To be strategic is to design a plan that creates an advantageous condition in the future. It is the anticipation of future scenarios that allow you to leverage strengths and minimize weaknesses.
Risk is often involved, but having a strategy means planning and preparing to achieve a goal. Finding a target for your strategy can be difficult? Where do you begin to look for strategic opportunities?
Here is a list of seven places that may spark an idea for your next strategic target and that will help you become a strategic leader.
Customers
Customer satisfaction is the glue that holds everything together and can breath new life into a product or business if cared for correctly. How satisfied are your customers? Is there an opportunity to provide more value to the internal and external clients that use the products and services you provide?
Relationships
Relationships can provide business opportunities, honest opinions, and more. These are friends, co-workers, team members, sponsors, or in other words, the people that play a part in your future success. Can you utilize your network of relationships to find a new strategic target?
Products and Services
Can the tangible or intangible services, goods, or products you produce be improved? Are there new products or services you can develop, find, and offer?
Resources
Resources are the things you use to create the products and services you provide. They include materials, time, money, technology, assets, and knowledge. Can you see strategic opportunities to enhance any of these areas?
Procedures
These are the ways that you perform daily tasks, activities, and routines. Think about the amount of time, energy and effort that each requires. Are there any processes that convert resources into deliverables in need of an upgrade or refinement? Which processes need to be eliminated? What new methods could be considered?
Yourself
Looking inward can provide helpful insight as you identify strategic opportunities. What goals do you have? What is your vision? Are there areas that you can work on? These could be knowledge, skills, health, attitude, motivation, focus, behavior, etc.
Stakeholders
These are the parties that have entrusted you with their investments. Be sure to stay updated on their expectations for the company and what you can do to meet and exceed them. Always keep a look out for opportunities to grow your business and your revenues.
Summary
When you seek out opportunities for strategic change, look for areas that will play critical roles in your future success. Use these seven areas to help you find an opportunity that will yield the highest return for the least amount of energy and time you directly invest. Be more strategic by consistently reviewing this list from a broad perspective. Find a strategic target, make a plan, and start building yourself or your organization a long-term advantage.
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