Drafting strategy in a simple step by step approach
Did the Greeks when they won the battle of Marathon have a strategy? Yes!
A strategy is an essential piece of the puzzle for success; without it we allow external competitors to hit and hurt our business. Yet, many businesses do not have a strategy at least explicitly.
Much has been written about strategy from various angles and depths, in fact, so much that it made the adoption of strategy more obscure instead of clearer. The result is that most of us think that we know what strategy is about but, at the same time, lack the capacity to take concrete steps to shape it and put it into practice.
Below we present by way of example a simple step by step approach to highlight how we can draft a meaningful strategy and a strategic action plan based on the work we did for a client. The sequence, overall, is important. The content of the 3rd column of the table has of course been modified and some pieces are omitted for reasons of confidentiality. The strategy questions are in column 2 and the individual company’s responses in the last column.
Steps
Strategy Question topics
Answers
1
Mission – Why we are in business
To take people to their destinations
2
Values and Beliefs – by what standards we will operate
RespectEfficientAppearance
Dominant behaviour
3
Vision – How we would like to be seen in the future
No 1Preferred provider
4
Strategy statement components
4.1
Objectives – the pylons our vision rests upon
Train stopsTrainsStaff (……………………………..)
4.2
Scope – Where we will compete
Train servicesLondon- Paris – Berlin
4.3
Our advantage
Relationship building with staff and externalsManagement personally involvedKnows the business
4.4
Our competitors’ advantage
Bigger operations – cross-financingMore OPEX & CAPEX – modernizes easierMore in control of [...]
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