Understanding the Basics of Strategy Development

Updated June 24, 2022

When establishing or growing a business, it is important to have a clear plan for how to achieve your goals. Understanding how to improve your company’s growth can help it operate efficiently and productively.

In this article, we will define strategy development and provide steps and examples to help develop your own strategy.

What is strategy development?

Strategy development is a company’s plan to achieve consistent growth. This technique lists detailed data and objectives that describe how your team plans on accomplishing each goal. You will also list the vision and mission of the company in your strategy to ensure each team member works toward the same goals. Thorough research may be necessary to come up with new ideas, and the entire process may take several months.

Why develop a strategy for business?

When managing a company, it is often necessary to reevaluate your approaches to products and services. Whether you’re in a small business or large corporation, your organization’s growth will depend on staying up to date with market trends and your competitors’ services. You will also want to examine the current state of your company, how it’s grown and how well it adheres to your mission statement. Once you have all of this information, create a strategy for further growth that ensures your business operates at its full potential.

How to develop a business strategy

Here are several steps to follow to create a strategy:

Create a vision statement.
Look at past experiences.
Define your mission.
Research the competition.
Define employee roles.

1. Create a vision statement

One of the first steps you should take is to create a vision statement that defines your company’s values and objectives. Your vision statement should state your ultimate goals and clearly state them to team members. For example, your vision statement could state that you want to be your region’s leading electronics retailer in three years.

2. Look at past experiences

One of the best ways to improve your company is by looking at previous projects. Your team could make a list of the most successful projects and what made them so effective. Noting these factors can help plan future projects. You should also consider reviewing projects that did not have the desired outcome and listing what you would improve next time.

3. Define your mission

A company’s mission statement defines its primary purpose, usually in more detail than a vision statement. You can create both short-term and long-term goals to work towards your main objectives. For example, you could describe what value you provide, who the target audience is and the steps you need to take to achieve your goals. Consider making these as detailed as possible to understand exactly what you are working towards.

4. Research the competition

One way to come up with a business strategy is to look at your competition. Make a list of your top competitors and write down what you believe is leading to their success. Base your strategy on this to ensure you stay competitive. If you work in a competitive field, you could add value to your brand by introducing a new product or service that no one else currently offers.

5. Define employee roles

Each employee on your team should contribute to reaching company goals. Assigning each person specific tasks ensures everyone knows expectations for their performance. For example, you could tell one employee that you would like them to create a monthly financial report due on the first of every month. You may want to go over the strategic plan several times to make sure there are no unassigned tasks.

Strategy development examples

Here are three examples of strategy development:

Increase your company’s sales

Strategy development is helpful when you want to become a sales leader. One of the first steps is to look at trends in historical data to find the best time of year for sales. You could also review any previous marketing strategies to see how effective they were. Once you have this data, you may have a better understanding of what worked well in the past and what you can improve.

Your company can then set strategic goals, such as 500 sales in the next year or $50,000 in profits in the next six months. Specific goals are often more attainable because you can create a strategy with clear individual steps.

Improve customer service feedback

Another strategy development goal may be to improve the ratings your customers give the customer service department. Compile all the feedback received in the past two years and put it into charts. Separate the feedback by general ratings and detailed comments. Customer comments may take longer to go through, so consider assigning employees to help with these.

For example, if you notice a large number of customers say they feel their issue was not resolved, develop a strategy to improve these ratings by offering extra training. You could also create a strategy for maintaining positive feedback by offering employee incentives for outstanding customer reviews.

Add more services

Strategy development can apply to any company. It may involve a landscaping company that wants to add more services. There might be several other landscaping businesses in the area that offer lawn mowing, landscaping maintenance, weeding and fertilizer. They offer prices similar to your company, so you want to find a way to stand out to local customers. You need to do something to stand out.

You might decide to add hydroseeding and pest control programs to your list of services, as no one else in the area performs those tasks. You may also survey your current customers to see what their needs are. Once you decide on what to add, your team can begin promoting them and evaluating their success after several quarters.