What is Strategy?
Organisations come in all sizes, from the one-man consultant working from a shared office space to corporations with their own tower building in the business district. But no matter our size or what environment we operate in, it is likely to be the case that not everything is within our control. That means we are always operating amidst uncertainty, those factors that can disrupt our goals.
The best way to deal with this uncertainty is to plan for it. The best way to increase our chances of achieving our goals is to have a strategy that serves as a vital reference point, defines our direction, and provides a clear roadmap that can adapt to change and inevitable shifts in the external environment.
Leaders who don’t strategise or nurture a culture of strategic thinking are often easy to spot. They have familiar characteristics. They fall into short-term thinking, get caught off guard by change, make emotion-based decisions, and find themselves outflanked by more focused rivals.
Businesses operate in an adaptive dynamic system, and those businesses without a strategy are usually the first to be exposed when the system changes. So, in a world of accelerating disruption, strategy is how we stay grounded and how we move forward with confidence.
Some strategies are carefully designed in advance while others tend to emerge through experience. Strategic clarity is not the sole preserve of senior corporate leaders. It is just as important a tool for the independent consultant or the high street cafe owner. Often, it evolves through experimentation, workshops, feedback, and course correction carried out in real time. But every business needs one, and everybody in the team has something to contribute to the group’s strategic direction, and should.
Experienced business professionals will tell you that it is so much less painful to think through all of the potential risk factors before commencing business than having to find out the hard way later down the line.