It’s been over three years since I launched The Product Sherpa, my coaching and consulting venture.
It all started with a simple idea: leverage my experience as an executive in the Tech Industry to help business and product leaders succeed.
I’ve been in these general managers’ and executives’ shoes. Yet, I didn’t realize how challenged many leaders are with their business vision and how to build a business strategy.
Having the right vision is essential. It is the foundation of any business as it sets your desired destination. It requires a disciplined approach, open communication, and a flexible mind.
But I won’t belabor how to set a vision for your business as I’ve written much about it in previous articles.
What still fascinates me is how challenged some leaders can be regarding how they’ll be executing that vision. In other words, how they’ll set up their strategy.
Let me dive into this and share how I’m typically helping these leaders successfully tackle their strategy.
Clarity over Roles
First and foremost, we clarify our respective roles. As a consultant, I’m here to help you create that strategy by asking yourself the right questions, enlisting the right talent, and effectively planning.
Yet, creating the strategy for your business is the inescapable responsibility of the leader in charge. Be it a company, business unit, or product line, you, as the leader, need to develop that critical skill and own your strategy.
What Strategy Is Not
Next comes the inevitable confusion over what a business strategy truly is.
It’s not unusual to hear from executives that their strategy is to build the best product in the industry, help their customers accomplish x, or grow the business 50%.
It’s all fine, but not what a business strategy is.
The Key Questions
A business strategy is the answer to concrete questions that include:
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- Who your target audiences are, and what they’re trying to accomplish
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- The critical problems they need to solve that you are uniquely positioned to address
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- What you uniquely offer vs. the competition and what you don’t
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- The resources and capabilities you need to deploy to deliver on your unique proposition
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- How you’ll sustain your competitive advantage and keep making a profit
The questions sound simple. Yet, it can be challenging to get the answers as they require objectively discovering your uniqueness.
Traps To Avoid
You can’t go after everyone on this planet. Your business needs a defined target audience with real problems and willing to pay for their resolution.
You can’t be content with just being better than your competitors. You have to nail down the unique proposition to make you stand out.
As necessary as they are, best practices won’t make you win. They’re more table stakes, and you’ll need to work hard on how differentiated your resources and capabilities have to be to deliver on your uniqueness.
And yes, it’s all very dynamic. So, if you’ve cracked that code once and built a profitable business, get ready for trouble down the line. Competitors will go after you and try to “steal” your share. Don’t deny it; be prepared for the fight.
I’m just scratching the surface here. The process can take time, and we use multiple tools to help address these questions in more depth, leaving no stone unturned.
As importantly, we’re constantly trying to challenge conventional logic. Considering a vast array of scenarios and outcomes will force you to consider contrarian points of view and likely generate approaches that your competitors will miss.
So, ask yourself these questions when defining your business strategy. And if you’re still struggling and need help, you can reach out.