Following another good MDHUBAlpha session some of Michael Porter's thoughts on strategy were discussed, I had a chat with another business who is focussing their strategy on "exceeding client expectations".
My view is we should first aim to agree expectations so we both know what that means and then strive to deliver what we've agreed to a very high standard. There is also an ongoing process of educating and being educated with the client to develop more ideas and ideally deliver more for them.
Certainly a strategy of exceeding expectations is neither a strategy - taking Porter's view that the worst error in strategy is to compete with rivals on the same dimension ie competeing to be the best rather than his choice competing to be unique - nor is it an easily achievable goal as so often we do not really understand our clients true expectations.