Here's an article, written by our CEO, Ian Barber, that was recently published in the Yorkshire Post.

Business own­ers largely recog­nise the factors that are import­ant for suc­cess. Devel­op­ing a clear strategy is one such factor but it can be all too easy to lose sight of it in the every­day battle to keep the lights on and the busi­ness run­ning smoothly.

However, the con­sequences of this can be ser­i­ous: new busi­ness oppor­tun­it­ies can be missed; time and effort can be expen­ded in unpro­duct­ive activ­it­ies; and import­ant changes in the mar­ket­place can catch us unawares. We then risk fall­ing behind our com­pet­it­ors.

Without a reg­u­lar review of busi­ness per­form­ance, however, you don’t know if your strategy is work­ing. It can some­times feel easier to con­tinue to work in the way you always have rather than check­ing whether this will bring the best out­comes.

I have seen the res­ults of a lack of strategy in my own busi­ness. As it star­ted to grow and the volume of work increased, con­tinual deliv­ery of our ser­vices quickly became all encom­passing. There wasn’t time to focus so much on sales and mar­ket­ing. And besides, we had all the work we needed, so why did we need to?

When the number of customers reduced and our dependency on a couple of key contracts grew, we could see the growing risk, but we didn’t act. As the larger contracts ended, we started chasing new work without a clear goal as to who our target customers were or where they could be found. Predictably, this didn’t go too well.

When we reviewed our strategy, we were in for a few surprises. We realised we hadn’t known who our best customers were. The jobs we were chasing required a lot of work for small reward.

There was one particular type of work that we’re good at delivering but was providing little to no profitability. This was because margins were low and the risks of overrunning in terms of time impacted the profits on a fixed-priced investment. Our pricing wasn’t reflective of the effort required to deliver the work.

So, how do you go about creating a new strategy? There are two essential requirements.

First, time free from distraction and data. For us, this was relatively easily to deliver. We took the senior leadership away from the office and their computers for a strategy away-day. This enabled us to focus purely on developing our strategy together.

The second requirement is data. This needs preparation. We needed to understand how our business works by using real data and metrics.

We had to have a detailed understanding of how long jobs/projects take, the price we sell them at, the costs to deliver, etc. We needed to know how our staff time is used, who is working on what, how much capacity they have and what they are each best at.

We needed to see who our best customers are, which products we sell most, why people buy them and who our competitors are. Without this kind of solid information, we’d be moving forward whilst blindfolded.

An effective, concise and structured strategy now shows how our business creates and delivers value to our customers. It enables us to plan for the future and make decisions more easily.

So, make time to plan your strategy with your key staff and review it on a regular basis. You might be surprised by what you discover; you’ll end up with a better understanding of your business; and you’ll be able to move forward with more confidence.