Business strategies are long-term patterns of decisions (the plans of action) that are taken to achieve the business objectives, hence will result in achieving the overall aim of the business organization.
In short, business strategies determine how the business is going to achieve its objectives.
EXAMPLE: To grow the number of customers by 10%, a marketing strategy may include increasing promotion of existing products to sell to a new market segment, for example target teenagers who previously were not the company’s customers.
Strategies must consider both internal environment (i.e. human resources, financial capabilities, production capacity and marketing plans) and also external environment (e.g. markets, competition, economy, government, etc.) of the business
Examples of business strategies
There are several levels of business strategy in a business organization and they include:
1. Corporate strategies. Generic strategies affect the whole business. They look at ways in which the business can gain a competitive advantage over its rivals in order to meet its future goal. Corporate strategies are required to achieve strategic objectives of the business. They are targeted at the long-term goals such as increase market leadership to become the market leader through mergers and acquisitions of competitors in the same industry. The strategic objective here is increasing market share.
2. Operational strategies. Operational strategies are day-to-day methods used to achieve the tactical objectives of a business. They are devised to improve the efficiency of daily operations of the business organization, for example a bicycle shop may want to reduce customer waiting time to receive a new order. It will allow the business to improve quality of services, therefore increase sales.
To sum up, business strategies are plans of actions which are required to achieve the long-term aim of the business through meeting medium-term objectives.
