The Secrets to Formulating a Winning Strategy

1. Goal Setting – In order to achieve success in business the leader needs to define where he or she wants the company to be, what they want to do and what they want to achieve.  Goal setting is what turns an idea into results.  Organizations with goals achieve far more than those that simply hope for the best.

2. Vision Sharing – Using participatory visual models to enable people to create an image of the future is vital.  This allows for business goals to be integrated into a shared company vision.  Having a unified vision saves time, money and frustration.  Your people will accomplish far more if they can see and buy into where you are trying to take the company. This is an invaluable part of a successful business. 

3. Pursuit of Excellence –Successful businesses don’t buy into the premise, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”  So, if you have been, it may be time for a paradigm shift.  Too many businesses get bogged down in comfort and mediocrity.  Even when their business model is working successful businesses are constantly improving and looking for ways to change. 

4. Benefit Modeling – Intuition can be handy for making some decisions, but important choices about the future direction of the company, or substantial investments should be made using some kind of decision making methodology.  Analyzing scenarios and evaluating risks in order to maximize return on business investments, is a best practice of successful businesses.

5. Integrated Planning – A comprehensive view should be taken of business, people and technology and the processes surrounding them should be integrated into a single business plan.  Successful businesses have a single business plan that ties all the elements of the company’s efforts together into one unified strategy.  The strategy should map the course for the company as a whole, including all of its parts. 

6. Explicit Accountability – Clearly designate responsibility for the achievement of business accomplishments.  Successful businesses are without layers of middle managers whose sole responsibility is to make sure that that their workers are getting their job done.  By delegating work and clearly attributing specific responsibilities to specific positions, businesses achieve more, more efficiently. 

7. Knowledge Building – The desire to learn should be cultivated and rewarded.  The smarter we become individually, the smarter we become collectively.  Improving the rate of learning throughout the organization creates group success.  The best businesses value constant learning and improving where their employees are concerned.  Have employees set aside time on the clock to read non-position related material that will increase their business acumen. 

8. Technology Planning – Think ahead and globally about your company’s technology needs for the future.  This is a no-brainer in today’s dynamic and virtual world.  If technology is key to your value proposition, you must keep up with the Joneses.  For the areas of your company that are back office operations instead of competitive advantages the key is to stay on pace with advancements, while not getting too far ahead or behind the curve.

All businesses have a strategy.  The ones that have a successful strategy incorporate these practices in order to remain successful.  For more information about how you can improve your business’ strategy, visit www.flourishingbusiness.com.