Strategy – the journey for start-ups!
If strategy is achieving goals through efficient planning in order to gain competitive advantage, when our resources are limited, why do we see many start-ups that don’t have an efficient strategy? In many times, the uncertainty and unpredictable environment because their main concern of a new company because of 3 main reasons:
– limited understanding of the target market
– lack of market analysis in order to assess the environment, competitors, potential clients and possible opportunities or threats
– no or limited analysis on financials. If break-even is reached at 95% of potential clients, it is obvious that the rest of 5% (profit) could not reach the expected growth.
Start-ups often forget about the environment, the attractiveness of the sector in financial terms. Of course, in many high-tech new sectors this is also not possible because of lack of historical data. Some start-up owner could argue that there are many examples of companies that started with just an idea. This are exceptions, not the rule! Even if an idea is enough to start the business, basically it is impossible to develop it without a strategic plan, with target goals, assessment of the environment and capabilities in order to produce the most effective formula for action.
If the idea creates the launch of a start-up, the strategic plan prepares the JOURNEY OF A START-UP.
This is a journey in which the company should focus on the resources (human resources, money, infrastructure, brand, IT), environment (competitors, clients, regulations), expectations (options to be taken into consideration to be applied), and acting upon the plan.