How many strategists does it take to change a lightbulb?
One specific strategist, a “lightbulb-changing strategist”, with the right skills for the job.
Perhaps: none. The strategy team identified darkness as a “strategic differentiator,” yielding an edge in the night-vision market.
These days, though, it’s probably: five. The Brand Strategist defines the lightbulb’s “purpose,” ensuring its glow aligns with the room’s identity. The Creative Strategist writes a brief that inspires the electrician to see the socket as a “blank canvas.” The Media Strategist determines the optimal “channel” for the light so it reaches the right audience at the right time. The UX Strategist researches the user’s “journey” to the light switch and ensures frictionless illumination.
The Chief Strategy Officer takes credit for the “visionary decision” to have light in the first place. (The punchline? After all that, they still won’t change it. They’ll just present a roadmap for a “phased rollout of illumination” in Q4.)
Joking about it is satisfying, but today we add even more strategists to that list: content, social, business, marketing, engagement, activation, experience, data, connections, performance – while we wait for the next specialism to rise.
This proliferation leads to confusion among teams (“who’s on first?”), expensive scopes for clients who increasingly take strategy in-house, and an overall slowdown in work. But the bigger cost is less visible. In breaking strategy into so many discrete roles, we removed the conditions that once granted us authority in the discussion.
It’s worth noting that this dynamic shows up most clearly in larger, layered organizations.
Smaller independent shops often feel the opposite pressure. They know they need more strategic synthesis, not more specialism, because synthesis is often the very thing clients come to them for.
What Authority Used to Mean
Strategy, as a discipline, once had authority. Strategists were trusted to hold competing truths, surface real trade-offs, and orient decisions in the face of uncertainty.
That kind of authority has eroded not because strategy became less necessary, but because it demands a willingness to sit with contradiction - something the current system, which chases short-term clarity, resists.
As we fractured into specialties that could be measured and rewarded individually, we lost ownership of synthesis: the responsibility to hold opposing truths and turn them into resilient direction.
Specialization Isn’t the Villain. Structure Is.
At one point, adding specializations was a good strategy. It demonstrated expertise, increased differentiation, expanded scopes.
But fragmentation distributed responsibility while eliminating accountability to resolve - or even expose – contradiction. Each discipline became responsible for being correct within its lane.
True synthesis lives between lanes, where no single role is clearly authorized or rewarded to do the work.
Our culture prefers binary systems and clean answers. In practice, this means either/or thinking (and its well-meaning cousin, 'yes, and') stifles good strategy, as inclusion without synthesis creates clutter, not direction.
Deliverables Versus Judgment
Each strategist now effectively owns a “thing” – a journey, a brief, a deck. Judgment is much harder to co-own when authority follows deliverables instead of the thinking behind them.
So much of what gives strategy its authority happens between outputs: the reconciliations, trade-offs, and time taken to make things make sense. This dilution isn’t limited to strategists. Creative and account leads are now also expected to be “strategic thinkers.” We have spread the idea of strategy so thinly that we have diluted its authority.
Why Strategy Became Optional
I’ve long told my teams to focus on whether their strategy is smart, not whether it’s right. We
can’t see the future. Strategic authority doesn’t come from having “the answer.” It comes from the ability to hold opposing truths without collapsing them, so that a better path forward can emerge.
As we added specialties within strategy, everyone’s focus got clearer in their own domain, but no one retained authority over the tension between domains. Whether we realized it or not, ceding that position is why it has become so easy for clients and teams to decide they don’t “like” the strategy. Without synthesis, strategy reads as opinion rather than orientation.
The irony, of course, is that authority is earned over time - something our industry and culture increasingly struggle to tolerate.
Moving Forward
There are thoughtful debates about what strategy will look like in the future: what skills strategists will need, whether they should be T-shaped, K-shaped, or some new geometry. We don’t have a clear answer yet. And when we do, we’ll likely need to evolve again.
In the meantime, keep your strategists focused on synthesis, not lightbulbs. Without someone accountable for holding contradiction, no amount of illumination will light the way forward.
BIO
Erica Martinez joined Princeton10 as Head of Strategy in May 2024, bringing a collaborative and strategic approach fueled by a fundamental curiosity for what’s next. She leads a team tasked with a clear mission: to constantly evolve and redefine the model for strategic healthcare Communications. Erica has built her expertise through senior roles at renowned agencies like Harrison and Star, BGB Group, and Saatchi Wellness. She has worked with pharmaceutical brands across numerous therapeutic areas, including dermatology, oncology, rare disease, oral health and pain management. Throughout her career, she has developed brand, content and communication strategies across DTC and HCP campaigns, medical communications, and public relations/corporate communications. From her writing to her experience speaking at industry events, she is known for translating complex market dynamics into actionable insights.
Driven by a lifelong passion for uncovering what's new - from the latest cultural trends to the next scientific breakthrough - Erica operates with a simple belief: the best strategies are born from genuine curiosity. She is focused on injecting this perspective into every project, ensuring Princeton10 and its clients are not just keeping pace, but setting the pace for the industry
How many strategists does it take to change a lightbulb?
One specific strategist, a “lightbulb-changing strategist”, with the right skills for the job.
Perhaps: none. The strategy team identified darkness as a “strategic differentiator,” yielding an edge in the night-vision market.
These days, though, it’s probably: five. The Brand Strategist defines the lightbulb’s “purpose,” ensuring its glow aligns with the room’s identity. The Creative Strategist writes a brief that inspires the electrician to see the socket as a “blank canvas.” The Media Strategist determines the optimal “channel” for the light so it reaches the right audience at the right time. The UX Strategist researches the user’s “journey” to the light switch and ensures frictionless illumination.
The Chief Strategy Officer takes credit for the “visionary decision” to have light in the first place. (The punchline? After all that, they still won’t change it. They’ll just present a roadmap for a “phased rollout of illumination” in Q4.)
Joking about it is satisfying, but today we add even more strategists to that list: content, social, business, marketing, engagement, activation, experience, data, connections, performance – while we wait for the next specialism to rise.
This proliferation leads to confusion among teams (“who’s on first?”), expensive scopes for clients who increasingly take strategy in-house, and an overall slowdown in work. But the bigger cost is less visible. In breaking strategy into so many discrete roles, we removed the conditions that once granted us authority in the discussion.
It’s worth noting that this dynamic shows up most clearly in larger, layered organizations.
Smaller independent shops often feel the opposite pressure. They know they need more strategic synthesis, not more specialism, because synthesis is often the very thing clients come to them for.
What Authority Used to Mean
Strategy, as a discipline, once had authority. Strategists were trusted to hold competing truths, surface real trade-offs, and orient decisions in the face of uncertainty.
That kind of authority has eroded not because strategy became less necessary, but because it demands a willingness to sit with contradiction - something the current system, which chases short-term clarity, resists.
As we fractured into specialties that could be measured and rewarded individually, we lost ownership of synthesis: the responsibility to hold opposing truths and turn them into resilient direction.
Specialization Isn’t the Villain. Structure Is.
At one point, adding specializations was a good strategy. It demonstrated expertise, increased differentiation, expanded scopes.
But fragmentation distributed responsibility while eliminating accountability to resolve - or even expose – contradiction. Each discipline became responsible for being correct within its lane.
True synthesis lives between lanes, where no single role is clearly authorized or rewarded to do the work.
Our culture prefers binary systems and clean answers. In practice, this means either/or thinking (and its well-meaning cousin, 'yes, and') stifles good strategy, as inclusion without synthesis creates clutter, not direction.
Deliverables Versus Judgment
Each strategist now effectively owns a “thing” – a journey, a brief, a deck. Judgment is much harder to co-own when authority follows deliverables instead of the thinking behind them.
So much of what gives strategy its authority happens between outputs: the reconciliations, trade-offs, and time taken to make things make sense. This dilution isn’t limited to strategists. Creative and account leads are now also expected to be “strategic thinkers.” We have spread the idea of strategy so thinly that we have diluted its authority.
Why Strategy Became Optional
I’ve long told my teams to focus on whether their strategy is smart, not whether it’s right. We
can’t see the future. Strategic authority doesn’t come from having “the answer.” It comes from the ability to hold opposing truths without collapsing them, so that a better path forward can emerge.
As we added specialties within strategy, everyone’s focus got clearer in their own domain, but no one retained authority over the tension between domains. Whether we realized it or not, ceding that position is why it has become so easy for clients and teams to decide they don’t “like” the strategy. Without synthesis, strategy reads as opinion rather than orientation.
The irony, of course, is that authority is earned over time - something our industry and culture increasingly struggle to tolerate.
Moving Forward
There are thoughtful debates about what strategy will look like in the future: what skills strategists will need, whether they should be T-shaped, K-shaped, or some new geometry. We don’t have a clear answer yet. And when we do, we’ll likely need to evolve again.
In the meantime, keep your strategists focused on synthesis, not lightbulbs. Without someone accountable for holding contradiction, no amount of illumination will light the way forward.
BIO
Erica Martinez joined Princeton10 as Head of Strategy in May 2024, bringing a collaborative and strategic approach fueled by a fundamental curiosity for what’s next. She leads a team tasked with a clear mission: to constantly evolve and redefine the model for strategic healthcare Communications. Erica has built her expertise through senior roles at renowned agencies like Harrison and Star, BGB Group, and Saatchi Wellness. She has worked with pharmaceutical brands across numerous therapeutic areas, including dermatology, oncology, rare disease, oral health and pain management. Throughout her career, she has developed brand, content and communication strategies across DTC and HCP campaigns, medical communications, and public relations/corporate communications. From her writing to her experience speaking at industry events, she is known for translating complex market dynamics into actionable insights.
Driven by a lifelong passion for uncovering what's new - from the latest cultural trends to the next scientific breakthrough - Erica operates with a simple belief: the best strategies are born from genuine curiosity. She is focused on injecting this perspective into every project, ensuring Princeton10 and its clients are not just keeping pace, but setting the pace for the industry
