A business strategy is a tool that can be used to help businesses achieve their goals. It provides a set of guiding principles by which organisational decisions can be made, such as developing new products or hiring new employees.
Define Aspirations and Values
The first step in building a business strategy is identifying the aspirations and values of the organisation. This can help a business to focus on its purpose and process, as well as its results, and be an inspiration to remain customer-centred – which, in turn, will help the business meet its goals.
What to Include in the Business Strategy
Successful CEOs such as Rob Tolley (former London broker) know that a good business strategy takes into account three core elements: the business’s objectives, target audience and strategic management. As well as the business’s mission and vision statements, the strategy should include its core values, the results of a SWOT analysis and an outline of the tactics to be deployed to achieve the set objectives. It should also contain details on how resources will be allocated to achieve the desired outcome and how results will be evaluated for effectiveness.
What Is a Value-Based Business Strategy?
A value-based business strategy leverages the value stick framework to focus on the advantage created by the business. Value stick frameworks can be deployed to visualise how different factors impact each other and identify the initiatives to prioritise to increase value for all relevant parties. In a value-based strategy, this can be used to determine pricing structure and resource allocation.
Measuring Results
Financial strategy experts like Rob Tolley know that it’s not enough to simply write a business strategy; businesses need to actively monitor their progress against the objectives set going forward. It’s advisable to assess the strategy monthly to check that things are on track. The chosen metrics need to be regularly and carefully evaluated to ensure goals are being met and that solutions are found to address where progress levels aren’t as expected.
Bringing Everyone on Board
For best results, it’s a good idea to promote common ownership of the business strategy across all executives and departments, creating cascading goals that resonate with employees so everyone understands how their role contributes to the overall plan.
Take a look at the embedded PDF for more information on how to build a business strategy.