STRATEGY: THE FIRST-AID YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS

Every business is unique and different, and the primary aim for a business, start-up should be about proffering solutions and not just making profits. As a business man/woman never treat your business as a hustle, but rather an activity that you will be engaged in for a long time and enjoy doing, that is why you have to treat it with a sense of importance.

What then is STRATEGY? Giving the memorized definition of strategy not be really applicable here. Strategy is more than planning with the advancement of technology, it is more than consistency in internet usage and planning to prevent all that is affecting businesses, although it all completes the larger concept of what areas of a business you should plan for.

Strategy refers to a structured sequence of decision-making processes that guide business operations. It encompasses the overarching goal, aim and purpose of an enterprise, as well as its mission, plan and objectives. For instance, basically every entrepreneur wants to make money and have a successful business, STRATEGY answers the question “HOW”.

So How Do You Develop a Business Strategy?

This is done by simple goal setting and making plans to achieve those goals. Simple said, right?

Developing a business strategy doesn't get easier than that, good old fashioned sit and planning session with yourself and your team as the case maybe. As stated earlier, a business should be geared towards providing solutions and not so much toward making profit (although you should plan for that too), I say this because when you have the right offer presented to the right audience the money will surely come. That being said the best way to go about this is to find a problem, create the right product or system in meeting that need and watch the magic (it’s going to require some effort though, a lot of it probably). “Your strategy is what allows you to allocate all resources for business activities and guides your daily decisions (FateFoundation, KPMG,2020)”.

Now, let’s assume you have a business already and you want to start developing a strategy, you just have to review your initial goal of the business and your present position.

Taking football as a momentary example, Chelsea wants to play against Manchester United. Both managers of the team do their analysis; what has been the recent form of both teams lately? Then they look at their team, pick out their best players, pick a formation that suits them, they also check their form to see which players have been performing well lately. Because sometimes a team may have a good player who has not been in good shape in recent games, his performance being below average. Taking him out of the formation and selecting another player for his spot would be the best thing to do for the team. So the combined decision of the players and the formation would determine each sides playing pattern, which could be either;

(i)                 DirectPlay,

(ii)              Counterattack,

(iii)            Possession football or,

(iv)             Long ball

And this is a summation of their "STRATEGY".

So, just like the coach has decided upon his "strategy", that will determine how the match will be played by his team, so also is your "Business Strategy". It determines how you run your business. You just have to come up with a strategy that can carry the ambitions of your business, a plan that makes it competitive and profitable because every coach goes into a match to win, so you are starting a business to win.

 

THE X AND Y OF BUSINESS STRATEGY

 

In general, the business strategy can be said to contain these two factors, “Vision and Mission”. Your vision is the core purpose or the end goal for that business. Your mission on the other hand are the plans you have put in place to achieve that vision.

Generally, in choosing a strategy for your business, it has to be something that is adaptable, flexible, something that can adapt or change with trends and seasons. Nigeria as a case study, we wake up to different changes every day; issues like, change in dollar rate, new laws and policies being implemented, announcement being made and the sorts. So you need to have a strategy that can adapt, so that you don't have to keep changing business every time there's a change in the business environment, you need something flexible, and adaptable to navigate and keep up with the times. So your strategy has to be very inclusive, keep an open mind when creating a business strategy.

Finally, for existing businesses or start-ups as the case may be, even those still in the formative stage, now that you have come up with your goals and strategy, in most cases it's advisable to consult with a professional for validation and checks. The professional could be an expert in that business you've chosen or just a good business analyst, and doing this is just to be 100% sure. Statistics shows that: “90% of disruptive start-ups and about 31% of businesses fail between the first two years of existing”. This could be attributed to several reasons like:

1.      Business owners fail to plan.

2.      Setting unrealistic goals.

3.      Having high expectations without proper planning

4.      Not understanding the business environment.

5.      Business owners lack the necessary knowledge.

6.      Lack of finance, to scale the business.

Even the Bible says; "my people perish for lack of knowledge". They say; knowledge is power and information is key, so you need both to make a well informed strategy.

In conclusion, take a look at the present situation of some clubs in Europe; if a book was to be written about Barcelona it would likely be titled "The End of an Era", while Real Madrid is gradually becoming the youngest super squad in Europe (more like the TEEN-TITANS of Justice League] Paris Saint Germain having done all to stand, still can't win the Champions League, Italy is no longer been ruled by the "OLD LADIES", Bayern Munich has now become like Chelsea with the recent manager hiring and firing rate. Halland was the missing piece to Guardiola's Champions League with Manchester City, Arsenal still thinks they are a player away from winning the Premier League, and then there's Chelsea which said to itself "everything is fair in love and war" and that started a fast downward swirl, and let's not forget the “Legends”, Manchester United that obviously needs to hold a joint therapy session for both staff and players, maybe changes can come from there. In summary it is just a series of good and bad choices.

This been said, your strategy must on that is flexible and adaptable to change, ever evolving. It is said, “you can’t keep doing same thing and expect a different result”. 

 

References

Fate Foundation, & KPMG (2021). STRATEGY (The Nigerian entrepreneur’s Handbook)

Tracy, B. (2005). Something for Nothing

William, H. C. phd. (2009). How to Make it Big as a Consultant