Written by: Jean-Paul Urlings, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
Actionable strategy describes how to navigate the future of the company in a way that delivers quick wins. These initial successes immediately put the company on the right path for the future.
Strategy: describes how the company wants to evolve from the present to a desired future situation
Actionable: strategy implemented in a way that entails immediate action and prescribes action to be taken in the future
Real-Life Examples of Actionable Strategy
Recognition and acknowledgment
I worked with a company in the business of vitality management. This company aimed their service at other companies that “wanted to work with their human capital.” My client had a mission of “raising the health percentage within an organization.” Unfortunately, their target companies didn’t identify with either message. We rephrased to appeal to their customers, which immediately drew more customers. In this case, we appealed to a main target market - the social departments of various municipalities. After we refined the company’s messages, the target market recognized that my client, the vitality management company, could help employees be more efficient by removing distractions caused by physical and mental health (what they call vitality). Before you can effectively bring in clients, you need to be explicit in both your understanding of what you offer and the message around your service. This process ensures that the customer feels recognized and acknowledged. In this scenario, the vitality management company helped companies first acknowledge that there is stress within the municipalities, which is impacted by the wellbeing of the employees. The quick win here was the increased business acquisition and the self-sustaining marketing around improved mission conveyance.
Irresistible offer
A company needs to stay relevant for their customers as they employ their strategy to move to their desired future. Your services should be irresistible to your clients every step of the way. Monitor your promise to your customers: Is it perfectly clear? What happens if you don’t deliver on that promise?
The vitality company gives another example. They had a strong belief in their ability to make good on their promise. They guaranteed they would “achieve a lasting effect for every company they supported.” Okay…what does that mean? In addition, they promised a result for eternity. That’s a long time! We transformed this promise into a measurable promise – distractions due to vitality issues (physical and mental concerns) wouldn’t reoccur for 10 years, which provided both the company and the clients clarity.
If the initial problem reoccurs, the company offered free consult for 10 years. The company’s analysis discovers the root of the issue and provides the client with the ability to fix the root cause. In the event that the client was overwhelmed by a reoccurrence, the vitality company offers a free session to help the client re-engage with the tools and methods again. The company knew their analysis and resultant tools were strong; clients would rarely need consult because the company was convinced their ‘self-healing’ method would work indefinitely.
Roadmap
To determine steps to get to a desired future, we use logical, critical thinking. For instance, we helped a start-up company scale a medical device from a local market (the Netherlands) to the international market. The company didn’t know where to start or how quickly they should roll the product out. We developed a roadmap which, in our approach, always consists of growth stages and supporting blocks to make sure growth stages are achieved. Supporting blocks include marketing, sales, internal organization, product development, etc.
Before using our methods, the entrepreneur had chosen countries to enter at random. When he initiated work on supporting blocks needed to enter specific markets, he quickly discovered he didn’t have capacity to expand at his desired pace. He shifted away from geographic proximity to markets with similar languages, which meant lower translation costs and smaller cultural gaps. Another insight the roadmap illuminated was that he needed to work with sales agents. He simply couldn’t have hordes of global employees – he didn’t have time to manage them. Managing sales agents was much more efficient. These pivotal changes greatly increased his capacity and improved efficiency immediately.
Conclusion
Working on a strategy doesn’t have to be complicated. Use a clear framework and common sense, and brainstorm or bounce ideas around with a partner to help develop your strategy in a meaningful and insightful way.
If you are interested in an approach that specializes in clear, logical, and successful strategy development contact us.
Jean-Paul Urlings, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Jean-Paul and Yoshi are partners and business coaches of Business Roadmaps, a practical strategic framework method and coaching service that helps entrepreneurs to develop a strategy in 5 steps, on 5 sheets of paper.
Jean-Paul is passionate to support SME entrepreneurs to achieve continuity, success and entrepreneurial freedom that made him found this practical business implementation service. So far for more than 15 years Jean-Paul has effectively supported over 1,000 entrepreneurs and high potentials in their development to become leaders of their companies.
Yoshi has worked in the product and communication design field for over 15 years, crossing 3 continents. Yoshi is motivated to transplant his unique experience over guiding business implementation in terms of branding, product and communication.
