Keep
Your Business Strategy On Track
by Arun Sinha
Business
conditions are always changing, so it's a
good practice to periodically step back and take a hard look at your
business
strategy and how you're implementing it.
The
term
"strategy" has many definitions. For the
purposes of this article, we'll say that a company's strategy lays out
the
goals of the company and its plan for achieving these goals. Every
company has
a strategy, whether it's carried in the chief executive officer's head
or in a
300-page binder. Here are steps you need to take to ensure the strategy
you've
mapped out is the best it can be.
Set
your goals. They
could
include growth, maintenance, or even a
change in the way you do business. They may be short term, such as
countering a
move by a competitor, or long term, such as achieving a certain
position in the
industry. Whatever the goals, they need to be concrete and achievable.
Analyze
your company.
Critically
examine your strengths and weaknesses.
Be careful here, because it's easy to fall into the trap of thinking
you're
better — or worse — than you really are. Hard data such as sales or
operating
numbers must be balanced with information that you obtain informally,
such as
by talking to your salespeople and customers, studying industry
developments,
and so on.
What
is your
company good at? The answer may not
immediately be obvious, but if you dig deep and long enough, you'll get
to it.
You may even be surprised by what you find. For example, you may have
thought
all along that your strength lay in product quality, only to find that
competitors are matching you in quality and your real advantage lies in
the
productivity of your sales staff. Such hidden strengths and
capabilities, once
uncovered, can propel your company way out ahead of its competitors.
Speaking
of whom...
Keep
files on your competitors. Even now,
they're plotting to eat your
lunch. And if you aren't careful, one of them will, when you least
expect it.
Wal-Mart came from nowhere to overtake Kmart in sales and profits. AOL
was
founded 16 years after CompuServe, and eventually swallowed it. Never
dismiss
competitors. They are always smarter than you give them credit for.
Monitor
them, anticipate their actions, and pre-empt them if you can.
If
the barriers
to entry in your industry are low,
then you need to be especially watchful of your competition. Stay on
top of the
situation. Monitor their Web sites. Visit their stores. Do top managers
of Home
Depot ever shop at Lowe's? You can bet on it.
Get
your employees on board. The people who
come to work every day are
your real competitive advantage. The
quality and productivity of your work force makes a big difference to
how you
compete in the marketplace. You want to
be sure that your key employees have it in them to take your company
where you
want it to go.
Look
at the business environment. The world
outside your
company also has a say in your business strategy. The
government, suppliers, lenders, your
neighbors, the general economy all affect your thinking, your decisions
and
your actions.
Embrace
reality. We
business
people are optimists. Wishful thinking
sometimes creeps into our rational analyses and forecasts. Guard
against it.
Use intuition and judgment, by all means — it would be unwise to ignore
them —
but not as a substitute for facts.
Shaping
strategy. After
gathering
this wealth of knowledge about
your company, your competitors and the world around you, it's time to
shape
your strategy. Focus on your competitive advantage. What makes you
unique? Why
should a customer choose your company over a competitor? Perhaps you
appeal to
a segment that is underserved by the market. Or you've found a way to
lower
prices that others can't match. Or it turns out that your product can
be sold
over the Web profitably. There are many ways to set yourself apart.
Implementation.
Putting your strategic plan into practice requires a steady hand and
unwavering
commitment. While implementing your
strategy, market conditions will change— a new zoning law may come into
effect,
or technology may change the playing field. Stay focused on the overall
goals
of the company while you to go back to the plan, make changes where
needed, and
start implementing your revised strategy.
# # #
Arun Sinha is founder and
president of Access Consulting, a marketing communications and technical
writing firm based in Stamford, Connecticut, USA. Sign up for Access
Consulting's One-Minute Communication Tip at www.AccessConsultingInc.com.
Once a month, you'll receive an actionable idea or technique on an
aspect of business communications, distilled into about 150 words.
