What is Strategy?

Individuals and businesses are constantly confronted with choices of various sets of actions, and each set of actions carries different implications for the future. Consciously or unconsciously, every businessperson makes choices between one set of actions over another, and even the decision NOT to choose one action over another. A strategy is a roadmap (plan) to the company's future.

Management's Three Strategic Tasks

Management's first strategic task is to define the business in two parts. Management starts by developing a strategic vision that spells out the direction in which the company is heading. The second part of defining the business is to describe what the company will do to make a profit (WHAT needs will the company serve? WHO will have those needs? WHAT products or services will be offered?) Many businesses go astray by adopting a generic vision or mission statement. Business and Ecology Consulting can help you avoid these and other dead ends. For help building a better roadmap, click here.
Management's second task is to establish objectives for the company. Objectives are performance targets defined using the SMART template, thus substituting a data-driven process for ad-hoc decision-making. SMART objectives should be both financial and strategic. A strategic objective could be to increase market share; the corresponding financial objective could be to achieve 20 percent revenue growth.
Management's third strategic task is crafting the strategy that will make the strategic vision a reality and achieve financial and strategic objectives. Crafting the strategy tells HOW the company will win and retain customers; build a sustainable competitive advantage; and conduct its operations. This is the company's business model. 

Tools for Strategic Analysis

Five Forces Model
The Five Forces Model is a powerful analytic tool characterizing the main competitive pressures in any market. The Five Forces Model can reveal potential strategies for competing, as well as whether to compete at all. A solid understanding of the Five Forces Model can help you build the strongest business case for your venture. To see how the Five Forces Model can benefit your business or practice, click here.

Tools for Selecting the Right Customer Base
Once you've been successful with offering your product or service in your chosen market segment, how do you continue to grow? There are two basic approaches. You can scale up your business to a larger market segment, or you can increase your share of the market you've already. Each approach has advantages and disadvantages.  The following table rates the desirability of various options. Business and Ecology Consulting can help you make the right choice for your business.

Customer Offering	Existing market	New market
Existing offering	Market penetration strategy (# 1)	(#3) Cross selling
New offering	Line Extension (# 2)	(# 4) Market entry

Strategy Tools for Sustainable Competitive Advantage 

Strategic Competitive Advantage
Does your business have an offering or service that is difficult or expensive to duplicate? If your product or service creates a barrier to market entry by potential followers, it could help your business to take market share from your competitors. To learn more about identifying and exploiting strategic competitive advantages, click here.

Managing Customer Relationships.
Do you know who is your most important customer? Do you know how good your customers think you are at meeting their wants and needs? What do you want your customers to rate as your market leading attribute? Your next most important attribute? Can you afford to be just "acceptable" at anything? To start learning more, click on Customer Relevance Hierarchy.