Smiling Owner - Definition of Business Strategy

First what is the definition of business strategy. It is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal or set of goals and objectives. Note, the word strategy derives from the Greek word stratēgos, which derives from two words: stratos (army) and ago (ancient Greek for leading). It could be said that a strategy is a leadership plan.

So how do you set your business strategy.

Strategy is management's game plan for strengthening the performance of the enterprise. It states how business should be conduct to achieve the desired goals. Without a strategy management has no roadmap to guide them.

Small business owners struggle with strategy setting and implementation. How many times have you set a plan only to find it’s totally unrealistic?

Most ventures take far longer than anticipated, and sometimes the unexpected alters the anticipated outcome. The trouble is 90% of business strategies fail.

The successful ones made it because they have enough money left over to try
again after they learn that the initial strategy was flawed. One of the most important things is to learn what is working and what is not and adjust your plan quickly.

Yet nature produces complex, powerful, elegant, awe-inspiring, and incredibly capable organisms and species that have evolved, thrived, and survived for millions of years. You would think they had been carefully planned out and designed, but…

Nature has no master plan. Each species just takes one small step at a time, building on what fits the environment best at present and discarding what does not fit well.

The only thing certain in nature is that the environment will keep on changing. This is true in business too!

In Richard Dawkin’s excellent book, The Blind Watchmaker, on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and how complex designs have been achieved in nature, he states that ‘A true watchmaker has foresight, he designs his cogs and springs, and plans the interconnections with a future purpose in his mind’s eye’ but, he says, nature is a blind watchmaker:

Creating a business strategy is a core management function. It must be said that having a good strategy and executing the strategy well, does not guarantee success. Organisations can face unforeseen circumstances and adverse conditions through no fault of their own.

So how should you proceed. Carry out the traditonal business strategy tasks of setting a vision, mission, objectives and goals derived from a SWOT analysis, but take heed of the two principles in the E-handbook 'Belly Button to Belly Button'

Then the viable strategy emerges. This approach is called the Emergent Strategy.

Here is a famous example. Sam Walton the founder of Walmart, the huge US
Retailer, built his second store in another small town in Arkansas closeby rather in a big city because he could easily control what was going on. This led unintentionally to his brilliant strategy of building stores in small towns such that competitors were pre-empted from entering that small marketplace.

Introduction: Includes self diagnosis checklist for existing business owners

Today's Small Business Issues: includes criteria for successful business