You're tasked with creating a business strategy for a growing market. How can you make sure it's effective?

To develop strategy for growing market it is important to identify - customer's unstipulated needs /preferences, your company's USP to differentiate & local ecosystem. Engage consultant to prepare market research report. It's equally important to understand the growth drivers. Are they influenced by government incentives /subsidies. Test sustainability of profitable growth without such subsidies. Study present as well as possible future competition. Based on these factors finalise the strategy. Challenge the strategy for Black Swan events, to test the robustness in worst case scenario. It is always good to do test marketing. Based on customer feedbacks refine the strategy further and launch it fully.Monitor the progress periodically.

When diving into market research, I always put extra emphasis on getting to know people. It's not just about the numbers; it's about really understanding what potential customers want and need. Having conversation with them, hearing their stories, and grasping their unspoken desires adds a crucial layer to the usual data crunching. And you can't forget to keep an eye on where things are heading – both in terms of what customers are expecting and any changes coming up. It's all about staying ahead of the curve for a solid business plan.

If it’s a growth market then obviously there are players servicing it. A basic DRUCKER 5 Forces model will do. Of course you will need advisors with experience in servicing this /similar markets ; their gut feel will be priceless. Finally u will need customer data. Pricing /Product features data. & a host of other such statistics. But remember numbers & emotions vary. For example most people say they lead a frugal life style n save for retirement. They also say they imbibe these values amongst their children. But do observe all their children have the latest I-phones. The EPC \ EPCM markets are a different story. You will need government policies to work for you. EG. collaboration was a must for solar epc a few years back.

This is a great place to start. In creating a right-sized plan and budget you will need to understand the growth, the market in place and developing and use all possible data to determine your market share. Clearly if underdeveloped; you risk having to scale up in the heat of the growth opprtunity. If you overdevelop, make reduced pricing part of that equation to avoid tying up cash at a critical time as the demand cools. Clearly this is the starting point and needs to be constantly watched/ tracked as real data comes in.

For a market that is known to be growing, it will be important to understand the factors that are leading to the growth. Is it new technology or is it changing customer preferences or is it changing demography? You will be in a better position to ride the growth wave, if you can anticipate the growth pattern, factors causing it and evolving landscape of the business better than others.

Based on my understanding and experience, to create a robust business strategy for a growing market, it's essential to start with comprehensive market research. Understand the prevailing trends, customer preferences, and identify emerging opportunities. A thorough analysis of competitors, encompassing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, will provide a foundation for differentiation. Clearly define what sets your product or service apart, emphasizing unique value propositions in marketing and communication efforts. Tailor your offerings to address specific customer needs, prioritizing those pain points that resonate most with your target audience.

Complete the value proposition canvas and present it to a mix of stakeholders/potential customers/friends/mentors/investors etc. Do this cold and quick. Do they get it?

Ultimately, your growth strategy success boils down to effectively catching the growing value proposition wave meeting the largest and most profitable customer segments' needs —and ideally anticipating the next wave. In particular, CEOs ambitioning to reap the rewards of a growing market have to smartly articulate their firm's functional, emotional, experiential, and societal value proposition to "speak" to the high-growth market segments. Last but not least, bearing in mind that a successful growth strategy is a PROFITABLE growth strategy, a pricing strategy in tune with your customers AND your firm's profitability equation will be a key success factor of your growth strategy effectiveness.

Even when the market is evolving, it’s helpful to an entity to have an area of strength (value proposition or USP) which caters not just to the current market needs but also can prompt respond to changing needs. The USP has to be presented tangibly (in terms of higher efficiency, better outputs or improved processes) so as to appeal to customers. Any thoughts on possible future scenarios would also help the customers as they can feel confident to partner with such a company.

Be able to explain why your product is superior but without bad-mouthing competitors, that is never a good look. Understand the competition and the differences and speak eloquently and confidently about those differences with respect.

You need to know your numbers to grow your numbers! KPIs are so important to help you monitor and grow your business. They should be well known by all team members with clear goals and accountability.

Create a plan that details: 1. Goals. These are broad and inspiring and describe where you want to reach in a definite time frame 2. Break these down into objectives that are SMART 3. Develop tactics to achieve the objectives 4. Assign responsibilities 5. Have measurement parameters in place 6. Improvise as you implement

Establish clear, measurable objectives that align with your overall business goals. If expanding market share is a priority, set specific targets and timelines. To measure success, track not only revenue but also customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Airbnb, for instance, set the goal of reaching 1 billion annual guests by 2028, demonstrating a visionary and ambitious objective.

Setting clear objectives and measures is vital for a successful business strategy. Focus on SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound). These objectives should directly align with your business strategy, reflecting your vision, mission, and value proposition. Alongside, establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to track and evaluate your progress. These KPIs should be carefully chosen to accurately measure how you're tracking towards the success you've defined for your strategy. By ensuring your objectives and KPIs align with your business's core values and unique offerings, you'll be on a clear path towards achieving strategic success.

Effective strategy for growing markets: Research, SMART goals, SWOT, target audience, adapt, monitor KPIs, comply, mitigate risks, stay sustainable.

Translate your objectives into a detailed action plan. Break it down into manageable steps, assigning responsibilities and timelines. An example could be Amazon’s strategy of investing heavily in logistics and infrastructure to ensure fast and reliable delivery, a critical component of their customer-centric approach.

Creating a detailed and optimized Gantt chart would ensure that the action plans are sequenced and scheduled for the strategy execution. The growing market requires instantaneous action plans to stay on edge over the competition. Developing a clear action plan would facilitate measuring the strategy development KPIs.

In great detail, develop the action plan and start. Even if it’s not perfect, just get started. You will see what works and what doesn’t as you get feedback/you can pivot in real-time.

Action plan has to be based on monthly basis - action points for each month should be defined and corrective actions taken if the action is not yielding desired results.

Need to know the products with standards & quality parameters to augment in the markets. Areas of operations with mode of marketing strategies are key notes to penetrate. Knocking at the end user's door with the products with USP are the basic possible facts to get initial entry of products. Propaganda through various channels with quality appropriate products and after sales services are getting better results to respond. The acknowledgement & recognition by the existing customers are persuaded to explore in the markets. The IP, Branding, Patent markings are welcomed by the customers. Keeping with long way relationship of Seller & Customer care services required to remain. We should know the business strategies to develop any products.

Communication is key to successful execution. Ensure that every team member understands the strategy and their role in achieving it. Communicate not just internally but also externally. Take Apple, for instance, which effectively communicates its brand and product strategy, creating anticipation and demand even before product launches.

Communication is key to the success of any strategy. As long as the stakeholders are not engaged with consistent and effective communication there are high chances that the strategy might deliver sub-par results.

Communication has to be organisation wide and should not be confined to top and mid management. In fact, I will go a step further and say that it has to be shared with all stakeholders - particularly your value proposition.

NYU psychologist Jonathan Haidt elephant and rider analogy is, in my view, one of the best ways to keep the audience in focus at all times when communicating strategy. I have seen this too many times in practice that a 'Strategy' department sees itself as the 'driver' and the rest of the organization is the elephant. Without the right motivation and buy-in, the best strategy ends up gathering dust because either the team don't 'get it' or do not 'buy in'.

Best strategy work I have been a part of has a robust, constant feedback loop that is continually evaluating incoming market data points and making adjustments as needed. For this reason, the traditional approach of taking a year to develop strategy and adjust annually has to be consigned to the trash heap. Today, we have to be much more dynamic and be comfortable in being directionally correct in a fast moving landscape.

A dynamic market requires a flexible strategy. Regularly review your performance against objectives and be open to adjustments. Learn from industry disruptors like Netflix, which continually refines its content and delivery strategy based on audience preferences and technological advancements.

Based on the review and the feedback, one should completely be able to pivot. And, this is not only about some strategy not working out, but this is also dependent on outside business environment completely going for a change - most recent was during Covid. At present, it is AI which is leading to business environment changing. A strategy which was written in pre- AI era, needs to be relooked.

Too often when business leaders are trying to create a business strategy, it devolves into a set of smaller goals and to do lists. These are tactics not strategies. A true strategic plan needs to incorporate for high level vision and purpose of the company. Each goal that is established must be certain to have a clear and demonstrable connection to achieving the vision. Only then will you have a true strategy.

Everything listed here is traditional and mechanical. There is nothing wrong with it; been used for decades. But nature is telling us another story. What can we learn from nature? For one thing, given the investment in design, production, and operations, going after new markets is an expensive proposition. Small, quick, cheap experiments generate lots of data that justify new product development, production, and distribution. Also worth asking is what we can create that represents the next step for our customers. The one trap every corporation falls into is doing everything possible to make sure our customers don't evolve beyond the need for existing products. What might make the existing products of our competitors obsolete?

Creating a business strategy for a growing market involves various opportunities, but it also comes with inherent risks. Keep abreast of regulatory developments. Anticipate and prepare for tech disruptions and evolving customer preferences in your industry. Diverse cultural nuances for example impact consumer behaviour and are often overlooked.

In my experience starting small, iterating fast, and implementing learnings in your strategy is the single most important element when crafting a successful business plan. The reality is that we know very little until we put things to action and no matter how much research you or proxies you analyze your business case is unique in many ways and thus the most important pillar of success is the case-specific experience you build. To gain as much experience as possible one should make small measurable experiments and quickly implement the learnings into the overall strategy. Such experiments may contain things that don’t scale but for as long as they generate useful learnings they should be part of the experimental process.