There are some key elements to be considered when building a sound strategy for your business. These are:
Vision – Know where you want to be
The “Vision Statement” is one of the crucial components of a good strategy.
The vision statement is all about long term growth. It sets the direction of the organisation and envisages where it should be in 3-5 years time or longer. The statement sets a positive direction for your business, and all decisions should be directed towards your vision.
The vertical alignment of strategy should be considered, and synchronised with organisational levels, processes, systems, plans and objectives in line with the organisation’s mission, vision and values. Your statement should also be short, definitive, and concise. It needn’t be a page long.
A good example of a vision statement is Amazon’s:
“Our vision is to be earth’s most customer-centric organisations; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”
Amazon’s vision is crisp, clear and focused.
Mission – Identify your purpose
The organisation’s mission statement describes a unique proposition and how to successfully achieve customer satisfaction.
There are times where organisations combine their vision and mission statements, but there should be a clear distinction between describing where you are heading now, and what actions you are doing to move towards your vision in the future.
A good example of a clear and objective mission statement is that of Harley Davidson:
“We fulfill dreams through the experience of motorcycling, by providing motorcyclists and the public with an expanding line of motorcycles and branded products and services in selected market segments.”
Harley Davidson’s mission statement inspires passion and demonstrates a commitment to innovation and expansion.
Core Values – The heart of who you are
Core values are a reflection of who you are. These values are your identity and act like a guide on how to work to achieve your goals.
Coca Cola has very clear and simple core values:
Leadership: The courage to shape a better future
Collaboration: Leverage collective genius
Integrity: Be real
Accountability: If it is to be, it’s up to me
Passion: Committed in heart and mind
Diversity: As inclusive as our brands
Quality: What we do, we do well
These values are reflective of Coca-Cola’s ethos – clearly identifiable, passionate, relevant and realistic.
What to avoid during strategy development
Here’s how a poorly crafted strategy can be detrimental to the organisation:
- Getting too comfortable and overconfident: A weak strategy fails to recognise or define challenges which an organisation faces or could be exposed to. It also fails to notice what are the serious gaps are in its business model. Therefore, when you fail to define the business problem, you fail to evaluate a strategy or improve it.
- Mistaking goals for strategy: Several poorly crafted strategies become a roadblock when they don’t focus on plans for overcoming business model obstacles. They are just statements and goals and not a well formulated strategy.
- Impractical strategic objectives: Strategic objectives are set by a leader as a means to an end. Strategic objectives fail the organisation when they are impractical and challenging to implement.
When creating a strategy, People Professionals and Senior Management must all work cohesively and be in collaboration. This leads to successful planning and implementation.
And if it seems complicated or unnecessary work, it’s critical to remember what we told you in the beginning: that a well-defined and well implemented business strategy will drive organisational success!
We hope this guide has been useful for you and we wish you luck creating your business strategy. For more help, talk to Oakwood about training and professional development: www.oakwooddubai.ae/contact/
