Do you travel often? As a backpacker, anytime? Whatever, before you get on to unknown roads, it’s always good to carry a roadmap.

The same example works while you start a business as well. Without a clearly defined goal, it’s quite ridiculous to venture on. To reach to the specific goal, you need a robust business strategy.

A good business strategy, as defined by Harvard Business Review, provides a clear roadmap, consisting of a set of guiding principles or rules, that defines the actions people in the business should take (and not take) and the things they should prioritize (and not prioritize) to achieve desired goals.’

Few insights on developing a robust business strategy

Analyse first to know the facts

You might be familiar with SWOT Analysis, aren’t you? It’s one among the tools, defined as Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats, to analyse your current situation.

The first step to creating a robust strategy is getting to know, and acknowledge, where your business has currently reached. Make sure you collect the relevant information. Be strong enough to accept the weak points as well.

Gain clarity of vision and mission

Where do you want your business to reach in 10 years? 5 years? 1 year? What are the organisational principles and values? What is your vision statement? And how do you plan to reach there?

Well, there are more questions to find answers. Clear-cut answers, and not beating around the bush type. For an effective business strategy, you need to figure out a proper vision and the mission to reach the objective.

Plan it well

Once you have your roadmap, you can plan your journey well. Planning and prioritising your requirements with regards to your objectives makes the backbone of a robust strategy. Between keeping these factors in mind.

• Know your resources to allocate it rightly.
• Know your Key Performance Indicators to measure the effectiveness.
• Know your budget requirements to arrange the funds.
• Know the performance management measures to identify if things are on the right track

Remember your objectives need to be SMART. Means Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-related! Learn to build successful strategies by signing up for a Strategic Management course and succeed in your career.

Strategic management is the development and execution of the main goals and objectives of an organization. It is a long-term plan with an aim to create a competitive advantage for the organization in the market in which it operates. There is a crucial role of strategy in international business and hence international business strategy is taught in business schools worldwide today.

As part of strategic management, an organization develops its strategy for a couple of years and breaks it down to achievable objectives which are measurable from time to time. For an organization to implement its strategy, it develops metrics and keeps track of them. It keeps into consideration the environment of its existence, its competitors, the future trends anticipated in its industry and other related industries as well as the resources available to the company.

Strategic management gives a common goal to the entire organization which is then broken up into function-wise objectives and tasks. In this way, the entire organization, no matter how big, works towards the same goal. Strategic management integrates all the business functions. This is also known as strategic alignment.

Strategic alignment ensures that all elements of the business are arranged in such a way that they best support the fulfilment of long-term objectives of the organization. Company strategies may change according to the needs of the market, customer preferences, technology trends and other external or internal factors. Therefore, strategic alignment between all the business functions in an organization is a constant job and not a one-time exercise.

Companies are able to channel their strategy into teams by providing them with a common purpose. Various functions should be tasked with goals that are related to their jobs and directly or indirectly affect the company’s end goal. For example, if great customer service is a differentiator between a company and its competition, then teams like customer care, sales and marketing should reflect this differentiation in their daily jobs.

Companies that instil their core values into their teams and align strategy at the ground level see the results in the daily happenings and the results of their projects. These are the companies that can gain a competitive advantage in the field. Alignment at the strategic level is reflected in the way employees interact with each other, in their commitment towards the company’s values and the buzz on a company floor.

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