A clear Plan or Strategy focuses a business
Many see the ability of being able to think strategically as often seen as the reserve of business leaders and pompous consultants. Strategy in truth plays a much wider role than that, with almost everyone involved in developing strategies in both private and professional situations. We are all involved with strategy at some level from deciding the best approach to finding a parking space in a busy shopping centre, to developing a marketing campaign to launch a new product or service.
Who needs to be strategic?
Often those unskilled in strategic thinking can dismiss it as pie on the sky or un-required fluff; they often prefer action and drive to discussion and planning. Now at no point would I say that action, drive and results are bad areas to focus on, in fact taking action and a drive for results are key skills of any successful executive. However the professional or business which ploughs head on up the metaphorical mountain can invest a huge amount of effort and time on the wrong path. Without direction and strategy a business can take a long time to reach the summit and even worse reach the top only to find it’s the wrong mountain they have spent so long climbing.
A business without a strategy or strategic people within can still produce a product and results today but the question lies around its ability to get the same results in the future, when more strategically savvy competitors have outmaneuvered it.
So strategy is important for both the business and the individual but how do we become better at it? This article aims to highlight several simple yet effective techniques that the individual can apply on a daily basis and over time become a better strategic thinker.
1>Speak the local language.
Speaking strategically can help your understanding of strategy, how? By informing others that you think strategically by speaking the language colleagues and managers will involve you more in strategic processes and decisions, in turn helping you learn more about the world of strategy. Every
2> Broaden your horizons
Being the expert in your niche market is a fantastic position to be in when working with your clients/customers, however when formulating a strategy a broaden business knowledge and worldly knowledge is required. Everything and everyone in the world are inter-connected. Actions in one industry in one part of the world have implications for another industry on the other side of the world more than ever today in our global economy. Understanding and taking an interest in world events and industry’s outside your own can go along way to helping you formulate strategies. Pull together your knowledge and piece together the implications for your role or your business and look for options to deal with them.
3> Take the time to think
In today’s busy world everyday is filled with more actions to do than time to complete them in. Busy professionals often don’t have the time to think about anything else other than the immediate day to day challenges. So make time, set aside a 20/30 minute period once a week, every week. Turn off the phone, move away from the laptop and find somewhere quiet you can think about the future and the implications of market/industry events on your business. Take a notepad and pen wherever you go to capture your thoughts. You’ll be amazed at the number of thoughts and ideas you can formulate if you only give your mind the time and space.
If you simply don’t want to, or don’t like the idea of strategic thinking, get someone else to do it. You can recruit someone into your team with the characteristics to bring a strategic element to the team or you can look to an outside firm to work with you once a year (maybe twice) to help bring out strategic thinking, develop your strategy and to start the all important implementation. Strategic consultants come in also shapes, size and prices. Some of the biggest like McKinsey, The Boston Group, PWC, KMPG, and Accenture can cost a business thousands of pounds and some of the less well know can still produce hefty bills.
