Strategy is the competitive moves and business approaches to grow the business, create a market position, attract and satisfy customers, compete successfully, conduct operations, and achieve objectives.
When creating a strategy, you can use a number of different actions:
- Gain sales and market share through lower prices, more performance and features, better quality, or attractive design
- Diversify into new businesses
- Strengthen competitive capabilities and shore up competitive weaknesses
- Define how management will handle the key activities of the organization.
- Look for new market opportunities and defend against threats
- Create strategic alliances and collaborative partnerships
- Establish a Merger or Acquisition with your rival
- Enter new product markets
- Respond to changing market conditions and external circumstances
Your strategy should aim to create a product or service that stands out from what your competitors offer or to develop competitive capabilities that they cannot match. A powerful strategy can make you distinctive, tipping the playing field in your favor by creating a sustainable competitive advantage.
The strategy should combine both proactive actions to improve your market position and financial performance, and reactions to unforeseen market developments and conditions. Most of their current strategy stems from previous trading approaches that work well enough to merit launching a new initiative to strengthen overall positions and performance.
All strategic plans should be viewed as a work in progress. Changing circumstances and market conditions cause a strategy to emerge and change over time. The strategy must be considered temporary results that respond to market changes and constant experimentation and modifications. A winning strategy must fit with the external and internal situation of the organization, generate a sustainable competitive advantage and improve performance.