Strategy this, strategy that – what is a strategy?

By Steve Walsh, Head of Jumping

I see a lot of people confuse the meaning of the term ‘strategy’, and not treating it in the right way.

Strategy has become a buzzword, and a word that’s banded around in business a lot. But strategy is just one part of a business performance framework.

In all our work at jumpthink, we define a business performance framework as follows:

1. Vision

Your vision is, simply, what you are trying to achieve.

It should be inspirational and, if it’s strong enough, should only need to be reviewed every three to five years.

2. Mission

Your mission is more of a statement about who you’re doing this for, why you’re doing it, and your ultimate solution to the problem you’re trying to solve.

Your mission should be more motivational, for your employees, staff and people to get behind.

3. Goals

Your goals are outcome focussed, typically on three to five measurable things, that are key performance indicators contributing to you achieving your vision and mission.

Note – KPIs are indicators, not targets!

4. Strategy

After that; strategy – finally!

Strategy is the process of how you’re going to achieve those goals, which contribute to the mission and vision.

5. Operations

Finally, we have operations.

These are the actions you take every single day, that are defined by your strategy/process to achieve your outcome goals and, therefore, the mission and vision.

It’s important to ensure your day-to-day activity within operations aligns with the goals and strategy and doesn’t go off down a route of mindless busyness.

Avoiding unproductive busyness is something I talk about in this article – click here to give it a read.

Whenever you’re thinking about strategy within your business, remember, you can only have a strategy once you’ve defined what you’re trying to achieve.