Build your Battle Plan
Business and empires are not built in a day, they evolve consistently after arising out of the minds of genius leaders.
How is the business going to grow? What are the key challenges the business faces? How will the business create value in the market place? Which business function sets us apart from our competitors? Does the business reflect clear and successful value proposition parameters? What could disrupt the business? Is the long term vision in sync with the short term plans? Fundamental to long term direction, certain questions if left in ambiguity by the top management create room for pitfalls and non alignment of business strategy and execution.
In this day and age, the market is dynamic and evolving at a fast pace. Uncertainty about the future is governed by changing economic trends, constant up-gradation of technology, and evolving customer needs. Businesses need to not only look into financial management such as cash flows, profit margins, reducing costs, financing etc. but also monitor performance around well rounded performance indicators and defined KPIs to stay on track to their strategy plan. Regulations and compliance complexity is a high risk and management area, noted widely across all industries. Businesses struggle to adapt in new markets and compete at a global stage, giving space for consultants to fast track their growth for a strong market holding and growth pathway.
A good forward looking strategy can shape a sustainable and profitable business with a competitive advantage. It designs a story board for top management to embrace change than view it as an opposing determinant to fulfilling their organisational goals.
- Corporate Strategic Planning
Looking into the allocation of business resources, be it human workforce or capital, the idea is to maximize the firms value. Aligning the corporate structure and related systems formulate an effective organisational design. To bring out a balanced portfolio, correlation and integration between business units will help to beat the competitive landscape. Strategic trade offs with respect to risk management and return generation are strongly pursued keeping in mind a panoramic view.
Browse multiple case studies and applications like for example LG Electronics or Barack Obama’s marketing using blue ocean strategy (versus the red ocean strategy) that creates a new market without competing with the existing one, and maintaining low costs. Or, diversification strategy used by Star Bucks helping it cut through the competition in the coffee business as it expanded aggressively.
- Brand and Growth Strategy
Ability to uncover hidden consumer needs can help discover new sources of revenue growth for businesses. An effective brand strategy will align the brand position as per the overall business goals and target market and ensure that the business is equipped with a toolkit that is essential for capturing the market in a accelerated manner. Successful implementation of the kapferer brand identity prism and related theories can help get closer to the target market and add to an engaging and sustainable brand image.
L’oreal’s and Estee Lauder growth strategy included acquiring many brands in the cosmeceutical markets which is expected to grow at a CAGR of nearly 6% till to 2021, enabling them to tap the biggest markets like US, China, Japan and India. Global banking , Citigroup looks at territorial growth strategy, now focusing to become a leader in CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) markets as it starts its presence in Serbia. Such cases give insights on various business propositions which are given birth in the heads of strategists.
- Functional Strategy
Breaking down the business models into functions and building industry customized functional strategies strengthen the internal pillars of the business. It is the foundation that enables the business to achieve functional excellence. Recent developments show alternate methods like automation and outsourcing to be the trending solution.”Fit for Purpose” operating model ensures defining KPIs, decision rights etc. and ensuring value proposition. A strategist may focus on marketing their functional excellence in the strategy and use it as a driver to peg the business in the market . Amazon has fast and transparent delivery function spread across countries and remote areas which is unique to its model.
The translation and implementation of the strategies should not be poorly defined in a plan. It should have room to accommodate confusion and uncertainty. Stress on developing ownership in the implementation process and ensure effective communication across the structures of management to drive it into success. A step by step and segmented approach along with assessments can help the strategy become reality.