Business strategy: How you should do it

Many companies and organisations feel that the outcome of their business strategy work turns out as massive slide decks updated once a year. ​I say that you need no more than four slides as the foundation of your business. Below I explain how to get there, and you can download the three suggested templates to use for your business strategy.

Most of our clients use four one-pagers as their business strategy, including the needed and complementing documents. Most of our clients know that there is a massive difference between a business strategy and the plans created to fulfil the business strategy.

Your business strategy is your company's or organisation's main steering document. And all your plans should be created based on the business strategy, the prioritisations, the main roadmap and the guiding principles. ​

Your business strategy should be present in your daily work and decision making, and it should be reviewed quarterly.

How you should create your business strategy

Collect the facts

To decide where you're heading, you should find out where you are right now. So before you progress with the business strategy, you should review the past performance and the current situation. Look at each main area of the business and determine what worked well, what needs to be improved, and how that should happen. Also, identify the main opportunities and possible gaps.

Skip the SWOT-analysis

Bound the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. Most people have been engaged in these exercises for ages, and they are still unsure what to put where and how to use it in the business strategy and the daily work.

Create a business strategy

Now create the business strategy, and it should include the vision, purpose, mission, positioning, target groups and the main objectives.

The main prioritisations

Based on the business strategy, you decide and formulate the main prioritisations.

The roadmap

When the prioritisations are all set, you build the roadmap and divide it into the main areas or sections.

The guiding principles

The last thing to do is to create the guiding principles that encompass your beliefs and values. These principles are there to guide your organisation on how to behave and handle all circumstances that hold impact.

Involvement

Involve the right people to make sure you’re collecting the most relevant information. Also, be transparent when you create it and make it accessible for everyone when it is finalised.

How much time does it take

To run this process and to create these steering documents would typically take a couple of days for a global B2B company. For companies doing this yearly, the strategy work is a natural part of their way of working.

Feel free to download the templates below. And when you have finalised those, the rest is easy, start creating plans for each prioritisation - and follow up at least monthly.

If you feel that you want support to understand or guidance on how to get going, get in touch or book a meeting.