Unlocking Growth: How to Develop a Tailored Strategy for Your Business

SMEs thinking about growth need to think in terms of creating a tailored strategy; something that is right for their business, where they are today, and most importantly, where they want to be in the future.??

One-size-fits-all approaches will always fall short, because they will inevitably fail to address unique or nuanced challenges and opportunities.???

A tailored strategy, designed with precision, and based on an in-depth understanding of the business, allows SMEs leverage their strengths, mitigate weaknesses, and tap into their full potential.???

When it comes to strategy development for SMEs, customization is key to sustainable and impactful business growth. ?

So as to fully engage your people in the process, starting with your Purpose in mind, build out a strong and compelling Vision for your business. In addition, the most successful businesses have clear and compelling values which influence and guide the behaviours of everyone across the organisation. ?

Purpose, Vision and Values; these 3 building blocks are key to setting up what needs to happen next. ?

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Understanding Your Business: Uncovering Strengths and Challenges.?

Not always easy but there is a need for some critical self-examination here.??

What are we really good at? A client we were speaking with recently is asking “what can we be the best in the world at?”. This is a fantastically ambitious jumping-off point for this conversation.??

What are the areas for improvement???

This process not only defines the destination (our “North Star”) but also lays out the roadmap for the journey ahead, ensuring that the path taken is tailored to the company's specific situation.??

This is about asking the hard questions.???

When looking to define that end point (where do we want to be??), it’s crucial that data is put at the centre of all discussions. We often see people bringing “opinion” and “feeling” into these discussions.

But does the data back-up what is being said? ????

Based on what we have agreed is the North Star, do we have everything we need to get there? In terms of operations, skills, technology, finance. If there are gaps, what are they and what are the plans to fill these gaps???

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Building the roadmap??

This process is all about building a roadmap for the future of your business. Its’s not a report to be pulled out as a reminder of what we said the strategy was. It starts with understanding where you are now and clearly defining where you want to go. And it’s really important that this is a team exercise. Irrespective of what your Leadership Team looks like, everyone needs to input to this.??

It needs to be “our” strategy for the business.????

Having defined the high-level strategy, you now need to put some work into building out functional strategies.???

What is the Operational strategy?

The Sales & Marketing Strategy?

The People strategy?

The Technology strategy????

What is your business doing in terms of ESG and the whole area of sustainability (not a separate “strategy” but something which needs to run right across your entire business).????

All of these must align and link back up to the overarching “umbrella” strategy.??Without this alignment, at some stage things will veer off course, and our North Star is now at risk.???

We often see companies starting this process at what we consider to be the wrong place. You can’t jump straight in to define the Sales strategy, for example, in isolation from the overall strategy of the business and those parallel functional strategies.

There are significant interdependencies across these “pillars”. This is why the alignment is so important.???

As you build out the functional strategies, you set clear goals and action plans, making sure everyone knows the part they are playing, and how this feeds into the overall growth plans for the business. Regular, structured two-way communication is a key part of getting all of this right.????

When clients ask us to get involved in conversations like this, we will always look to explore what they want the business to look and feel like. Yes, the strategies and plans are absolutely vital but how are we going to run this business?

How will we be structured? What are the processes and routines we will need to make sure everything works? What behaviours do we expect of each other as a team? How will we be accountable to each other for what we are committing to do????

In conclusion, growth is the lifeblood of any ambitious business, but it requires a strategic approach, tailored to the unique/nuanced circumstances of the business.???

It needs to be a collaborative exercise involving more than “the boss”. It needs to be “our” strategy so everyone feels a sense of ownership and responsibility for making it happen.??????

At 3SIXTY , we partner with the most ambitious Irish companies to deliver their full growth potential.

To find out more about 3SIXTY, visit www.3SIXTY.ie or get in touch via LinkedIn.