Articles - Business Strategy

The Challenge

A business needs a clearly-articulated strategy in order to focus resources and to align the efforts of all staff, (and to attract funding).

The Solutions

1. Set a clear target

- Adopt a planning horizon (perhaps 3 years)

- Describe in 1 or 2 sentences what you want the business to look like in 3 years

- Develop this from a realistic analysis of your market, competition and the opportunities and threats facing the business

2. Identify ’critical success factors’

- Identify 4 or 5 factors that are supremely important if you are to achieve your 3-year aim (what does success really hinge on?)

- Describe each of these in a sentence or two

- Specify targets and measures for each factor that you will use to indicate that you are on-course over the next 3 years

3. Specify priorities

- Against each success factor, identify tactics for year 1 (important actions that will ensure success)

- Clarify responsibility for each tactic

- Consider things that could go wrong and include tactics that will reduce or manage these risks

4. Develop the strategy as a team

- Strategy development in this way benefits greatly from the active involvement of your senior team, yielding additional ideas and insights

- The process develops and spreads detailed understanding and this reduces the risk of over-reliance on any one person

- Try to capture the key points onto a single page (distillation of the thinking can force the team to recognise what is really important)

5. Implementation is everything

- A well-developed strategy achieves nothing without effective implementation

- Use the strategy to set personal objectives and to ensure that critical success factors are properly managed

- Allocate time at management meetings to ensure that the big picture is not forgotten. Change plans and priorities if circumstances dictate this

- Build a sense of direction and energy by communicating the strategy clearly Celebrate achievements frequently (little and often)

By Denis Burn