Research and experience clearly point to three factors critical for entrepreneurs to strengthen their companies: Vision, Strategy and Execution. Vision leads to greater clarity. Strategy leads to greater alignment. Execution leads to greater accountability.

This post looks closer at the Strategy Factor. When you spend time strengthening your strategy factor, you create a clear direction for the company and a roadmap for the future driving greater alignment across the company.

Once you understand why the company exists and what it does (your Core Factors – see previous post), it’s time to determine where the company is headed. Strategy is a all about pointing the division in a direction you choose and relentlessly pursuing that destination. It’s not particularly glamourous – it’s a deliberate and dedicated effort to achieve goals. Strategy involves trade-offs: you cannot do it all (nor should you) so you must choose what not to do as carefully as what you should do.

So, what IS entrepreneurial strategy?

Strategy is the allocation of resources toward activities that achieve a desired outcome.

Entrepreneurial companies are resource constrained in two key areas: time and money. Strategy must be very clear on how to allocate those precious resources – once they are gone, they are gone! Resources are first allocated to BAU (business as usual activities – working in the business). If you only did BAU for the next 12 months, you would likely end up in the same spot you are today. Great companies deliberately carve out time and money to work “on” the business to advance it – this is strategy. We call this “the 100” – deciding how to spend (allocate) your 100 hours and $100 on strategic priorities each day, each week, each quarter, each year and beyond.

To effectively develop a strategy, Ventrek has developed  battle-tested, proven model for entrepreneurs. This includes analyzing key internal and external factors, crafting short and long-term strategies in the context of these factors, successfully implementing the strategy across the organization and continually monitoring the strategy and adjusting as required. These four strategy stages compliment one another and ensure everyone in the organization is on the same page and effectively contributing and held accountable.

What can you expect when you strengthen the strategy factor?

  • Clear direction and focus for the next 5, 3 and 1 years and each quarter
  • 100% accountability & alignment across the entire organization
  • Everyone in the company begins to “lean in” and ask “how can we help?”
  • Acts as a filter for what we must do (and not do)

The biggest thing? Total alignment across the company.