PSG - Business Strategy Dublin

Business Strategy

At PSG we can help you develop a blueprint for future success and growth, by showing you the importance of the decision making process and how it translates into the overall achievement of your strategic goals.

Business strategy is the second of the three stage process.

Once we have the financial control elements in place, we can start to get to know the business and the markets in which it operates. At this stage, we are looking to create a business model based on a SWOT analysis, feedback from the board and external market data interpretation, but to a significant extent, our decision marking process is still led by the financial data.

During the strategic phase it’s about putting a holistic strategy in place, looking at the company, its people and their experience with the aim of getting the business on a solid footing. It’s the communication phase of the process where we are working with people in the business at a strategic level and setting out a clear vision for the company and establishing some key objectives.

Vision and Objectives Settings

The vision for the company often emerges by asking a series of simple questions, such as where does the company want to be in 5 or 10 years time?

Setting objectives provides the management with a roadmap to convert this vision into reality, provided they have the necessary resources in place. We encourage clients to set a mix of goals, some short-term, some medium-term and some long-term, as well as ranking their objectives in order of importance to the business.

At PSG we believe that objectives should be realistic but achievable, challenging and measurable so that their progress can be monitored and assessed as the business develops.

Situation Analysis

Once a company has identified its objectives, we can begin work on a situation analysis. An effective situation analysis is a prerequisite for an effective strategy and it needs to cover four main elements:

• Company Background – where we have come from, so that we get a perspective on where we are going and to help avoid mistakes in the future;
• Mission statement – setting out who we are, who we serve and what do we do;
• A review of our internal assets – not just our physical assets, but assets such as HR, Sales or Marketing and other skill set assets, such as leadership;
• An external analysis – understanding the industry and what it takes to be successful in the market and understanding the competition – for example, are the competition changing their strategy and does that provide us with an opportunity?

By reviewing both the internal and external environments, we can often see new ways and new opportunities to reach our objectives. At this stage in the process, we encourage our clients to pursue the opportunities that offer the highest probability of success.

SWOT Analysis

A key component of putting together a business strategy is carrying out a SWOT analysis, looking at a company’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. A SWOT analysis builds on the work carried out in a situation analysis and helps generate strategic alternatives for the company.

When carrying out a SWOT analysis we encourage our clients to focus mainly on those factors that they believe are likely to happen and are likely to have a significant impact on their business.

By determining the high impact internal (strengths and weaknesses) and external (opportunities and threats) factors that may influence the outcome of our business strategy, it helps develop the raw SWOT data into a powerful framework.

At PSG we have found that with a little effort and encouragement, this technique can help companies uncover new opportunities and possibilities that they are well placed to exploit as well as put in place systems to deal with potential problems they may not previously have considered.

Strategic Planning

Now that a clear picture of the business environment is in place, we can begin to develop strategic alternatives for the company.

Strategic plans are simple to understand, their focus is long term and they set out what a company’s future course will be.

All strategic plans answer at least one of the following three questions:

• What do we do?
• Who do we do it for?
• How can we secure a competitive advantage?

Focus, cost leadership and differentiation are three of the leading competitive advantage strategies, but at PSG we work with companies to develop a tailored solution that fits each individual organisation’s needs.