Does Your Business Have a Strategy?
It’s the knock out stage of a huge soccer championship. One team will advance and the other will leave the competition. The eager fans are watching with a combination of excitement and fear. As the game starts, comments begin to pour in about the strategies of the two teams.
Coach A has built his team around the defense. They will make sure the competition finds it extremely difficult to bypass them and score.
Coach B has a different approach. His strikers are fast and lethal. They will control the ball and with their speed penetrate the defense of the other team to score. At the end of the match one team wins and everyone praises the Coach’s strategy.
This same principle applies to businesses. Customers are continuously watching and appraising performance. Depending on what strategy a company chooses, it will have higher chances of growing profitably or not. This means that to succeed, a company must have a well-defined strategy to determine its direction.
In reality though, it is not uncommon to find business owners and managers who either do not know the strategy for their business or cannot articulate it clearly enough. Companies that do not have a clear strategy often find that their initiatives end up badly executed or do not bring in the desired benefits they hoped for leading to frustration.
Defining your business strategy starts with an understanding that you cannot be all things to all people. Your business has to be known for something unique such as innovative products, great customer service, high quality etc. It is on the basis of this Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that you can build your strategy.
To begin ask these important questions:
ο Why does my business exist?
ο What are my Company’s strengths and weaknesses?
ο How does your product or service differ from the competition?
ο Which target customer group should you focus on?
Another factor to keep in mind when crafting your strategy is to be consistent such that there is no room for confusion. Remember the story above, if you are about the defense guide your fortress and if you are about the attack, be lethal.
Having difficulty crafting your strategy, contact info@owensxley.com
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