A notable ingredient that is lacking in business organisations today is strategy. Strategy is the master plan for any organisation to achieve its goals within specified time frames. Strategy needs to be embraced to engender sustainability of competitive advantage.
The overall purpose of business strategy is competitive advantage. Strategy came into being due to competition. The whole essence of strategy planning is to enable an organisation to gain a sustainable edge over its competitors. There is the basic need to leverage an organisation’s strength in a most efficient way over its competitors. This is the whole essence of a corporate strategy.
Strategy is all about developing action plans that enables an organisation to deploy its enterprising strength within its sphere of business operations. For strategy to achieve its purpose, there is the need for a deep thinking. To outsmart competitors is not an ordinary task. When an organisation strives to maintain a superior edge over competitors, the thought pattern of one helmsman should be different.
The role of the CEO
The CEO is expected to deploy his thinking antennae as if he is on the battlefield as a war general. What this implies is that the CEO of the organisation should be the lead strategist. A good business strategy is one in which a company can leverage significant advantage over its competitors. This means the task of doing this rests firmly on the shoulders of the CEO.
The CEO of an organisation should be a strategic thinker. He should see things from a broader horizon than the people he supervises. He needs to dissect trends, problems, prospects and package them to maximise business advantage for his organisation.
It is also important for the CEO to have a clear understanding of a particular challenge and situation and analyse same in an appropriate manner.
Highlight the critical issue
There is the need to penetrate the issue at hand by isolating all other scenarios to highlight the major one. There is the need to formulate a problem statement that will lead to the right solution. For any organisation, the formulation of the question involves the participation of all employees. The ideas and insights are gathered and later screened to arrive at the desired outcome. Failure to have a full grasp of the key issues affects the formulation of a potent strategy.
Thorough analysis is key
Beyond highlighting the critical issues, there should be a good and insightful analysis. Organisations need people with a combination of analytical skills and mental endowments. Analyses are not just done as routine exercises but should be programmed to achieve desired results. The CEO and other top management executives are not expected to conduct analyses to support their preconceived ideas. This will not deliver results and the organisation can never deploy a successful strategy to outwit its competitors.
How to gain strategic advantage
The need to take a critical look at the resources available is important. The implication of this is that an organisation will be able to adjust the allocation of resources at its disposal to strengthen its capabilities in the industry. An organisation needs to allocate new resources in the most effective way to gain significant advantage over competition.
To strengthen the strategic base of any organisation, the point of differentiation between an organisation and its competitors needs to be leveraged for an impact. This calls for a total look at the entire gamut of an organisation’s operations to utilise the difference in the composition of resources to gain leverage. The unique selling proposition of an organisation should differentiate its product and service quality from the competitor’s. This is a visible way to gain advantage in the market place.
A workable strategy demands unconventional approach to achieve desired results. To dislodge an established competitor, an organisation can challenge the accepted norms in doing business in the industry. This is based on an aggressive platform to re-invent the rules and change the equation. This will definitely enable an organisation to gain a competitive business advantage.
Innovation is fundamental to business strategy. The deployment of innovative techniques can strengthen an organisation’s grip on the industry. Innovation can occur through new product development, marketing initiatives and opening up new market opportunities. Occupying a space untouched by competitors is also an innovative approach.
The place of the customer in strategy development is central to its overall success. There is no point formulating a strategy without focusing on the end users. Customers need to be given a premium place for the strategy to achieve stipulated goals and objectives. The needs and expectations of the customers should be embedded in the strategy document.
An organisation’s strength should be leveraged upon to explore a business advantage. The major weapon to outwit competitors is strategic thinking. Organisations need to devise a channel through which they can break established competitive barriers. Insightful strategy leads to superior edge and business growth. This should be visible and discernible in the performance of the organisation.
BY AYODEJI AYOPO
No comments:
Post a Comment