Strategy can be defined as a broad based plan for doing something.
It is important to apply a strategy to everything you endeavour to do to ensure a high probability of success. Beleive me, you can strategise on how to do anything, and you should! Some of things that you can aplly strategy are sports, running a business, taking exams or even finding that elusive life partner. By the way, this list is definitely inconclusive.
So, how do you or anyone go about formulating strategies?
There are several approaches to strategy. Today, right now, we’ll talk (actually, I’ll write) about one approach:
1.SWOT Analysis
This entails critically analysing yourself or your business to ascertain your Strengths and Weaknesses. The rule is: identify your Strengths and take advantage of them while trying to minimise the effect of your Weaknesses.
With this in mind, you scan the environment( which can be the team you’re playing against, the industry your business is in or even the girl you’re trying to court) to find Opportunities and determine how you can use your Strengths to exploit them. In addittion, you determine what Threats – things that can cause your failure – exist and ways of containing them.
STRENGTHS / WEAKNESSES
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OPPORTUNITIES / THREATS
To drive the point home, lets take an example, shall we?
Until recently, I was the unofficial champion of chess in my neighbourhood. I lost my ‘title’ to someone who I though would never beat me. Ever!
After the game, I was embarrased to learn that he had used a simple strategy to beat me. He just used SWOT analysis and came up with:
Strengths: I never lose my concentration.
Weaknesses: I’m a novice and can’t always see all the options available to me.
Opportunities: Kelvin probably won’t be using any specific strategy. He also tends to lose his concentration in longer games.
Threats: If I let him, he can win the game very quickly.
So what did my good friend do? His strategy was: Defend very strongly in the beginning and ensure that the game lasts as long as possible. Later, take advantage of Kelvin’s loss of concentration.
Simple, right? It did work. The game was really tight in the beginning-my friend didn’t attack at all. Needless to say, once the game was past the 2-hour stage, I made some horrendous mistakes that cost me the game.
Thats strategy for you: it’ll take you places everyone else thought you coud not go.
Next time: Part 2-Michael Porter’s Competitive Forces Model.