Strategy Sets the Scene for Growth

As the world economy improves, businesses will again aspire to grow.

During the recession, businesses have been in survival mode, grabbing revenue from wherever they can, to make sure they can meet their overheads. Clearly, it's crucial to maintain cash flow and remain solvent, or there won't be a business to run when the recession is over.

But this approach is reactive, not strategic. Taking whatever business is available does nothing for your strategic positioning. The business loses focus. It becomes bland and loses its competitive edge because it is not clearly differentiated from other suppliers. As businesses become more alike, the need to compete on price becomes greater. And the result of this is a downward spiral.

Strategy is your choice of how and where to compete. It determines the identity of your business and the direction in which it is headed. Strategy enables your business to compete on its own terms instead of being dragged into a price war by its competitors. Your strategy defines what you won't do as well as what you will do.

A strategy should be original, not a replica of someone else's approach. Your business achieves competitive advantage through a combination of (1) its unique strengths and (2) how it decides to use them. To really differentiate, you need to think creatively about both parts of this equation.

Your strategy establishes criteria for all of the business decisions which are to follow. A new strategy forces a break from entrenched habits and old ways of thinking.

If you're ready for growth, don't get stuck in precedent; get a strategy.