Success Impulse: Do you have a strong business strategy?
There are so many myths and methods surrounding the topic of "business strategy" that it is a real challenge for every CEO or division manager to keep track of everything.
If I ask three CEOs what they want to achieve with a strategy - in other words, why they need one - I get at least four different answers. In other words, it's often not clear what makes a good business strategy in the first place.
If no business strategy is apparent
The result: countless folders and file servers full of presentations and documents that all contain some kind of detail, but often do not add up to a consistent whole. If you then try to roll out such a "strategy", it usually gets stuck at the first contact with the team - i.e. those who have to drive the implementation for the most part.
Important features of a business strategy
From my experience, there are three important characteristics that distinguish a strong strategy from a mediocre or useless one:
- I always say, "If you want to improve just a little, you don't need a strategy, you need a plan." One doesn't have much to do with the other. A strategy is especially necessary if you have a strong vision with ambitious goals. Let's say it the other way around: a strong business strategy always has an ambitious vision as its foundation.Test question: What is your vision and how ambitious is it?
- Clarity and simplicity. Most strategies I see are far too diffuse and complicated. A strategy that no one understands or where you can't see the essentials because of all the details is pointless. Strong strategies are always characterized by great clarity and simplicity. This, in turn, is not easy to achieve.Test task: Record a 3min video of yourself explaining the cornerstones of the strategy and show it to your colleagues. How clear do they find your message?
- Relevance for the team. Every strategy must be implemented by people in your company. And they will only do so if they see relevance for it. Abstract goals that only mean something to the management - if at all - miss their mark. Hardly anyone will then commit to implementation and be ready for change.Test question: What exactly do you expect from your people during implementation? What do they have to change?
So, here you have the three most important characteristics of strong business strategies. Here's to your strong strategy!
To the author:
Volkmar Völzke is a success maximizer. Book author. Consultant. Coach. Speaker. www.volkmarvoelzke.ch
