Good planning is the starting point for everything, both in our personal and, especially, professional lives. We plan to buy a property, a car, or a dream trip, and in our business routine we also have to plan where the company wants to go in the short, medium and long term and what needs to be done to achieve it.
This is where the importance of carrying out good business strategic planning comes in . Although essential for management, the business plan still keeps many managers awake at night. And this happens basically for three reasons:
1. Lack of business knowledge
2. Difficulty in keeping up with market trends
3. Failure to consolidate the interests of all areas of planning
One way to organize the company's strategic opportunities is with the support of specific tools. Some examples are:
SWOT CROSS-ASPECT ANALYSIS: This is a matrix that helps identify albania whatsapp data the business's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is essential for drawing up realistic plans and analyzing the current business scenario. The use of this tool becomes even more consistent if you can cross-reference this information with your company's mission, vision and values.
See how to perform the cross-references to generate insights for good analyses:
Offensive Strategy: Strength vs. Opportunity (SO)
The offensive strategy occurs when crossing how much a force contributes to taking advantage of an opportunity, aiming at growth and leveraging a positive business factor.
Let's imagine a hotel whose strengths include a brand that is recognized in the international market and the opportunity to host the World Cup and the Olympics in Brazil. In this case, the strategy it should use to boost its business would be to study the countries that bought the most tickets for the events and launch an international marketing campaign.
Confrontation Strategy: Strengths vs. Threats (ST)
In this type of strategy, strengths are compared with threats, with the aim of minimizing the chance of suffering from eventualities that may occur in the business. In the case of an agribusiness company, for example, the strengths may be high technology, premium products and large-scale production, and the main threat is the increase in the dollar exchange rate, which ends up inflating inputs.
Reinforcement Strategy: Weaknesses vs. Opportunities (WO)
The reinforcement strategy focuses on reducing the impacts of business weaknesses in order to take advantage of opportunities. In an auto parts industry that has a weak point in deficient logistics and an opportunity in the growth of the resale market, it is possible to review the logistics processes, increase the fleet and route deliveries. This way, you increase the chance of taking advantage of the sales opportunity for the resale market.
Defense Strategy: Weaknesses vs. Threats (WT)
Defensive actions are the most critical, as the company's exposure is high. Therefore, in this case, planning is essential to map out the most complicated situations of relevant weaknesses. We can take the example of a small company that cannot meet demand due to low production capacity and feels threatened by fierce competition from new products from competitors. In this case, the strategy is to seek to invest in the purchase of machinery, in product differentiation and in the search for new consumers with different demands.
Design Thinking: This methodology has been widely used in strategic planning meetings, especially by managers seeking an innovative approach to their business. Its main objective is to allow ideas to move from planning to practical application, encouraging the team to seek different angles and perspectives to solve problems through collaborative work.