Align Your Strategy to Win

In a Harvard Business Review blog post yesterday, Paul Leinwand and Cesare Mainardi reported on the results of a recent Booz & Company survey that reveals a lot of disappointment with current business strategies. According to the post:

• Most of the respondents (53%) don't feel their company's strategy will lead to success.
• Two thirds (67%) say their company's capabilities do not fully support the company's strategy and the way it creates value in the market.
• Only one in five (21%) executives think their company has a "right to win" in all the markets it competes in.

Pretty discouraging. But as the authors point out, some of the frustration may be rooted in the tendency for companies to pursue multiple strategies over time - to the point where an overarching, clear focus for the company becomes blurred. This may be especially true for building products companies that have scrambled over the past several years to find new markets, targets or ways of winning in the market, as their traditional business base shrank. It can be hard *not* to chase after every opportunity, whether or not it supports long-term goals.

Do you know what it is that your company does better than anyone else? Can you articulate why your customers and prospects should buy from you? Are your operational, sales and customer service teams set up to support your strategy?  Do you have a clear resource allocation model that aligns your strategy with how you make decisions about where to invest time, people and money?

There are an awful lot of companies out there who set business and sales objectives, but stop the planning process there. So the question of "how" they will win in the market goes unanswered, or gets answered differently by different segments of the business. It takes some upfront work and thinking, but can be a lot more efficient - and effective - to align those efforts through a clear, focused strategy to win.