Sunday, April 19, 2015

What is the business strategy? (first term)

When it comes to strategy, people tend to relate to the mission, vision of the business. Actually not so. The mission and vision of the business, although always be included as part of the strategy, but it does not provide a clear direction for the operation of the business.



The strategy is the creation of a unique position and value through the deployment of a system of different activities with what competitors perform. So a strategy of how to help enterprises build such a position in the market?

The elements of business strategy

A business strategy must have four elements: strategic objectives, scope strategy, competitive advantage and strategic activities and core competencies. Four factors requires a consistent and fit together.

Strategic Objectives

A strategy should begin by identifying the expected result that the business strategy is established to implement them. The strategic goal will serve to guide the operation of enterprises in a number of years.

Need to distinguish between strategic objectives with the mission, vision of the business. In fact, many companies tend to confuse objectives with corporate mission. The mission of the enterprise indicates the purpose or reason for being in the business so generalization is often high. Conversely, strategic objectives to ensure specific, quantitative and clear deadline.

The choice of what goals have great impact to the business. A business is profitable option strategic objectives will focus on serving the customer groups or market segments with high profit products with high added value or performance costs exceed costs excel. In contrast, the selection of target growth may lead firms to diversify product lines to attract more customers in different market segments.

The most important goal oriented business strategy to be profitable and sustainable. The strategic objective is usually measured by the rate of return on investment (ROI), but can also be measured by the rate of return on equity (ROE) or rate of return on assets (ROA). Enterprises can also take other objectives such as growth strategy, market share, quality, customer value ... The choice depends on the target industries and stages of development of each enterprise, but However now be very careful in selecting targets growth and value stocks or annual accounting profit making strategic objectives because it can lead now go towards sustainable development.

Scope strategy

An effective business strategy is not focused on satisfying all the needs of all market segments because if doing so now will be distributed resources and efforts. Therefore, enterprises need to set limits on customers, products, geographic area or industry value chain in order to have the focus and the best satisfy customer needs - it's strategic scope. The scope of the strategy does not necessarily describe exactly what to do, but now need to define and transfer staff will not do anything now. For example, a bank does not define credit to business customers found that volatile as steel, fertilizer. This is necessary so that middle managers do not spend too much time on the project which will then be dismissed because they did not fit the strategy.

Businesses can choose to focus on one or a few to meet the needs of many customers as:

- Focusing on the multiple needs of a small number of customers as in the case of Phuoc An offer many different products (shirts, trousers, ca-ra-beveled, suitcases, shoes ...) for business customers workers, workplaces with high incomes.

- Enterprises can also choose to focus on the needs of many customers in a narrow market sector.

The selection of the range should be based on the principles of market demand and now really really knowledgeable and able to meet the demand. Enterprises also need to avoid confrontation with the strongest competitors or are responsive to the needs of the customer.