So you’ve set your goals and realize that setting a mission and vision statement will not only give you a sense of direction, it will become the lifeline of your business, your pulse, and it will steer your business in the right direction.
Once these have been established what are the next steps?
First, get out the magnifying glass and zoom in. Start with a brainstorming session to assess your current situation. Include key people in this process but as I’ve mentioned in a previous article, this is not a top level approach, involve individuals that have direct contact with your stakeholders, this is how you will identify your ‘true’ situation internally and externally. You need to understand client perceptions, internal processes that are likely to hinder growth, challenges experienced by your employees, and any lurking misconceptions. Grasp your competition, what’s making them tick, what are they doing right, their challenges and drawbacks? This is eminent because you can create competitive advantage by turning their wrongs into your rights!
At this phase, market research is essential. Surveys, focus groups or interviews can help you identify your market positioning in terms of client expectations, organisational achievements and of course failures. Consumers are usually forthcoming, because they too want better services or products, so participation is high, but remember, incentivise your research participants, after all they doing you a favor!
Strategic tools such a SWOT analysis can assist in identifying your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Knowing these can refocus the organisation. If, for example, your weakness, based on your market research has indicated that your company has poor customer service, you can devise a strategy aimed at improving it. Knowing where you stand is necessary for your walk to success. A personal favorite of mine is the customer window tool, which catches various aspects of the customer perspective. It helps establish what the customer wants and doesn’t get. What the customer wants and gets, and what the customer doesn’t want but gets anyway! How often do we gloat about what we providing our customers, but have we asked them if that’s what they really care about? This is such an important tool, as it gets the customer to dissect the organisation. An equally important strategic analysis tool is the cause and effect diagram, which allows the organisation to identify problems and brainstorm on possible causes for the problems. There is always a solution for a problem!
The situation analysis is a time consuming process and should never be rushed. This is the foundation to setting objectives and tactics. Not only will you better understand your competition, buyer behavior, stakeholder expectations, staff perceptions and business processes, it is an opportunity to review your company from all directions and opens up potentially neglected areas that could turn fatal, if unattended to. A few businesses fail to grow because they don’t bother introspecting, meanwhile the consumer is evolving and the market dynamic changing, yet how do you adapt to change, if you don’t know where you fit in the bigger picture? This process may even spark new ideas, there just may be something that your customer wants but is not getting – a new service, or product, leading to innovative product creation. It’s amazing, how some companies tend to take on a ‘copycat’ approach. “Oh its working for them let me cash in”. Jump out of that bandwagon now! Talk to your target market, you will not only avoid reinventing the wheel, you’ll bring something new to the table – and voila! You have your unique selling proposition. The only thing left to do is avoid someone else ‘cashing in’ and doing it better than you. To do this, set objectives and tactics in your strategy that will make sure you remain the significant and leading player in the game!