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 The Challenge
A business needs a clearly-articulated strategy in order to attract funding, to focus resources and to align the efforts of all staff.
The Solutions
Set a clear target
- Adopt a planning horizon (perhaps 3 years)
- Describe in 1 or 2 sentences what you want the business to look like in 3 years (with financial or other targets as appropriate)
- Develop this from a realistic analysis of your market, competition and the opportunities and threats facing the business
Identify ‘critical success factors'
- Identify 4 or 5 factors that are supremely important if you are to achieve your 3-year aim (what does success really hinge on?)
- Describe each of these in a sentence or two
- Specify targets and measures for each factor that you will use to indicate that you are on-course over the next 3 years
Specify priorities
- Against each success factor, identify tactics for year 1 (important actions that will ensure success)
- Clarify responsibility for each tactic
- Consider things that could go wrong and include tactics that will reduce or manage these risks
Develop the strategy as a team
- Strategy development in this way benefits greatly from the active involvement of your senior team, yielding additional ideas and insights
- The process develops and spreads detailed understanding and this reduces the risk of over-reliance on any one person
- Try to capture the key points onto a single page (distillation of the thinking can force the team to recognise what is really important)
Implementation is everything
- A well-developed strategy achieves nothing without effective implementation
- Use the strategy to set personal objectives and to ensure that critical success factors are properly managed
- Allocate time at management meetings to ensure that the big picture is not forgotten. Change plans and priorities if circumstances dictate this
- Build a sense of direction and energy by communicating the strategy clearly Celebrate achievements frequently (little and often)
Contact Smith & Williamson
This document is part of the Entrepreneurs' Toolkit series, produced by Smith & Williamson. More information on this and other toolkit topics is available at www.smith.williamson.co.uk/entrepreneurs.
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