Everyday life involves two concepts, strategy and execution. We wake up in the morning with a strategy on how we will prepare ourselves for our workday. Some of our strategy is so automatic, like brushing our teeth, that we don’t realize it is a strategy even as we engage in the execution stage. The rest of the day entails the execution of our strategy. And in many cases, that strategy is a snap-shot of our life long strategy of raising a family, accumulating wealth, and providing for our retirement.
The life of a business is not much different. Yet, most businesses don’t have a verifiable strategy. They struggle in the day-to-day operations maneuvering their business in an ocean of sharks. They take a myopic view of trying to grab an increasing market share of their industry, and manage cash in order to meet their payroll obligations.
In these situations, businesses are reduced to nothing more than a commodity, competing only on the basis of price. Then competition increases driving sales and profit margins downward until the owners can no longer support such a strategy. And as this situation worsens, owners implement rash decisions that may have a long reaching effect on a company.
The proper execution of a strategy can alter this scenario.
We do business differently.