Strategy is work, so why create one?

It is important for business leaders at all levels to understand why they do what they do, where they are going and how they will get there.  A well-defined business strategy and plan will address each of these and help you achieve meaningful progress and sustainable outcomes. And yet, one of the primary reasons for business failure is lack of vision, strategy, and a plan.

So, why don’t some leaders give their business the greatest chance of success with a well-defined strategy?

• It takes time, creative space, and skill to formulate a strategy.
• It takes wisdom to make a strategic choice. 
• It takes courage to overcome the fear of making the wrong choice.
• It takes knowledge to make a confident decision on where (and where not) to focus. 
• It takes discipline to implement. 
• It takes understanding to overcome the belief that a strategic choice will limit the opportunity.
• It takes insight to understand strategy is not permanently etched in stone.
• It takes agility to know when to pivot.

If developing a strategy takes so much, then why develop one? The value of a well-defined, clearly communicated and effectively operationalized business strategy is much greater than the work it takes to formulate it. 

“Hard work is not always something you can see. It is not always physical effort.

In fact, the most powerful form of hard work is thinking clearly. Designing a winning strategy may not look very active, but make no mistake: it is very hard work.

Strategy often beats sweat.” — James Clear, author of Atomic Habits (Source: The 3-2-1 Newsletter, December 18, 2019)

Here are 7 ways a business strategy can provide value to help you achieve meaningful progress:

1. Inspire and engage your team. A well-defined strategy begins with a clearly articulated vision, an aspiration aligned with a purpose that is worth achieving. Live out this purpose and vision as you lead, share it with your team to connect and join in on this common mission.
2. Optimize limited resources. A well-defined strategy makes choices on who you will focus on serving, what you will focus on delivering and how you will approach the market.  Make choices to focus your finite amount of time and financial investment on the best opportunities for profitable growth. 
3. Differentiate your market position. A well-defined strategy distinguishes your unique way of doing business. Define your value proposition to clearly share it with others, leads to greater understanding of the value your business provides and more wins. 
4. Enable effective implementation. A well-defined strategy is complemented by a plan to achieve it. Create a plan with priority actions, owners, and measures to drive accountability, encourage innovation, foster collaboration, and understand progress to give you confidence in moving forward.
5. Proactively prepare for risks. A well-defined strategy understands and addresses potential risks to the strategy itself and to the organization. Evaluate what challenges may arise or what could go wrong and incorporate actions in the strategic plan to proactively address them will help protect and enable the success of the organization and its vision. 
6. Accelerate and empower decision making. A well-defined strategy makes a choice once to provide a framework to guide decisions. As opportunities arise, begin by asking whether it aligns with the strategy and if it does not align you can quickly make the decision and move on. And, if the strategy is clearly communicated and understood it can guide and empower your team to do the same. 
7. Establish a foundation from which to pivot. A well-defined strategy leverages the best information available about the market and the potential opportunity. Actively keep a pulse on the market and measure progress against the strategy to identify where and when to pivot.

Have you taken the steps needed to develop and capture the value of a well-defined strategy for your business? 

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