. A trajectory is direction combined with movement. And trajectories rarely develop in perfectly straight lines.They change when leaders make choices. When organizations see an opportunity others don’t.When a bold move creates a new direction.

That is what The Trajectory Arrow represents for me.

Not growth for the sake of growth. Not movement for the sake of activity. A deliberate change of direction toward a more valuable future.

The inflection matters. Because leadership is not simply about moving faster along the path you're already on. Sometimes leadership means recognizing that the path itself needs to change. The most consequential move may be the one that changes the trajectory.

Brand is built through moves, not messages

This has an important consequence for branding.

In Meaning Beyond Money, I argued that brand is the meaning people attach to your company. If that is true, communication is only one of the forces creating that meaning.

Products create brand.
Experiences create brand.
Culture creates brand.
Leadership decisions create brand.
Innovation creates brand.

The moves an organization makes create brand.

Companies cannot communicate themselves into a leadership position they don't demonstrate through their actions. Marketing can amplify a move. But marketing cannot substitute for one.

This is where the traditional separation between business strategy and brand strategy becomes increasingly unhelpful. The strongest brand moves are often simultaneously business moves. Red Mountain Ski Festival illustrates the distinction particularly well: the central idea was itself a new ski-holiday concept, rather than communication around an unchanged offer. 

From Improvement to Leadership

I see two fundamentally different forms of progress.

1. Incremental progress improves the existing game.
2. Gamechanging progress changes something about the game itself.

Companies need both.

Incremental improvement strengthens quality, execution and competitiveness. But occasionally an organization needs to place a bigger bet. Something that shifts its current trajectory. Something competitors did not anticipate. Something customers may not have asked for but immediately understand when they experience it.

At Hatch & Co, our philosophy makes essentially the same distinction: incremental change remains fundamental, while well-timed, brave moves can propel brands ahead of customer expectations. 

That is the difference between optimizing a position and changing a trajectory.

Movement Requires Courage

There is a reason this is difficult. Bold moves involve uncertainty. Incremental improvements usually have evidence behind them. A genuinely new move often doesn’t. Data can explain what has happened. Research can illuminate needs. Analysis can identify opportunities. But at some point, leadership still has to decide:

Do we believe enough in this direction to move before certainty arrives?

That is why strategy requires more than analytical intelligence.

It requires judgment. Imagination. Conviction. Courage.

Not reckless courage. Informed courage. The confidence to make a meaningful move because the idea is anchored in capability, human ambition, market opportunity and commercial potential.

Leadership Changes the Trajectory

This brings the trilogy back to leadership.

Meaning cannot ultimately be delegated.
Alignment cannot ultimately be delegated.

Neither can movement.

Leadership determines whether strategy primarily protects today's position or creates tomorrow's trajectory.

Leadership determines whether unconventional ideas are given room to develop or eliminated because they don't resemble what the organization already knows.

And leadership ultimately decides when analysis is sufficient and it is time to move.

That is why I believe brand leadership is ultimately leadership.

Not because CEOs should write campaigns or select typefaces. But because the most consequential brand decisions are often business decisions first.

What do we believe?
Where are we going?
What change is worth making?
What are we willing to do differently to get there?

Those are leadership questions.

Change the Trajectory

Across these three articles, I have tried to articulate one interconnected philosophy.

It begins with meaning. An organization needs an idea of the future worth contributing to.
Meaning creates direction. Then comes alignment. Business, brand and culture need to reinforce that direction. Alignment creates coherence. But coherence must produce movement.

The organization must turn shared ambition into choices, innovations, experiences and bold moves people can see and experience. Movement creates momentum.

And momentum changes trajectories.

At its simplest:

MEANING
What change do we believe is worth making? 

↓

ALIGNMENT
How do we move together?

↓

MOVEMENT
What do we do differently?

↓

LEADERSHIP
Where will it take us?

The strongest companies don't simply defend an attractive position. They create a direction. They align the organization around it. They have the courage to act on it. And, when necessary, they change course.

Positions describe where you are. Trajectories determine where you lead.

Change the trajectory.

Sources

1. Frank Studio: Danski Red Mountain. The case states that Red Mountain Ski Festival was created as a new ski-holiday concept for college and university students, launched in Alpe d’Huez in 2013, expanded to further destinations and was described as a huge success for Danski. [frankstudio.dk]

2. Hatch & Co Brandheat™. The methodology describes Gamechangers™ as bold ideas capable of becoming brand narratives, business models, products or services and providing fuel for culture. It places the idea at the intersection of core capabilities, passions, market opportunity and business opportunity. [hatchandco.dk]

3. Hatch & Co About. The philosophy includes “trajectories, not positions,” the relationship between incremental improvement and bold moves, and the activation of Gamechanging Ideas through brand design, culture design and iconic business moves. [hatchandco.dk]

4. Meaning beyond money, Nicolai G. Lyngholm. The first article establishes meaning as a strategic asset and introduces the relationship between business, brand and culture. [Meaning beyond money | PDF]

5. Alignment is the Apex Advantage, Nicolai G. Lyngholm. The second article develops alignment as the force connecting business strategy, brand and culture, with coherence as the resulting competitive advantage. [Alignment...Advantage | PDF]