When Planning Your Strategy This is the No. 1 Word You Absolutely Must Know

Posted by jpayne on January 15, 2009 under Strategic Planning |

I’m not one for making people work too hard for the answer, especially when you’ve clicked on to read an article – to be honest, life’s too short.  

However, I think this will help you to really understand what strategy is all about.

Take a moment and think what strategy means to your business. It doesn’t matter what size your company is, whether you’re an owner managed business or a FTSE corporate, the answer is the same.

In your mind, list the top 3 things you think your strategy achieves. If you’ve got a piece of paper to hand, write them down, that sometimes helps to clarify thinking.

Ok finished? Now if this word does not feature in your list, then it may be time to rethink your strategy…….and the word is, “customer”.

To create sustainable, long term success, an organisation must understand and relate to its customers on a very fundamental level.

Very few companies though think of their customers when it comes to setting their strategy.  Rather, they think of their competitors and therefore concentrate their strategic efforts on constantly improving the goods and services they offer.

In doing this, they focus on temporary success and obscure the thinking and emphasis that leads to sustained success.  Increasing the value of one single offering can distract the organisation from the larger questions of bigger picture strategy and objectives.

Having said this, it must be remembered that objectives themselves are not the end game in achieving lasting success.  The more specific an objective the further it may potentially lead the company from its bigger picture.

So what is the end game?  The end game is your strategy.

So how should companies focus their strategy? It should not rely too heavily on objectives or too strongly on competition. Rather, at its heart, should be your customers. That is what you’re in business for. It is the ongoing encouragement of a customer-led strategy based on neither competition or time led objectives which must be at the heart of any real strategy.  From that your objectives, the right objectives, will flow.

Julia Payne Associates have been providing consultancy and business coaching to SME’s and FTSE 500 companies for the past 20 years.  Why don’t you contact us to discuss solutions that make a clear difference.