Put simply, a strategy is a plan of action with the aim to achieve a long-term goal.
Why is a strategy important?
Cohesive alignment on goals is vital to success in all types of organisations – whether it be a community group, small business or large enterprise. Streamlining approaches, establishing a clear vision and being transparent with communication and overall strategic plans prevents organisations from wasting resources and having individual projects that don’t benefit the bigger picture. In the traditional organisational sense, strategies were business-centric. They were set around the need to make money and prove success through comparing revenue with competitors. With changing environments impacting the role businesses play within communities, it is important we start shifting to a stakeholder-centric strategy development.
So, what does this look like?
Essentially, every stakeholder you interact with as a business should be considered and feel connected to your overall strategy. Their support is vital to you achieving success as an organisation. Often when planning a strategy, businesses focus purely on internal stakeholders, however external entities play a larger role in a successful strategy than you make think. As the business landscape has shifted, and corporate social responsibility has become more and more prominent, building a connection to those outside the direct company with an aligned approach can only serve to benefit the organisation. Some of these key players include:
- Community
- Shareholders
- Employees
- Vendors
- Government
- Customers
So, how do we align stakeholders and strategy?
Purpose
Purpose in any business is found in its WHY. Finding your organisation’s reason for doing what you do is the best starting point for building your strategy and your goal to work towards. Communicating your purpose to stakeholders is key to creating connection between all your stakeholders and your strategy.
This ‘why’ can help you drive your strategic plans and determine paths to take when decisions are challenging. When communicated effectively, an organisation’s purpose can create value for all stakeholders. Mark Weinberger, CEO of EY, suggests that ‘for purpose to really matter, it needs to go beyond an initiative that sits on the margins of the organisation’.
Purpose and strategy need to become part of the DNA of every aspect of every business. Finding your ‘why’ and using this as the foundation for your business goals can help set you up for long-term success. In the new world of strategy, it is important to move from business-centric strategy development to a stakeholder-centric strategy development.
Let Troy Morgan Coaching help you to create a clear vision that allows every stakeholder included in your strategic plan to feel connected to the strategy which you co-create with Troy and start to truly live out your organisation’s purpose.
