How to refine your business strategy in four steps?

13.02.2023

A business strategy is a plan of how a  company is setting out to achieve its goals. In the best-case scenario, it clearly outlines your company’s  USPs and includes a plan for how you will defend them against your competitors. A well-crafted strategy is vital for any company to experience rapid growth and become an attractive target for investors. 

Strategy formulation is an iterative process and not a one-time event. You should involve your best team members and keep refining your strategy continuously.

To formulate the strategy you can follow the process shown below,

• SWT Analysis:

Performing a SWT assessment will help you understand your strengths, weaknesses and the trends in your industry and market. This assessment will provide you with a picture of the current environment and how it will evolve over time.

• Develop a vision summary:

A good vision summary builds engagement, alignment, and focus throughout the company. It provides a one-page format to communicate key aspects of your company’s vision to employees, customers, investors and the wider community. The structure to build vision summary is as follows,

• List core values:

These are the rules and boundaries that define your startup’s culture and personality. It refers to your company’s should and shouldn’t. Your organization’s values ​​should be so deeply ingrained in the company that you will feel comfortable referring employees to them when faced with a tough decision or ethical dilemma

• State purpose:

It conveys your startup’s reason for existence, just as the mission statement and vision do. But it also shows the connection between your brand identity and the workplace culture of your company. It combines the components of a mission statement, vision, and values into a single statement

• Brand promise:

It is a value or experience that your customers can expect to receive every time they interact with your company. As startups deliver on their promise, the brand value becomes stronger in the minds of their customers and employees

• BHAG:

A big hairy audacious goal is a clear and compelling goal for your organization. BHAG should take people out of short-term thinking. The time limit for the same is considered to be ten years or more

• Priorities:

Write down your priorities. Where you should focus for the next quarter, year, and three to five years. With your vision summary, knowing where to focus becomes much easier

• Objectives:

It is the job of the CEO to delegate responsibilities to the employees. The CEO can discuss and delegate tasks to each employee according to their abilities. Delegating the task to the right person will help the startup reach the main goals faster.

After following the given procedure, you should ask yourself, is it easy for everyone to understand your vision summary? If not, get recommendations from your people to make it easier for everyone to understand. Strategy is considered one of the four essential elements of an organization. Therefore, a well-crafted strategy will demonstrate that you serve a large and lucrative market. It further guides you in  creating and maintaining your USPs as well as taking daily business decisions in line with your objectives.

What are your thoughts about strategy and the iterative process outlined above? Kindly let us know.