I read somewhere that there is a huge gap between people that think of themselves as being strategic thinkers and those that are actually good at it.
I’m not certain that this is coming up because people don’t have the understanding of what it means to be strategic in their thinking. Or, if it is largely driven by the day to day realities of having to be tied to so much go, go, go.
Either way, here are a few ideas that should be driving your organizations strategy and that will help you think more strategically.
1. Focus:
What is your mission? What are you trying to achieve?
If you are thinking about these things, your organization’s focus will be much better.
If you don’t know the answers, that is a huge problem.
2. Is This Strategy Sustainable?
If your “strategy” is something that is here today and gone tomorrow…that’s probably not a good thing for your organization.
To support long term growth and opportunity, you need to think about sustainability.
3. What Questions Should We Be Asking?
Questions are the key to good strategic focus.
You need to be asking the right ones. Typically they are driven around value, market, and reaching that market.
4. What Is The Value We Want To Deliver?
Everything about your strategy should be about value and adding value to the audience you are trying to reach.
5. Are You Focused On Your Real Customer?
As in, the buyer!
Do you know who can use your stuff and will buy it?
6. Strengths
What do you and your organization do better than anyone else?
7. Mission
This goes hand in hand with your focus.
But mission deserves its own little moment because if you don’t have a good mission statement, you are setting yourself up for failure as well.
Know what your mission is.
8. Vision
Do you have a vision for where the business is supposed to go?
9. How Are We Going To Make This Actionable?
Execution is the downfall of too many strategies.
You need to start thinking about how to turn your thinking into doing from the start.
10. Renewable
Just as you should think about sustainability, there is going to come a point where you need to renew your strategy. It might need freshening up.
How are you going to know?
Are you planning for that?