A business strategy done right seems deceptively simple. Yet you can bet that there are Ph.D. candidates at the Eller College of Management completing their theses on the topic.
According to Tim Berry, Small Business Association guest blogger and founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software and bplans.com, “Strategy is what you’re not doing. My favorite metaphor is the sculptor with a block of marble — the art is what he chips off the block, not what he leaves in. Michelangelo started with a big chunk of marble and chipped pieces off of it until it was his David. Strategy is focus.“
He advises that there are three integrated parts to setting a good business strategy:
1 Identity โ Your business is unique. Think about everything that makes you different. Thatโs identity. What are your strengths and weaknesses? What is your core competence? What are your goals? For example, consider the difference between a bicycle store owned by a former professional bike racer and one owned by a couple with children who like bicycling as a family activity.
2 Market โ Focus on your specific target market. That bike racer shop owner knows that his products are too expensive for the families. The family bike shop would scare away its target market with expensive racing bikes.
3 Offering โ Product and or service โ The bike shops mentioned above each stock very different inventory. Thatโs strategy at work. Your identity, market and choice of product have to work together.
Understand that you canโt do everything. The bike shop that caters to families and racers is likely to fail. Identity, market and offering: Donโt take them one at a time. Donโt ever stop thinking about them. Remember, in planning as well as in all of business, things change.
Keep watching for change.
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