The First Steps to Strategy

In a recent discussion with an employee of a firm, she complained that there was no consistent leadership. Chaos resulted from changing direction frequently. It seemed that the firm had a case of bipolar disorder. She confirmed my suspicion that there was no strategic plan.


Once a business knows what it is trying to do as we described in an earlier blog as the transformation process, the next step is to develop a strategy to perform that transformation. The strategy defines how the enterprise will go about making not just the transformation but how that process and the business it operates within will exist and survive in the marketplace.


Twenty years ago many businesses were having meetings to develop Vision, Mission, and Value statements. The lobbies of many companies today have framed versions hanging on the wall. Some of these statements are well thought out and others are just standard wording. These statements should serve as the jumping off point for a strategic plan on how the business will fulfill customer needs and wants. Briefly each statement answers a question.

• Vision – What will the business look like to the market place when it is successful many years in the future?

• Mission – What is the core business and why will the customer be compelled to use it as a supplier?

• Values – What basic principals of human interaction will the team adhere to in dealing with each other, customers, suppliers, and the community?
Based on these statements the enterprise establishes its overall goal and short, medium, and long term renditions of this goal. Only at this point can the strategies be defined which will lead to the achievement of the goals. It seems too simple but many firms are well on their journey before they realize that “Knowing where one wants to go is fundamental to any successful journey.” The business in the first paragraph is one of those. Although it has been in existence for years, direction shifts frequently because there is no set of goals clearly articulated and to be kept in mind as the target of any action to be taken. A goal is needed to support the fundamental screening question: “Will this action support the goal of the enterprise?”

The strategic plan is the collaborative glue that allows all the functional units of the enterprise to operate in unison. Without it the organization divides into functional silos which operate to achieve their own subjective, departmental goals. In most cases these sub-optimize the true goal of the entire enterprise.

To develop a strategy for an enterprise, it is necessary to have defined vision, mission, and value statements on which goals can be developed. Those goals serve as the targets in the strategic planning process. The enterprise wide strategic plan itself is the starting point for all subordinate functional plans within the organization. This process aligns the business and every action can ultimately meet the test: “Will this action support the goal of the enterprise?”