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How to Soar, Part 5
10 Steps to a Winning Strategy
Developing a winning strategy requires this effective 10-step process:
- Develop a process for creating the strategy
- Review and clarify mission, vision, and values
- Assess the environment
- Assess the organization's strengths and weaknesses
- Choose what your organization should do best
- Choose your customers, and how you will serve them
- Choose initiatives to become the best
- Choose your competitors and decide how to beat them
- Develop messages for the market
- Synthesize and clearly communicate the strategy
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4 Guidelines for Success
- Trust the organization. An effective process does not rely on external, self-proclaimed experts for the answers. Instead, it trusts that the organization's own people know enough to develop an elegant strategy.
- Involve the people who know. An effective process involves employees closest to the customer, competition, and products, because these people have firsthand knowledge of the marketplace.
- Share and synthesize information. An effective process breaks down barriers among different business units, functions, and processes. It brings together knowledge from up, down, and across the organization.
- Get results. An effective process gets results. While it may take some time to develop and execute a strategy, ultimately it should lead to an improved position in the marketplace, and better financial performance.
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Beyond those guidelines, there are many possible ways to develop a strategy in your organization. The process you choose depends on how you answer these questions:
What is the outcome you want?
Outcomes of a strategic process range from creating a formal document to reaching deep insights about how to win in the market, and shifting resources and attention accordingly.
Who will participate, and how?
At some organizations, the CEO develops the strategy and hands it down to employees. At others, all employees provide input into the plan.
Who makes decisions, and how?
At most organizations, the senior leadership team determines final strategic direction, based on input from employees. However, at a few organizations, decisions happen naturally. In these instances, senior leadership trusts that, by asking the right questions and engaging employees in dialogue, answers will emerge.
How much time do you have?
The more time you have, the more you can involve employees, and the longer you can take to reach a natural consensus. |
