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FIRST BECOME A STRATEGIST, AND THEN WIN IN BUSINESS

By George Choongwa | 2019-09-21

I have come to understand that every successful business is dependent on what I can call a form of special force called strategy.

By definition, strategy is a Greek word which means a way of ‘doing something effectively and cost effectively at the same time’. It is not just having a plan, but it goes beyond to the level of execution and evaluation. In this regard, we can use this term in relation to managing a business.

Your business needs to be coded and wired in such a way that you as the general or commander in chief will not lose focus no matter the case. The word strategy was first used in war as it was the General’s determination of winning the battle or war.

Giving up too soon

Some people think starting and running a business is just a snap of a finger and all would go well the first time. We see them starting, with zeal setting up businesses and hoping that all will flow to their shops or business and have all things under control. They might have done the planning and setting up very well, but somehow down the line, once the business goes through a turbulence, they develop the shock of their lives and think of closing down. This is what we can call having ‘no form of maturity’ in business. Such kind of people can be referred to as being armature in the business environment whose only remedy would be that of invoking strategic thinking.

Dimensions of Strategic thinking

The term is not as easy to explain as it might sound because it deals with the combination of at least three things or traits namely: leader, practitioner, and theorist. Each of these roles requires a distinct set of skills and competencies if you are to make your business work for you. The leader provides the vision, inspiration, organisational skills, direction, and personal impetus necessary to enable others to act in a focused and coherent manner. In business, it is important to make sure that your employees or business partners had the same vision as yours. Do not be selfish and think that you are the boss. This is a grave a mistake and leads to serious trouble. Always think and believe in others you work with. Remember that your business partners were and could be as good as you, helping you to live and realise your vision and goal. So, don’t be selfish!

The practitioner thoroughly comprehends the levels of strategy and their relationships and develops strategy. He translates broad policy guidance into integrated strategies that lead to policy success. Though this might be some too technical, it is important to out that a good strategist is one who works on the notion of ensuring that the vision and aspiration were put into simple and actionable activities. Make sure that your business makes things easy for people.

Remember that businesses that solved problems in the societies remained relevant and sustainable compared to those which just focused on their personal or self-ambitions. In this manner, as a business person, make sure that if for example your business came up with a manner of doing things(a policy in this case), your job as a the owner or founder is now to ensure that you make life easy for others by providing excellent guidelines about how things should done.

The theorist develops theoretical concepts through study and thought and teaches and mentors others. A master of the strategic art is proficientin all three of these areas. Strategists function at different levels or in different roles given any situation, the interesting part of it is that they all need to understand comprehensive strategies and communicate them effectively among themselves and the customers as well. In other words, as a theorist, a business strategist must have a broader view of things. This only comes into picture by constantly expanding your mental abilities. Read as much as you can on issues of business, associate yourself with people of like mindness, pay and get training for you to become more effective on the same subject matter.

Mobilising resources

As we are talking of how a business can survive with a strategy in place, we need to realise the relevance of resource mobilisation.

It is relevant to point out that strategy provides a coherent blueprint to bridge the gap betweenthe realities of today and a desired future. It is the disciplined calculation of overarching objectives, concepts, and resources with inacceptable bounds of risk to create more favorable future outcomes than might otherwise exist if left to chance or the hands of others.

The point I am trying to put across is that the manner in which we apply our resources counts a lot in the business in terms of how we are going to achieve the desired results in a specific strategic environment over time.

In the context of a business, strategy is the employment of specific resources to gain a competitive edge so that your business can remain afloat. In this regard make sure that you analyse three things namely the profit side of things; secondly environment or industry in which your business is; and the future.

Start thinking cleverly

However, most people only think strategy is about profit and loss; hence they focus on traditional things like discounts, price reduction, special offers, etc.

They forget that such things were useful during the emergent of various industries way back then, but now things have changed and a cleverly articulation of things is what would make any business survive.

This is based on the understanding that while the future cannot be predicted, the strategic environment can be studied, assessed, and to varying degrees, anticipated and manipulated.

Only withproper analysis can trends, issues, opportunities, and threats be identified, influenced, shaped through what our business eventually chooses to do or not do. So always ensure that you need to first become a strategist, and then you can do business.

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