What makes a strong business strategy

There are so many myths and methods surrounding the topic of "strategy" that it is a real challenge for any CEO or division head to keep track of the essentials.

If I ask three CEOs what they want to achieve with a strategy - in other words, why they need one - I get at least four different answers. In other words, it's often not clear what makes a good strategy in the first place.

The result: countless folders and file servers full of presentations and documents that all contain some kind of detail, but often do not add up to a consistent whole.

If you then try to roll out such a "strategy", it usually gets stuck at the first contact with the team - i.e. those who have to drive the implementation for the most part.

From my experience, there are three important characteristics that distinguish a strong strategy from a mediocre or useless one:

1. Ambition. I always say, "If you want to improve just a little, you don't need a strategy, you need a plan." One doesn't have much to do with the other. A strategy is particularly necessary if you have ambitious goals. Let's say it the other way around: a strong strategy always has an ambitious vision as its basis.
2. Clear and simple. Most strategies I see are far too unclear and complicated. A strategy that no one understands or where you can't see the essentials because of all the details is pointless. Strong strategies are always characterized by great clarity and simplicity. This, in turn, is not easy to achieve.
3. Relevance to the team. Every strategy must be implemented by people in your company. And they will only do so if they see a relevance for it. Abstract goals that only mean something to the board - if at all - miss their mark. Hardly anyone will then commit to their implementation and be ready for change.

So, there you have the three most important characteristics of strong business strategies. In practice, from my experience, this is not easy to achieve.

If you want to create a strong strategy that really makes a difference in implementation, contact me with the keyword "strategy" and we'll look at it together.