What Is A Business Strategy?
A business strategy refers to a set of decisions and actions taken by an organization to achieve its long-term goals and business objectives. It is an action plan that outlines how a company intends to compete in the market, differentiate itself from competitors, and create value for its customers.
A well-defined business strategy provides direction and guidance for all aspects of the organization, aligning various departments and functions toward a common vision. It helps allocate resources effectively, prioritize initiatives, and make informed decisions that contribute to the overall success and growth of the company.
Why use a Business Plan Template?
Using a business plan template has several advantages:
- Structure & organization: it provides a structured framework that guides you through the key elements and components of your plan, ensuring that you include all the necessary information.
- Time-saving: it helps streamline the strategic planning process by providing pre-defined sections, allowing you to focus on filling in the details rather than starting from a blank page.
- Flexibility & customization: while it provides a framework, our Business Strategy Template is flexible and can be customized to suit your specific business needs. You can modify the content, add or remove sections, and tailor the plan to align with your unique business model and strategic goals.
- Collaboration: this template facilitates collaboration among team members and other stakeholders that need to be involved in your strategy plan. It provides a unified place for your strategy, making it easier to collect input, share ideas, and collaborate on creating a cohesive business plan.
What's Included In This Business Strategy Template?
- 3x Focus Areas
- 9x Objectives
- 9x Projects
- 18x KPIs
Once you have set your template, you can also create progress reports and dashboards for real-time performance monitoring.
And yes - you get free access with no credit card required. ✅
Who Is This Business Strategy Template For?
This Business Strategy template is a valuable resource for leaders and teams across organizations of all sizes and industries.
Whether you are an entrepreneur embarking on a new business, a team member or leader in a startup or small business seeking growth, or part of a large corporation navigating global markets, this Business Strategy Template can provide valuable insights and support. It’s a versatile tool that can be adapted to different industries and business contexts, helping you develop a clear roadmap for success and optimize your strategic decision-making processes.
How Is This Business Strategy Template Relevant To Your Organization?
This Business Strategy template is relevant to your organization because it provides a clear and structured approach to defining and achieving your goals. It can help you prioritize your efforts, align your team, and measure your progress. By using this template, you can develop a comprehensive plan for success and ensure that your organization is moving in the right direction.
How Do You Use This Business Strategy Template?
Before using the Business Strategy Template, it's essential to lay a strong foundation for your organization. This involves developing three key elements: a vision statement, a mission statement, and core values. These components serve as guiding principles and provide direction for your strategic decisions.
- Vision Statement: Clearly define your organization's long-term vision or desired future state. It represents the ultimate goal or aspiration you strive to achieve.
- Mission Statement: Craft a concise statement that describes the fundamental purpose of your organization, including the products, services, and target audience. It conveys the reason for your organization's existence and its overall mission.
- Core Values: Identify the core values that serve as the guiding principles and ethical framework of your organization. These values define your organization's culture, behavior, and decision-making processes.
- Value Proposition: Define the unique value you offer to your customers or stakeholders. This encapsulates the specific benefits and advantages they can expect from engaging with your products, services, or solutions.
By defining these core elements, you establish the groundwork for your strategic planning and ensure that your business strategy aligns with the overarching purpose and principles of your organization.
Now, let’s jump into the template! 👇🏼
1. Define clear examples of your focus areas
A focus area is a particular viewpoint that groups certain requirements set out by an organization. A recommendation from the Cascade team would be to create 4-5 key focus areas which you feel are most important to address when creating your Business Strategy.
💡Pro Tip: To choose your focus areas effectively, consider conducting a SWOT analysis or a competitive analysis. These methods can provide valuable insights into your competitive advantages and help you make informed decisions about the areas that require prioritization. However, it's crucial not to spend excessive time on analysis. Remember, it's better to take action than to strive for perfection. Context can change rapidly, so aim for a reasonable analysis timeframe. You can always revisit and update the analysis as needed in the future.
The next step would be to ask yourself:
- Why is this focus area important to me?
- What is the benefit of focusing on this viewpoint from a customer's perspective?
- What is the monetary benefit of investing in such a focus area?
This process is useful in identifying the key area which needs prioritization which in turn can become focus areas of the strategy.
For example, the focus areas in this business strategic plan template are: Marketing; Operations; and Human Resources.
2. Think about the objectives that could fall under that focus area
A strategic objective usually has to be specific and measurable to cause enough impact and effectively explain what you want to achieve.
These are some examples that could fall under each focus area.
Marketing:
- Increase Sales
- Improve Customer Engagement
- Increase Brand Awareness
Operations:
- Improve Safety
- Reduce Waste
- Streamline Production
Human Resources:
- Improve Communication
- Enhance Employee Skills
- Increase Employee Satisfaction
By defining objectives that are specific, measurable, and aligned with your focus area, you provide a clear direction for your team and establish benchmarks to assess your progress. These objectives serve as milestones for accomplishing your broader business strategy.
3. Set yourself measurable targets (KPIs) to tackle the objective
To effectively track progress and measure success, it is crucial to establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that align with your objectives. KPIs are quantifiable metrics that evaluate the success rate of an organization in relation to the task at hand. KPIs can be very industry-specific or broad and applicable across multiple industries.
An example of a KPI in this Business Strategy Template associated with the objective of Increase Brand Awareness could be:
- Grow the number of social media followers to 2,000
💡Pro Tip: To ensure you're on the right track, consider breaking down your KPIs into smaller milestones that need to be achieved within different timeframes. This will help you to easily assess your progress and identify when you need to course correct.
4. Implement related projects to achieve the set KPIs
Projects are ways in which the objective can be achieved, but more so, closely tie in with ways in which organizations can make sure they are working towards their KPIs. They provide concrete action plans that align with your strategic goals and enable you to make progress toward achieving your desired outcomes.
A project example for the objective Increase brand awareness could be:
- Implement a social media campaign
5. Utilize Cascade Strategy Execution Platform to see faster results from your strategy
Get rid of those endless strategic PowerPoint presentations! Make sure your strategy is front and center with Cascade. You can plan, execute, measure, and adapt your strategy in one easy-to-use platform and make sure your strategic plan is connected to on-the-ground execution.
Here are some of our most popular features:
- +1,000 Integrations: Make data gathering easy and seamless with Cascade’s integrations with popular business apps (like Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel) and project management tools.
- Alignment Map: Visualize how your business plan connects with your other plans (like your marketing plan or operations plan) to work together in one unified direction to reach your overarching goals.
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- Reports: Gauge an accurate picture of your strategic performance and share it with your stakeholders, suppliers, and contractors. Create a one-page or executive summary of your main metrics to maintain the focus on work that matters.
- Dashboards: Create beautiful graphs filled with real-time data that will enable you to evaluate the performance of your metrics and identify trends at a glace to make better decisions.
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Achieve Your Business Strategy Goals With Cascade!
Launching your strategy in Cascade is as easy as it gets. You can sign up and start from scratch, or you can use this Business Strategy Template built by our strategy experts!
Other Related Templates 👇🏼
Our Template Library has thousands of ready-to-use templates to support you in creating your strategic plans.
Here are some other Business Templates you may like:
- Business Transformation Strategy Template
- Business Growth Strategy Template
- Business Development Strategy Template
- Business Marketing Strategy Template
- Simple Business Plan Template
Business Strategy FAQs
What is the difference between a strategic plan and a business strategy?
A strategic plan is a comprehensive document that outlines an organization's long-term goals and overall direction. It covers various aspects and serves as a roadmap for the entire organization.
A business strategy, on the other hand, focuses on specific areas or functions within the organization, such as marketing or operations. It outlines the actions needed to achieve specific business objectives within the larger strategic plan. It involves decisions on resource allocation, market positioning, and operational tactics.
What are some common business strategy examples?
Some common business strategy examples include:
- Cost Leadership: Providing products or services at a lower cost compared to competitors.
- Differentiation: Creating unique and distinctive offerings that stand out in the market.
- Focus: Concentrating efforts on a specific market segment or customer group.
- Innovation: Developing and introducing new products, services, or business models.
- Partnership and Collaboration: Forming strategic alliances with other companies to leverage resources.
- International Expansion: Entering new markets and regions.
These strategies are adopted based on industry dynamics, competitive landscape, and organizational goals. Organizations may combine strategies or customize them to suit their specific needs.