How is your business strategy being implemented?

Do your employees understand your firm’s current goals? Is it viewed and updated often or is it tucked away at the bottom of your desk drawer? A business strategy is at the root of what your business is and where it is going, without it you may just end up going through the motions and wake up one day to find you are far behind where you want to be. Here are some key points about building a business strategy that will help ensure growth:

• “Vision without action is a daydream. Action with without vision is a nightmare.”- Japanese Proverb

Anyone who has managed people on any level can relate to that quote. The most important part of a strategy is actually having one. This goes beyond just having a list of goals. What are you doing to accomplish your goals? Are there specific plans of attack next to them? Is there a timeline? It’s not enough to have goals, you need specific plans to accomplish them. More over your strategy needs to be treated like it is important or else it won’t be. This means having it properly formatted and well put together, viewing it often, and keeping it in a safe place.

• “The result of bad communication is a disconnection between strategy and execution.” – Chuck Martin, former Vice President IBM

Your business strategy won’t mean a thing if you are the only one who knows about. Almost every employee should have an idea of where the business is going and how it intends to get there. Now this doesn’t mean you should share all your trade secrets, but it does mean creating internal messaging. Maintaining a consistent internal message within your organization keeps your whole team moving in the same direction: it provides purpose, focus and coordination. Without these employees won’t feel like they are “a part” of something and will go off in different directions. Cohesiveness goes a long way towards growing your business.

• “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”- Winston Churchill

When performance is measured performance improves. No matter how clever your strategy is for your current environment it can become useless if you are not paying attention. Even very well established corporations can suffer under the growing pains of changes in the market place (the internet is a great example of this). Update and refine your strategy, adjust your messaging, and you will be successful and stay successful.

By following this advice you can take your business strategy, make it a shared vision amongst your employees, keep track of it and make your goals become a reality. A business strategy, properly utilized, is the focus your employees will draw from and the plan you will use to keep driving forward.