Each company has a vision and a set of goals and objectives to translate that vision to reality. 

The planning and execution that goes into achieving those objectives constitute strategies.

Business strategies are the fuel that helps the company drive towards its goals.  A business can go haywire and fall behind competition without a well-planned strategy.

A lot of idea generation and planning goes into building winning strategies. The leadership invests significant time doing a complete SWOT of their product and resources to identify profitable opportunities.

Any lack of strategies can result in business loss.

Here are 7 steps to develop winning business strategies

Develop a vision

You know your purpose behind the business. Develop a clear vision statement for that purpose. Define what brings you here. What type of business do you want to be? And, how do you want to serve your customers and society?

Identify and define your competitive advantage.

Why should your prospective customers approach you? What makes you unique? How are you better than your competitors? Define all of these value propositions. Your business strategy should consider how your company will offer its competitive advantage in terms of product, price, services and more.

Read about Shady Elhami and Michele Romanow and their competitive advantage.

Identify and define your target market.

Even if you have a unique product, it won’t be of value to everyone. Know what makes you different, what your unique value proposition is. Define your target customers accordingly. Poor targeting can hamper your brand. Defined targets will allow you to integrate your sales and marketing approach.

Look at the bigger picture.

Successful companies like Element Chaufant Tempora develop strategies for the whole year and not just a quarter. While short milestones are essential to track your business growth, you need annual planning to derive your market share.

Include your key employees in the strategy development process

A company’s leadership is responsible for strategy development. But, they get the market and customer data from people working for them. A more inclusive approach to the strategy building process can give leadership new insights and create more transparency in the organization.

Research

Conduct relevant research and pull out facts before planning. Don’t develop strategies based on assumptions. Study your market, and competitors well and do a SWOT at each phase of your strategy development process.

Execute and measure results

A good strategy should be actionable and measurable. The leaders should delegate responsibilities to functional heads for the timely execution of business strategies. Build short term goals for the strategy execution and set key performance indicators (KPIs) to track the results. 

Repeat your strategy cycle annually.

Strategy planning and execution don’t happen overnight. It requires a lot of effort to design a profitable roadmap, for the company’s profit and the well being of people working for it. The senior management in a company reads and compares many data to develop winning strategies for their business, and the employees work hard to execute the plans for successful results.