Developing A Vision-Focused Corporate Strategy
As an experienced leader, you’re constantly evaluating and creating business strategies that will bring your organization closer to its goals. Whether this is budgeting adjustments, moving into new markets, or evaluating resource allocation, your strategic decisions affect the whole company. So it’s important they are always moving you one step closer to the organization you want to be.
Allowing a vision to guide your decisions is an easy way to do this. A corporate vision establishes not only what your company thinks is most important, but also where it’s going. It supports your business goals and informs key initiatives. It keeps team members focused and gives stakeholders confidence. But above all, it makes strategic planning a whole lot easier.
Why Start with a Vision?
Your vision is more than a nicely worded motto. If your strategy is a roadmap, your vision is the clearly defined destination for your organization. It gives you something to work toward so you can forge your path toward a successful end. After all, you’ll never finish a journey unless you know where you’re going. That’s why every successful corporate strategy starts with a clear vision.
At Building Champions, we believe it’s about results and relationships. Your competitive advantage isn’t just about having the lowest prices or most sustainable packages; it’s also about the people who work for you. A vision makes it easier to reach strategic goals by inspiring your team. It helps you determine the best way to use each member’s talents effectively, which creates a healthy, happy culture in your organization.
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Four Components of Corporate Strategy
A corporate strategy can address a number of different business aspects—diversification, partnerships, sustainability, value creation, you name it. But no matter what growth areas you’re targeting, the process of creating an effective strategy is the same.
Create Your Vision
We coach our clients to try to create a “3B Vision”. (Belong, Become, Build.) Each B addresses a different portion of your organization from the people to the plan, which will help you establish a clear vision for the future.
To craft each section of your vision, there is a question you should ask yourself:
What are you asking people to belong to? This includes your organization’s purpose and convictions. Think about what your company stands for and how it communicates that through its culture and operations.
Who are you going to become together? Envision the future you want for your organization. Determine how you want to serve your clients and how your team will be part of that process.
What will you build together? Here you need to list out your compelling ambitions. Those goals that seem so big they make your palms sweat. You don’t need to know exactly how you’ll reach them yet, but setting your sights on a goal will help everyone move forward together.
As you answer each of these questions, you’ll start to develop a picture of what you’d like your company to look like 5-10 years down the road. This picture will guide your decision-making as you move through the next three steps of creating a vision.
Set Objectives
Once you’ve established your vision, you can start working on growth strategies. To do this, you need to identify 3-5 strategic objectives to focus on over the next 3-5 years. Choose objectives that will help you realize your vision over time. To accomplish each objective, break it down into smaller chunks.
For each objective, create a one-year goal. This might target the individual, team, or corporate level. Next, you need to make a plan to reach this goal. The plan will guide your short-term goals, actions, and decisions.
Now, you’ll break down your annual goal even further. Set quarterly goals and objectives to keep you on track throughout the year. These will help you track progress and measure success.
Always refer to your vision when setting objectives, whether long or short term, to ensure your decisions reflect your destination. This is the easiest way to see if your plans and investments align with where you want your organization to go.
Allocate Resources
Resource allocation is an important component in the strategic management of existing business. Some leaders get distracted by evaluating new technology or finding opportunities for vertical integration, and they forget their most valuable resource—team members.
People are at the heart of every organization. A motivated staff brings energy and productivity to the workplace that can help a company reach its goals in record time. When you consider resource allocation, think about where you can utilize your existing team members most effectively; whether or not you need more staff; and if there are opportunities to cross-train team members among departments.
The most important aspect of being a successful leader is knowing how to empower and motivate your team. Investing in their skills and their future is a great way to make them feel like they belong to something meaningful and can help make it even better.
Choose Strategic Trade Offs
Every decision you make toward your vision will have a trade-off between risk and return. That’s the nature of business. The key is to strategically balance each choice you make so they culminate in a net positive for your organization and move you closer to your desired future.
This isn’t to say you should casually pursue risky endeavors. Your staff will perform best and shareholders will be happiest when they feel safe and confident in the organization. For that reason, it’s important to mitigate risk when possible.
There will inevitably be times when avoiding a significant risk just isn’t feasible. In those cases, communication with your team is key. Clearly explain why you chose to pursue the decision, despite the risks, and your intended outcomes. Let your team know how this will benefit both them and the organization and how it will move everyone closer to realizing your vision.
On the other hand, you should also be looking for opportunities that will create the highest returns. This could be a capital investment, a merger with another company, or a differentiation strategy. To help you achieve some of these objectives, consider developing your team’s leadership skills so each member can take on more responsibility. The greater contribution each individual can make, the more likely you are to achieve the returns you’re aiming for.
Vision Casting Executive Retreat
Get your executive team aligned around your business vision including your purpose, convictions, and goals for the future.
We’ll Help You See Clearly
Each phase of developing a corporate strategy returns to your vision. It’s at the heart of everything your organization strives to achieve and guides the path that takes you there.
Building Champions offers a range of services, such as leadership development coaching, workshops, and executive retreats that help you hone your vision and develop a winning business strategy. All of our coaches have experience in senior leadership and know firsthand how important it is to balance the little things with the big picture to create one cohesive plan for success.
The first step to a successful corporate strategy is a clear vision. Let us help you evaluate your goals and create a vision that will guide your company to success. Contact us today to get started.
