🎯 Business Strategy Analysis: How to Improve Business Processes 📊
I was once asked to conduct an analysis of a business strategy. They gave me a document, saying that it was a business development strategy. After looking at it, I saw that there was no strategy in it, at least not in the classical understanding of what it is. In fact, they gave me a regular report on the work done and a few fantasies about how good it would be to have something in the future.
I see such “strategies ” often. Many quite sincerely mean business strategy by similar documents and believe that they have really prepared it. Many people cannot be wrong, so I decided to figure out what was going on. As a result, I came to the conclusion that I was shown a strategy, but not for business development, but for “keeping in the chair.”
The developers of the business development strategy replaced it with a strategy for keeping themselves in the “chair”. It is hard to say whether they did it consciously or subconsciously. But in fact, their “strategy” has almost no words about how to develop a business and make it more profitable. But it has a lot that makes the developers of the strategy look like people the company needs.
Why Conduct a Business Strategy Analysis
A business strategy is a powerful tool that is a “business development map”. It shows a clear path from point “A”, where the business is now, to point “B”, where the business should be in some time. Strategy is also a motivation tool, acting as a “magic kick” that does not allow you to relax.
The analysis process determines how correctly the route from point “A” to point “B” was chosen. Business strategy analysis is an important event, which is one of the integral stages of its development. It allows you to exclude the “human factor” from the strategy and thereby increase its effectiveness. The analysis process determines how correctly the route from point “A” to point “B” was chosen, whether it is optimal and whether the company can handle it.
Strategy does not imply self-expression. It is based on a clear algorithm that must be followed 100%. If the algorithm is not followed, the result will be anything but a strategy. As practice shows, in 95% of cases, the strategy contains “self-expressions of the author”, which must be excluded, which is why its analysis is needed.
How is a business strategy analysis carried out?
Strategy begins with a vision, which is an image of the future and its possibilities for business. The clearer the vision, the clearer the image of the future, the better the resulting strategy. It is very important to conduct a thorough analysis of the vision to determine how much of it is reality and how much is the “wish list” and fantasies of developers.
Based on the vision, an action plan is developed that will allow the realization of emerging opportunities based on available resources and goals, as well as based on the state of the economy, the market, and the activity of competitors. Moreover, a plan is prepared on how to get into the future not for an individual author of the strategy, but for the company or organization as a whole.
A real, actual business strategy is a document that clearly describes how to develop a business, make money, and get the desired result. The analysis of the business strategy showed that there is a vision in it, but of a different kind – personal. Its essence is that the developer looked into the future and saw that he was in danger of being fired. He did not want to be left without a job and bear responsibility, so he gave birth to a kind of “business strategy”, but in fact just a self-presentation of what a wonderful person he is.
A real, actual business strategy is a document that clearly describes how to develop a business, make money, and get the desired result. The document presented to me is a pseudo-strategy, or in other words, a document that covers the author's “butt” and shows that without it the company will not only not be able to develop, it will close down altogether.
Who conducts business strategy analysis?
A real strategy gives hope for the future and money to the company, a pseudo-strategy gives hope for the future and money to the “strategist”. If the owner of the company does not want someone to make money at his expense, he must contact a specialist who will conduct an analysis of the business strategy. It should be conducted by a qualified and impartial expert.
Only an expert can remove the maximum human factor from a business strategy. Only an expert who knows exactly what a business strategy is and how it is developed can make a quality assessment of it. Only an expert can not only evaluate a strategy up and down, analyze every letter and comma, but also give it a total assessment. Only an expert can remove the maximum human factor from a business strategy.
Business strategy analysis is an investment of time and money. However, the losses caused by a pseudo-strategy are usually thousands and millions of times greater than the costs required to conduct the analysis. Business strategy is a bet. Whether it will play or not depends only on how good it is. Need help determining the quality of a strategy? Contact us.