4 Essential Pillars of a Good Business Strategy

One of the most widely accepted principles in business is that every organization has to aspire to an ambitious mission statement. This is because the mission statement serves as a foundation for cohesive operational strategy. Having a good strategy for your business might sound like a rudimentary concept, but the reality is that many managers and executives have an unconscious misunderstanding of what strategy actually is. A close examination of how the average company markets itself will reveal that businesses tend to confuse ordinary plans and goals for concrete strategy. Strategy is about more than individual projects or transactional procedures. Strategy is an all-encompassing, multidimensional approach to the realization of a principal ideal.

What is Strategy

Strategy is the complex art of applying miscellaneous assets and resources towards the fundamental success of a core mission. It involves planning, research, investment, implementation and reflection. In recent years, strategy has become such a popular buzzword that it’s even used to describe smaller ingredients of strategy itself. Decision-makers who fall victim to this trap inevitably find themselves stranded in frustration over the fact that their idea of strategy doesn’t produce meaningful dividends. The key to finding strategic success in business is learning to differentiate between broad strategy, and elementary methods of approach. Here are a few tips on how to develop a comprehensive business strategy:

1) Define the Endgame

Strategy is a roadmap to a specific objective. If you don’t know what it is you want to accomplish, you won’t know how and when to deploy your resources. Come up with a clear goal, and define it by articulating a mission statement.

2) Learn 

No human being is born knowing everything. Chances are the more ambitious your mission is, the more technical knowledge you’ll need to acquire in pursuit of that grand mission. For example, if your mission is to become the best company in your respective field, you’ll have to learn more than your competition does in order to outdo them.

3) Apply your Knowledge

Once you have a mission, and you’ve learnt how to accomplish that mission, activate your kinetic instincts and carry out your intentions one task after another. Never underestimate this component of strategy. It takes calculation, efficiency and follow-through to implement a strategy.

4) Keep an eye on the Finish-Line 

Implementation of a strategy, especially elaborate ones, can spiral into endless aspiration without the discipline to stop once initial goals have been attained. If new goals are discovered along the way, keep in mind that those new ambitions need strategies of their own. Once a strategy has been fully implemented, don’t try to recycle it gratuitously.

Conclusion

The only way to avoid saddling your business with confused objectives and misplaced energy is to have a clear understanding of what strategy is. Don’t become so infatuated with goals that you begin to equate them with strategy. Goals are the destination, but strategy is the journey. Goals are the glass ceiling, and strategy is the implement with which to shatter it and achieve even higher ends. Orchestrate your strategy with a diverse combination of activities and it will transform into an indomitable force of nature. The more you think about the big picture, the better placed you are to practice the kind of decision-making that yields effective strategy. For business development coaching by Richard Martinez, call at 626-202-2291 or follow us on Facebook and Instagram.