Peter Drucker never said, “Strategy eats culture for breakfast,” but everyone attributes the quote to him. Imagine being so prolific that people just assign badass quotes to you.

Intro

I am sitting in my home office in a suburb in Houston, sipping on a now lukewarm coffee, going back and forth on how I will write my first-ever newsletter issue.

I just shared my initial draft with my wife, Zohra, and the conversation went something like this:

So I took another crack at organizing this as follows:

• Why write this?

• Why The Moat?

• What to expect?

TLDR: I'm scratching my own itch.

Every job I've had, I've sat next to the CEO, owning strategy and execution. Thousands of decks. Countless investor meetings. All circling the same question:

"Why will you win and how will you make it happen?"

Why and how.

It’s something I obsess over.

How do you pick a direction, get everyone on board, and actually go dominate?

Like Babe Ruth, pointing to the fences.

Sometimes I feel like I've cracked the code. I have helped raise hundreds of millions in capital, scaled companies of all sizes, and been successful enough to step away from the corporate world at 38 to follow my curiosity.

Other times? Total impostor.

This newsletter is my way of working it out.

How do you actually craft & execute great strategy?
How do you build a culture that rows in the same direction to make it happen?

Most business books miss the mark. They're either too academic or assume you are a startup with a blank canvas, which is never the case.

But real strategy?
It's messy.
It's nuanced.
It’s gambling.
It's fucken scary.

The bigger question: How do these same principles work beyond business? How do we build lasting advantages in our personal lives, too?

If you've ever thought about these things, you're in the right place.

Anyone who owns strategy at work has faced this question at some point: "What’s your moat?"

It’s the equivalent of “how tall are you?” question for basketball players.

A moat is what protects your business from competitors, the way castle moats protected medieval fortresses.

It's also an homage to Warren Buffett, who popularized the term.

He made a big impact on my life.

At 15, I devoured his biography. That same summer, I took an intro to finance high school class at Columbia University, walking the same halls where he learned decades earlier. This early experience shaped my career. More on this in the future.

I am on a journey to share what I learn.

I plan to write about strategy, growth, and leadership. All about how you win at a macro and micro level.

It will include stories, actionable frameworks, and interviews with people I really admire. All on a quest to help you become faster, better, and stronger.

I don’t have a set formula yet. But I live by the Rumi quote “As you start to walk out on the way, the way appears”.

So this is my first step.

If you can’t wait for another issue and want to learn more about me, you can follow me on Linkedin. I post daily there.

I can’t stop thinking about this tweet. If my local Domino’s texted me this, it would be over. Hook, line, and sinker.

Great example of strategic thinking in action.

This concept is now being trialled by many companies. Expect a text soon.

Thanks for reading!

Til next time,

— Ali Mamujee


P.S. I want to hear from you. Have topics you'd like covered? Drop me a note. I want to make this a valuable resource for you.