How to strategize strategy: A roadmap to a stellar business plan

Ideas pertaining to innovation, strategy & planning are pertinent to most organizations, but somehow these words have morphed into just ‘buzzwords’, having less or no significance in practice. More often than not, on paper, strategy only seems like a list of actions interspersed with a sprinkling of desired results, all utterly useless in actual execution.

However, the importance of strategy in business cannot be overstated. In a highly competitive & fast evolving realm of business, the right strategy is key to long-term development and success. And an effective strategy not only entails making the right decisions at the right time, but exists as the cornerstone of a company’s eventual future.

In my years of experience, I have seen strategic planning both flourish and go up the spout. So, to ensure our strategies are not completely redundant, few tips and tricks can be of service:

1. This one might seem unsurprising & predictable, but it definitely is the most significant: Knowing Your Stakeholders – Often, there exists a lot of complexity in identifying key stakeholders due to overlapping roles. Take the example of an FMCG enterprise I worked with recently. It was a distributor of nuts & seeds and in it, farmers occupied two different roles: farmers-as-shareholders and farmers-as-suppliers. In such a bemusing scenario, knotty key-stakeholder need to be mapped with precision, which will then have a direct impact on the overall strategy.

2. The second step is ‘Targeting the right target’. It’s pre-eminent to identify your “target customer” before moving forward. Take, for example, the international accounting firm Ernst & Young. Are they the kind of an organization who would look into our tax returns? No. That work falls on the shoulders of a suburban accountant. Nor would E&Y target mid-sized firms. So whom exactly are they catering to?

Their ideal target customers are established businesses & big corporates. So, other potential customers in this case, may be eliminated. A perfect strategic plan can’t be 'all things’ to ‘all customers’. Hence, defining the right customer is pivotal.  

3. The third step is analyzing the two sides of the same coin - what your company wants from each key stakeholder group and what these stakeholder groups want from your company. Once that’s figured out, a strategic plan may deviate, but it will certainly not go wrong.

4. The last step is strategy design. The final blueprint of your strategic plan. The ‘Strategy’ part of it implies that you have a goal and the ‘Design’ element refers to a creative solution to fulfil your goal. When putting the strategy design in effect, all the previously mapped factors need to be revisited – from stakeholders to target audience. Only then can you create a tangible plan, outlining your idea visually. Executing this strategic process will ensure that all visual touch points sit well together and coalesce just the right story for the brand!

Nonetheless, formulating ‘winning strategies’ is only half the battle, the other half is their implementation. So, it’s time to buckle up and get going.