One of the big challenges all of us face is that we are constantly strained for time and attention. This applies to pretty much every area of our lives, but when we are running a business, it is especially taxing when it comes to how do we make long-term, strategic decisions and how do we make these decisions successfully.
Here is the deal, if you don’t think strategically, you are always going to be like a kite, flying in the wind, waiting for the right breeze to keep you aloft. If you act and think strategically, you are going to be in a much better position to have a direction that you are following that is all your own.
Here are a few tips to start going in your own direction:
1. Identify what your outcomes look like:
The beginning of any successful strategy is that you have to know where you are going. Without an understanding of where you want to go, you are not going to get there. You will get somewhere, but not necessarily where you want to go.
2. Think long-term, while managing short-term:
It is ridiculous to think you can’t make short term decisions while managing for long term stability. It is also ridiculous to think about only the long term without understanding the actions that you are taking now will have an impact on whether or not you make it to the long term in one piece. So you need to have a strategic plan with long term goals that enable you to take short term action within a framework that’s guided by the long term.
3. Make your strategy actionable:
In too many organizations the people formulating the strategy are at a far remove from the people that are actually doing the work. So the goal for you and your organization is to make your strategy actionable.
4. Get buy in from your important constituents:
Two things can torpedo your strategy more quickly than you would imagine and that is no buy in at the top or no buy in from key stakeholders. It goes without saying that the CEO of the area is the key stakeholder, but even if you are the CEO or the CEO of the challenge, without the support and buy in of the people you are working with and that have a direct impact on the outcomes, you are going to struggle to achieve success.
5. It will likely evolve:
Its evolution, baby! That’s the mantra that you should repeat for your strategy because in all likelihood the strategy that you set today will change and transform over time. Maybe radically and maybe only slightly. The key is that you can’t let your strategy be something that holds you back. It must be something that is flexible and adapts as you move through your market.
6. Don’t fear the sunk costs of a poor performing strategy:
No matter what you have done to prepare a strategy, the truth is that at some point all strategies start to slow or don’t work the way that you hoped they would. That’s just life. The real issue comes in the form of an organization being afraid of actually cutting away from a bad strategy because of the loss of the sunk costs.
But the key is that once money and time is spent, it is sunk and the only thing you can do is move forward.
So don’t fear the sunk cost. Move forward.
7. Keep an eye on your competitive advantage:
Never lose sight that the reason people buy from you is because of the value you create for them. Its true. So at some point you have created a competitive advantage. Where too many organizations fail is that they forget that they have to maintain that competitive advantage and stay ahead of their competitors.
8. Take advantage of new markets:
While you are focusing on your long term strategic goals, the market and world around will change. Sometimes this means that there is a new application for your product or service or that the utility of it is applicable in a number of different ways. So when the opportunity presents itself, make sure you don’t just turn your nose up at new markets for the things you are already doing.
9. Max out old markets:
Sometimes we lose sight of the things that got us to where we are. Like we forget about some of the markets and accounts that we have that are the foundation for what we are doing going forward. And, this can lead to lost revenue or lost opportunity. One key thing you can do is make sure you are providing the maximum service to your clients.
10. No strategy lasts forever:
Eventually the best strategy goes stale. That’s life and evolution. You have to know when you have reached the end of a strategic plans usefulness or effectiveness and how to say good bye to it. Because holding on too long is only going to cause you to prolong the next great success.