Strategy key to ongoing success for Shropshire businesses
A local business consultant is reminding company owners across Shropshire of the importance of having a strategy in place to ensure their business achieves long-term success.
Alan Adams, Founder and Director of Shrewsbury/Telford-based Horizons Consultants, is advising entrepreneurs across the county to make sure they have a carefully-crafted plan in place to help them reach long-term targets and goals, warning that a failure to do so could lead to a lack of clarity, poor decision making, and weak performance.
Alan Adams explained: “Winston Churchill once said, ‘Plans are of little importance, but planning is essential’. And he was absolutely right, developing the right strategy is a fundamental factor in a business’s growth and success. Ultimately, it’s the starting point for establishing the aims of your company, and how and when you’re going to achieve the results you want from the lifespan of the business. Without one in place, or lack of ambition and focus, it can potentially lead to the business ‘flying blind’.”
According to Alan, some of the key factors that businesses should take into account when planning a strategy include making sure that they establish the core processes and values of the company, identifying what its infrastructure should be, figuring out which resources are needed, and establishing how profitable the services or products on offer are. He also stresses the importance of implementing a plan properly, once it’s in place.
“Many businesses already have strategies in place, but with recent findings showing that 90% of them fail because they’re not carried out right, and less than 5% of employees actually knowing what the strategy is, it’s crucial that the plan is evaluated regularly and that employees know exactly what it is they are working towards.
“Implementing the strategy is hugely important. It can be supported by making sure everyone within the organisation understands the goals of the company, so that they can effectively work towards them, ensuring that the firm as a whole has the ability to adapt to change. And, once a strategy is met, set another one to enable the business to keep evolving, to avoid a ‘rise and fall’ scenario.”
