Differentiated Building Blocks

“We are pleased to announce that the goals that we have decided last year have been achieved by us. Thus, I find this opportunity to thank my team who diligently worked together for the whole year, coordinated among them to take decisions which were necessary and compromised their personal life at many occasions just to ensure that we achieve what we desired and continue to rise above others. I am proud to be a part of such an energetic organization and pledge to continue delivering excellence.”

So… you might have read the above text which you might find a speech of a CEO of a big MNC in front of media discussing the annual reports and praising his own achievements. Quite true… people belonging to such a cadre speak like this only especially when confronting significant audience. Such speeches do not portray the amount of efforts and think process involved in achieving the feat and seldom these are followed by success parties and rewards; if happened, it is limited to the key people leaving the comparatively low profile lot behind whose efforts, although small but adds to the bunch. What we want to mention here is the Business Strategy, the way of its implementation and post result rewards. This in a nut shell covers the two most important factors of any business – STRATEGY and LEADERSHIP. In such big firms, they have a dedicated team involved in strategy building undergoing rounds of meetings and research strictly followed up by implementation of the plans facilitated by numerous leadership ways (not to mention that a big firm has many leaders at different levels). In most of the cases the strategist is not a leader but just a facilitator who guides the leaders down the line about the goals they have to achieve.

BUT have you ever thought about somewhat similar situation for a small business or a start up… for sure, no such diplomatic and proud speeches are made, there is no such significant audience like media but still they share some similarities. There is a deeply thought strategy all of which prepared by the promoter himself be it launching products, service delivery, branding, market research, accounting or anything else… promoter is closely involved in every decision. Apart from strategizing the business and implementing the thoughts, he is closely involved with his employees and knows them personally as well as professionally. A true leader thus is one who explores their strengths and utilizes them to the optimum to get the best results and walking further miles towards a larger scene. Not to mention that these successes are adorned with personal relationships made between the two ends of the manpower over a cup of coffee, shared lunch boxes, a couple of drinks and numerous unconditional treats for every small achievement. No second thought to say that these are one of the important building blocks of a healthy Employee – Management relationships which are a key to successful and growing organizations. It is thus now clearly visible that in small businesses, the key difference in its operations when compared with the big firms is presence of an ALL ROUNDER captain who is capable enough to conduct the RESEARCH, make the STRATEGIES and LEAD the team to the defined plans.

“Strategy is a high level plan to achieve one or more goals under conditions of uncertainty.”

– Wikipedia

“A plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim.”

– Oxford Dictionary

Good to know the sophisticated definitions and meanings of such high level terms but their practical visualization and implementation is little more complex than a combination of words. The key to success of any start up business lies in the vision and level of imagination. Cutting the long story to short, any IDEA with a defined DESTINATION and clearly identified PATH and the OFFERINGS when supplemented with IMPLEMENTATION and valuing your PEOPLE becomes a strategy in real terms.

As we all say that THE BEST SHOULD BE SAVED FOR THE LAST, so, here’s the tip for small businesses or start ups… building 3 years and 5 years strategy or other long term goals is a MUST to have and also it enhances business imaginations, but there are a lot of external factors playing vital role in business development and growth thus short term strategy and target timelines keeps on changing frequently than planned. So, it’s always wise to stick to the short term goals (of course… they are set based on long term goals) and making them as stairs for a higher level. After all,

“success comes in small but continuous steps…”