I can run my category. Why can't I see the whole business?
You run your category well. The numbers are good, the team listens, the plan works. Then someone asks how this connects to the whole business, and you feel the ground shift under you. This is not a knowledge gap. You know the frameworks. You have read the same books as everyone above you. What you have not done is practice thinking from another chair — finance, sales, operations. You have not asked, again and again, what your choices cost them. That is a skill built by repetition, not study. It comes from doing it badly at first, in small moments, until it becomes plain sight.
You do not lack the strategic view because you lack intelligence. You lack it because you have not practiced looking outward. Choose one decision in your category today. Ask what it costs or gains another function. Repeat that daily. That practice, not more study, is strategic thinking.
What changes unlock by starting
- You start speaking in terms other functions recognize as their own.
- You catch cross-market costs before they turn into complaints.
- Your plans move faster because they already answer objections from other teams.
- People stop calling you 'good at category' and start considering you for more.