Just about every leadership book I’ve read goes on about the importance of “vision” and knowing where you’re going.
But unless you have a tangible, implementable strategy to get there, it’s just imagination.
There are several elements to a good strategy.
1) Market. It should be blindingly obvious, but you need to have a market which wants what you offer. But you’d be surprised at how often people miss this.
Back in the early 1980’s I was involved with the first NSW Entrepreneur’s Workshop where over the course of a year we formed teams to find a product and market it. My team consisted mainly of engineers, one of whom found a frankly ridiculous piece of machinery designed to join metal sheets by crimping them. Honestly the product had no future, and not surprisingly, we couldn’t find a market for it.
The team that won found a product and by the year’s end had made $50,000 in sales. It was a salutary lesson which I’ve never forgotten.
2) Competition. Who is it? How different is your solution? Why would someone buy it over theirs?
3) Marketing. Can you articulate your uniqueness in terms that matter to your audience? What you think is important might not be to your market. One way to validate is to regularly conduct client interviews to see where the gaps are.
4) First mover advantage. If you’ve done your homework, ascertained there’s a real market (defined by customers who’ve actually paid for your solution), what do you need to do to rapidly scale up?
Allied to this is the “network effect”. Uber being the first rideshare app attracted customers who then attract more drivers and then more customers as it’s easy to get an Uber. Their myriad competition who subsequently entered the market have very little chance of catching up.
5) IP protection. You’ve come up the next best thing since sliced bread. Can you protect your IP? How easy is it to copy? While I recognise the need to protect your technology as much as possible, you’re generally far better off getting it out there.
Now you’ve got that sorted, you obviously need to plan out your actions to get traction in your market.
Which is where your 3 year, 1 year and 90 day plans come into being.
While you have a longer term vision for where you want to get to, given the pace of change today, there’s little value in detailed strategic planning beyond 3 years. For the investment in time and money, there’s very little return.
When working with clients we work on a detailed 1 year strategic plan where we work out the big rocks to be accomplished and why. Then break these down into 90 day chunks.
Involving your staff in this planning has a major benefit as demonstrated recently when a client reported their staff could now see where the organisation was going and exactly why they needed to do certain things.
It was gratifying to see staff actively putting their hands up to take on responsibilities and being accountable.
Having a yearly plan and 90 day chunks means everyone keeps on track.
The 90 day chunks are then broken down into weekly tasks moving the organisation forward.
Why work with me?
There can be a big gulf between knowing and doing.
Having expert facilitators like us will help you clarify your strategy and put in place steps for achieving it.
Over 24 years we’ve worked with our clients to help them clarify their strategy and implementation steps. Working out a plan to achieve their aims.
If you’re not where you want to be and feel an experienced pair of hands will help, reach out. I’m a phone call away. Get me on 0414 913 334.
