When to Change Your Strategy

Let’s say you’re on a road trip without your GPS. All you have is a roadmap someone handed you. You find your current location on the map and your hoped-for destination, but you don’t know if the map is accurate. What are your chances of ending up where you’re hoping to go?

This is the situation of every business that doesn’t have a well-defined strategy. You may be able to assess where you are right now, and you may be able to define where you want to go. But without a well-constructed strategy and evidence that your strategy is grounded in reality, who knows where you will end up?

If you’re currently not getting the kinds of results you’re hoping for, it may be time to change your strategy. How do you know if your current strategy isn’t working out? Look for these indicators:

Inability to Face Problems

A good strategy offers you a way to get through difficulties. With an effective strategy in place, your company will be able to overcome obstacles and respond to challenges. In other words, you’ll be able to read that map, having faith that it’s grounded in reality and can lead you where you want to go.

If you feel that roadblocks and challenges are insurmountable or that you feel directionless whenever challenges arise, you may need a new strategy. For example, if your strategy is to increase your company’s market share in order to ramp up revenue and profit, you can approach each problem from this lens.

When opportunities and obstacles confront you, you can simply ask, “Will this opportunity help us to increase our market share? No? Then we’ll pass.” Conversely, when there’s a challenge, let’s say inefficient work,you can ask, “How can we reorganise in a way that will help us increase our market share?” The consistent focus will help you to face problems in a positive, forward-thinking manner.

Mistaking Goals for Strategy

Business goals should be quantifiable, time-oriented, and specific. For example, “This year we will sell 20% more widgets between March and October.” But a goal like this is not a strategy. A strategy creates the conditions that will help you to reach your goals.

When you mistake goals for strategy, you may have the numbers and the dates in front of you but feel helpless as to how to get there. “Try harder” is not an effective strategy. You need concrete, process-driven strategies to help you achieve your goals.

Poor Strategic Objectives

If your current strategy isn’t helping you achieve the results you want, it might be because you’ve chosen inferior strategic objectives. Is your strategy fuzzy or unclear? Does it leave your employees with more questions than answers? 

Good strategy works by focusing energy and resources in one direction. It also builds a bridge between the critical challenge and action. When you develop a strategy that does these things you have a good chance at accomplishing your goals given your existing talent and resources.

Fluff

Bad strategy has a lot of fluff but not much substance. It may contain lots of words that don’t add up to much. Fluff is normally a sign of an absence of thought, and the last thing you want to do is signal to your employees that there’s not much thought behind the work they spend their lives trying to accomplish. 

Your strategy should be easy to explain. If it’s not - or if you feel like you need to include big or trendy words to make it sound respectable - then it might be time to go back to the drawing board.

So examine your current strategy. Are you seeing an inability to face problems among your managers and employees? Are you mistaking goals for strategy? Are your strategic objectives less than helpful? Do they sound fluffy? If so, it’s time for an overhaul. Really analyse your needs and your direction as a company, and create a strategy that will help you to achieve your goals and help you find your way. Create a good map, one that is firmly grounded in reality and easy to read by all in your company who are willing to pick it up and find their way.