How to mastermind a competitive business strategy that works and delivers as expected?
Before anything else you do in business, strategic thinking must take place. A significant volume of thought and preparation will be invested for any vision and plans to materialise. A solid strategy is a prerequisite for strategic positioning, marketing attractiveness, and tactical and operational excellence.
Strategic implementation must be founded on well-rounded plans and viability studies simply because without a clear strategy for achieving objectives, you’ll likely find yourself spinning your wheels and going nowhere fast.
“Any road will get you there if you don’t know where you are going.”
An effective business strategy is the ultimate game plan to succeed in business.
By academics, it is:
“A Game Plan for growing the business, increasing a market share, enhancing a market position, attracting and pleasing customers, successfully competing, achieving operational excellence, accomplishing worthy objectives and achieving goals.”
So, how do you create a business strategy that will set you up for success? Keep reading to find out.
The first step is to take a step back and assess your current situation. What is your current reality? What are your strengths and things that you and your team are good at providing/serving?
What is your advantage? Is it sustainable?
Is your value proposition still valid, or will some minor or major adjustments be required?
What about your shortcomings and weaknesses? What opportunities and threats do you face?
This modern SWOT analysis, adapted to your circumstances, will give you a good overview of where your business stands and where it needs to go. More importantly, it will pinpoint what is missing that could make a difference if provided.
Once you understand your current situation well, you can start setting some goals. What do you want to achieve in the short-term, medium-term, and long-term? Be as specific as possible here; general goals like “increasing sales” are too vague to be helpful.
Once your goals are defined, developing an action plan would be a smart move.
How exactly are you going to achieve your goals?
What tactics will you employ?
What help is necessary, and who can provide it to you?
Who can provide coaching or mentoring when things are uncertain and the overwhelming pressure is high?
What can go wrong?
This is where most businesses get tripped up because of the following:
- They need to learn precisely where the journey starts, meaning that if they don’t, all subsequent strategies, tactics, and execution will follow false assumptions, half-baked research, and subjective hypotheses.
- Lack of strategic thinking and guidance – A clear action plan must exist.
- Attempt to implement too many tactics without seeing if they’re working – Spreading resources too thin and disregarding opportunity costs puts the business in danger of never completing vital priorities on time.
Remember, quality over quantity here! It’s better to focus on key tactics that will work and deliver results than to try dozens of different things and hope that something sticks. A shiny syndrome is never an answer because doing more things that don’t work will result in multiple wasted efforts and resources.
I’d like you to focus on the following statement:
Strategy development and strategic thinking = focus & determination
because it is, you choose the game plan, where the game is played and what you willingly contribute. Then based on your strategic plan, you focus all your resources with the determination to win.
Are we rowing together and in the same direction?
A well-defined business strategy helps to simplify things by providing a north star to guide decision-making. It ensures that everyone in the company is rowing in the same direction and allows you to better allocate limited resources towards initiatives with the most significant impact. Tactics without strategy are just reactive and often inefficient measures taken in response to changes in the marketplace or competition.
Innovative thinking for results before tactical execution
In business, it’s important to remember that strategic thinking should always come before tactical execution. Your business strategy is your overall plan or course of action for achieving desired goals—it provides direction and guidance for the tactical steps you and your team take along the way.