For sports fans, and indeed for all gamblers, there is nothing that would be more exciting than betting on sports broadcasts.
Sports betting
The principle of such bets is quite simple: there are special bookmakers on the Internet that offer people to bet on any game at a certain odds.
With over 30,000 live sports happening around the world every day, betting enthusiasts are offered a huge selection of different sports wherever possible.
For the outcome of a certain event, some coefficient is set.
Sports betting as a way to earn money
Today, quite a large number of people earn their capital on the Internet. All of them have their own methods of earning, with the help of which they earn: who is capable of what, he does it. Some even manage to earn amounts that are several times higher than the average salary of a Russian. The most experienced Internet users are already making big money. These types of earnings include betting on sports events. According to statistics, only 10 percent out of a hundred are able to earn in this way, and all because these people have learned to think through all events to the smallest detail.
Example
In the football match "Zenith" - CSKA, the victory of CSKA is estimated at 1.5, i.e., with a simple mathematical calculation, you can understand that by betting a thousand rubles on CSKA, if this team wins, the player will receive 1,500 rubles. And vice versa, if the coefficient for another team is 2.3, then the player will receive 2300 rubles if he wins.
What sports are popular for betting?
Of all the sports on betting, football occupies the first place, followed by hockey, then basketball and tennis.
The most visited bookmakers on the Internet:
LEON - is considered one of the best;
- Williamhill - also quite famous among the players;
- "Express" - here you can bet on several events at once.
Every day there are more and more new sites that offer their services in this industry. The most profitable offers are classified by bonuses, tournaments, etc.
Sports betting strategies
The main component of an effective game in any are sports betting strategies.
Here, sports betting gaming strategies are a tool, if used correctly, you can earn money and make the game productive.
An experienced player knows that if you do not use your specific sports betting strategies, then soon anyone is doomed to inevitable bankruptcy.
But if everything is done correctly and according to a certain strategy, then you can earn very good money. Professional players, using such sports betting strategies, earn very well every day. But if some gain such a significant profit, while others suffer losses, the question arises: "Are there any win-win strategies for sports?"
It is unlikely that such a serious question will be answered unambiguously. Win-win sports betting strategies do not exist, there is a competent application of strategies that will really replenish the family budget. Usually they are all divided into two groups: gaming and money management systems. Using this technique will allow the player to minimize the chances of losing and increase the chance of winning.
Gaming
Game strategies for sports are practical game systems. To date, there are more than twenty gaming strategies:
A series of numbers is a strategy that came to our country from Germany. Rates must be calculated using mathematical calculations;
- Miller. The strategy was developed by J. Miller, an American player who has been playing and winning for many years;
- counter-move bet. Here a bet is made on the opposite outcome of the match;
- a bet against the favorite. Especially beginners bet on favorites, thinking that this is a guaranteed success. And the professionals themselves bet on three or even four favorites;
- strategy from Shchukin for tennis;
- strategy from Mazharov for volleyball. This strategy is very similar to the Shchukin strategy, but here the percentage of profit is much higher. The strategy is that after each loss at the next bet, you need to increase the amount of the bet. Live sports betting strategy is a system designed to manage the entire bank account (allocation of a certain amount for betting).
If you look at it this way, then there are so-called "other strategies". They are also worth paying attention to. One of the most popular is the "fork". Here, each player makes a bet in two or more offices. And it makes a profit regardless of the outcome of the match or half. This method will allow you to consistently earn about 4-5% of the invested amount. It is believed that this strategy is almost win-win.
Live strategy
Live sports betting strategy is primarily based on a careful viewing of each match. In order to bring profit to the family budget through live sports, you need to have great patience, as well as learn how to accurately assess the team's chances.
There are the following strategies for live sports betting:
- Martingale betting strategies. This is one of the most common sports betting strategies that has brought the creators a lot of money;
- betting strategy from D'Ambler;
- betting strategy from Oscar Grind.
Of the sports betting strategies, one of the most profitable can be called "Dogon". In fact, "Dogon" is the most profitable sports betting strategy. Profits are received at the end of a certain period. The main idea is that the bet should be made serial, i.e. a series of bets on a certain event. This strategy, of course, is old, but it is very popular among professionals. For beginners, this is the best gaming option. This is especially true for football.
Still in good demand are new sports betting strategies such as "Play Against the Community". How does this strategy work? A person comes to a sports bar, listens to which team is predicted to win, and talks about it in other bars. After the winner has already been determined, he bets on the opponent. This is by far the best sports betting strategy as there are so many people who have made a fortune out of it.
Is there a better sports betting strategy?
Arguing about which of the strategies is the best, it is impossible to give a definite answer. Each of the strategies has both negative and positive aspects.
Of course, no one can give a 100% guarantee of winning. Each player must choose a strategy to their liking.
Also, you should not take the first strategy that caught your eye and immediately want to start conquering all bookmakers with it. Each strategy is individual, everyone can choose the one that he likes.
The main thing to remember is that a competent selection of a strategy and strict adherence to it can bring good profits, and the winnings will have some kind of stability.
How to make money consistently betting on sports events
If most beginners bet on luck, then more experienced users think through each match, take into account all the nuances, and if the chances of winning are high, they bet only in this case. Yes, and experienced players have misses, but these misses are nothing with the sums that they withdraw during their luck.
So, let's start with the starting bank. If you are going to play on trifles, then it’s better not to start, because this method of earning requires a certain amount of capital. It is necessary to put such an amount on the account of the office that it would be possible to make at least 15-20 bets (50 rubles each is not considered). After each bet, 95% of your initial capital must remain in your account, even if you are completely sure of the outcome, because sports are unpredictable.
The second tip: do not bet on one bet, select at least three events with odds of at least 1.7 percent and place three bets. According to statistics, 2 bets out of three always play in 95% of cases, and you win. For example, you bet 1,000 rubles on three events, for a total of 3,000 rubles. Two bets are played, and you get 1700 rubles from them (1700 + 1700 = 3400) - we see that the profit is 400 rubles. But this is with odds of 1.7, but you can find events with higher odds. If two bets have not played, you do not need to lose your head and go all-in in order to win back, since most likely you will lose everything to the penny!
Next tip! Choose one sport that you are most familiar with and only bet on that sport. Explore all selected events and place your bets.
Many businessmen say that a business strategy is not needed in Russia. But is it effective to live for today and not have plans for the future?
Imagine that today you have an income of 1,000,000 rubles. per month, and tomorrow BAH and Vash were discontinued. That's what then? Let's figure it out.
And although everyone writes about the strategy, but on the Internet there is no clear understanding of why it is needed, what happens and how to create it yourself.
First, let's figure out what this term is. And for reference, the term business strategy entered the theory of management back in the 60s of the last century, and since then it has not been able to get out.
Business strategy is a general long-term plan for the development of the enterprise, based on the mission of the company.
It is interesting that in the USSR, where there was not only sex, but also business, similar developments were used with might and main, only it was then called “strategic planning”.
But the truth is, it looked less aggressive than it is now, and here is proof of that.
Business strategy of the USSR Needed like air
Why do you need a business strategy for a company? And to answer this question, I first came up with a beautiful comparison of business with a sailing ship.
Who went out into the stormy sea without a compass, a map, under the guidance of a captain who does not know where to sail.
But, unfortunately, modern realities are such that I would like to compare a serious company that does not have a business strategy not with a handsome battleship, but with a homeless person (sorry for the comparison), who is only concerned with finding food and lives one day.
How can you say such a thing?! Many entrepreneurs say that there is no point in doing strategic planning in Russia.
The situation is changing too quickly, and the right connections are more likely to achieve success than a well-developed business strategy of the company.
That is why the leaders of small and medium-sized businesses have little idea of the development of their company, even within the next year, not to mention longer periods.
1. Strategy as a guide
To begin with, a strategy can serve as a guide to realizing a company's mission.
With the help of such a business strategy, we answer the question: “How?”. For example, “How to achieve the given financial targets?” or “How to become a market leader?”.
However, it is important not to forget about the product here, as this is what the strategy is implemented with.
And so, we understand. First, determine the unattainable result that the company is striving for.
Consider a simple example - you sell elephants. Then your very simplified sequence of steps for writing a strategic manual would look something like this:
- Mission.“We need to sell more!”
- Strategy. Question: "How?" How can we sell more elephants? Answer: We need to make them more attractive!
- Product. What can be done to make elephants more attractive? Let's color them pink.
Our strategy guide is: “In order to sell more elephants, they need to be made more attractive with pink.” Now we think how it can be implemented:
- Creation of a paint shop (obviously a large room will be required);
- Search and recruitment of personnel (not everyone will agree to such work);
- Establishment of logistics (delivery of elephants and paint);
- Development (you can't do without creativity);
- And so on in the same vein...
Just remember, the example is very exaggerated, such a strategy, built on the improvement of only one side of the proposed product or service, is unlikely to be successful.
And if you want to use it for your company, then you need an integrated approach.
It is forbidden… 2. Strategy as a plan of action
Another option is to use the strategy as a step-by-step action plan for the long term.
And it would seem that such an approach naturally follows from the definition of a business strategy that we gave at the very beginning, but a “plug” still arises for many.
The strategy, as an action plan, is not a huge set of instructions for employees that cannot be deviated from.
This is a plan for what you need to focus on in order to capture your market share. In our case, it is to flood the market with pink elephants.
6. Company resources
Valuation of own resources is another important element of a business strategy. Again, we are talking not only about finances, but also about other types of resources: production and personnel, including.
It is clear that for the implementation of large-scale projects one cannot do without a powerful production base and specialists.
7. Mergers and acquisitions
Yes, all this is also desirable to work out at the stage of creating a business strategy. The company also has the opportunity to absorb someone, or vice versa, as if they themselves were not accidentally absorbed.
This also includes plans to reduce unprofitable divisions or combine them with other industries that are part of the company.
8. Development tactics
Development tactics can be defined as a series of activities aimed at achieving the main goal of the company.
This usually includes expanding the range, introducing new technological solutions, capturing new markets, and so on.
These are the values that you need to instill in your employees, as well as the general climate in the team.
The personal qualities of the people working in your company must be consistent with the overall strategic goals, otherwise you will not get fruitful interaction.
DEVELOPING A STRATEGY
If you want to rule the world, you need to make a clear plan. Yes, the time has come. It's time for us to develop our own business strategy.
We use the approach proposed by Toyota marketers, the Japanese will not advise bad.
Take a blank sheet of paper and cut it in half. On the left is the present, on the right is the future.
Each column will have three rows, which must be filled in from top to bottom. Just do not put off this matter, the elephants will not sell themselves.
This is how we share The first line in the left column is the background, you can say the mission. It sets the general direction, so it should not be too extensive.
Briefly write down what you want to achieve. I remind you that we are talking about your business goals, and not about life goals.
The second line is the current situation. Here you can not skimp on the description, it is better to formulate everything in sufficient detail, dwelling separately on the description of existing problems and shortcomings.
The third line is analysis. Try to determine why the goals were not achieved, and for what reasons the problems that exist now in your business arose.
The first two lines will help you with this, which clearly demonstrate what you wanted to achieve and what happened.
The present Finally, we turn to the formation of a strategy. I warn you right away that this process is very difficult and cannot be written in one day. You need to take into account all the risks and conduct market analysis. And so, let's get started:
The first line is the target. We take previous conclusions as a basis and form tasks for the future.
Just set realistic goals, otherwise it will be a shame if you still don’t get the planned billion dollars in net profit in a year.
The second line is a plan for the implementation of tasks. There is no need to describe everything in detail here, but one should not formulate too general and global tasks either. Remember the SMART rule.
Future The minimum indicators that we will achieve with the help of a business strategy should not be the ultimate dream. Develop. Who knows, maybe elephants are just the beginning.
BRIEFLY ABOUT THE MAIN
Fuh ... We figured out with you this difficult topic - business strategy. We realized that we need it, otherwise living only today is fraught with consequences and the lack of parmesan in the refrigerator.
And at the end, I propose to refresh our memory, namely, to read the shortest and most understandable excerpt from the article again:
- A company that doesn't have a business strategy is like a person who lives by the day.
- Business strategies may differ from each other, but they have the same goal - to help businesses make the right decisions in the face of uncertainty.
- It is necessary to implement the principles enshrined in the company's business strategy at all levels, from management to the cleaner.
- There are different types of business strategies, but they are rarely found in their pure form, most often businesses use hybrid developments.
- Any business strategy is based on several elements. A good business strategy includes at least nine basic components.
- Every entrepreneur can develop their own business strategy. So good luck to you in this difficult task.
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest path to victory. Tactics without strategy is just hustle before defeat." Sun Tzu, Chinese strategist and philosopher
Step 3. Assess the existing reality
Look at the business in terms of strengths, weaknesses, weaknesses, and competitive advantages.
If you look at the GoldCoach team, we enjoy the learning process, the transformation of clients, but we boring to work only with information, tactics. Therefore, we dig deep into the thinking of entrepreneurs, their awareness.
We are ready to be weaker in how we convey information. But discipline is very important to us, and we instill it in our clients.
Components of the strategy
Part 1. BHAG
Jim Collins, American business consultant, bestselling author of Good to Great, introduced the concept of BHAG.
BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal, Big Hairy and Insolent Goal, BHAG) is incredible, mind-blowing and even a little crazy goal of your business for 20-25 years.
This is an idea of what your business can achieve if you and your entire team work hard for the next 20-25 years.
BHAG should be clear and understandable, reflect the meaning of the organization's existence. A good BHAG is one that you don't fully believe in achieving. If you believe in BHAG 100%, then you made a mistake with its formulation.
The best chances for achieving BHAG are 50-70%.
BHAG examples:
- Ford: Make the car affordable.
- Amazon: Any book ever published, in any language, is available in less than 60 seconds.
- Google: Organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.
- Microsoft: A computer for every desk in every home.
A business strategy is a plan to achieve BHAG.
Part 2. Hedgehog Concept
Jim Collins draws an analogy with the animal world. He writes that a purposeful hedgehog will get to the goal sooner than a frisky fox.
Why? Because the hedgehog moves slowly but surely, and the fox tries to be in time everywhere and does not have time.
In business as well purposeful "hedgehogs" build empires, and "foxes" fry kebabs.
The Hedgehog Concept helps you filter opportunities—determine which ones to use and which ones to discard.
To create a hedgehog concept, you need to answer three questions:
- What is our passion? What does the company like to do the most? What brings you the most money and pleasure?
- Where can we be the best? What competencies of yours significantly outperform those of your competitors? It's not even always what we're best at right now. It could also be about the future.
- How to make money on this? What will your economic model be based on?
Draw 3 circles, in each circle - the answer to 1 question. Where they intersect, there will be the very activity that needs to be developed.
Develop a "hedgehog concept" on a strategic council, which includes the entire top management of the company.
For example, for the GoldCoach business, the “hedgehog concept” looks like this:
- Our passion is to seek, study and pass on advanced business technologies and models;
- Where can we be the best - in implementing the methodology for creating systems in business; in disciplined bringing to the result; in better internal organization;
- What our economic model is based on is customer lifetime value (LTV) divided by customer acquisition costs (Traffic Cost).
The formula for success in the long term is LTV max/Traffic cost min (give maximum benefit and minimize customer acquisition costs).
When you decide on the answers for each item, you will see the direction of development that will help achieve the vision. You will clearly see the necessary things - you can put them in priority over others. Remains stick to the concept by all means.
When the goal of BHAG and the "hedgehog concept" are clear, we form a business development strategy. To do this, divide 25 years into smaller intervals. Each interval should pursue its own goal, the achievement of which will mean approaching the vision.
Set goals for the following time periods:
- 3-5 years
- 1 year
- 3 months
Part 3. 7 elements of strategy
To determine your marketing strategy, you need to answer the following questions:
- Who is your client? What are his pains and desires? What end result does he want? (here you will need the Before-After tool described in)
- What words in the mind of the client are associated with your company? It is better to ask customers directly in person or in social networks.
- What are you selling to the client? What is the product line, what is the customer's "path"?
- What will be your brand promise?(For example, Domino’s Pizza had a promise for a long time: “Delivery in 30 minutes or pizza for free”)
- What is the KPI of your promise?(For Domino's Pizza, this is "30 minutes")
- What is the guarantee that you will keep your promise?(Again, for Domino's Pizza, it's pizza for free.)
GoldCoach has a promise in the GPS program: "If the program does not return 300% of your investment in coaching, you can demand the money back."
- What is your "one line strategy"? It should be a phrase that shows the key benefit of your business model, leads to higher profits, and helps you determine which customer demands can be ignored.
For example, for IKEA, this is the idea of “flat furniture” that looks beautiful, is inexpensive, but you have to fold it yourself.
- What activities differentiate you from your competitors? What will be difficult for them to repeat and implement at home?
For example, Southwest Airlines uses only one type of aircraft and lower-class airports to make flights cheaper and more affordable, and develops a corporate culture to maintain a high level of service.
- What is your X factor? The X factor is the secret advantage that allows you to beat your competitors 10 or even 100 times easily. This advantage is most often associated with a big problem in your industry.
P.S. Developing a business strategy is simple, but not easy. This is a whole project. And if you want to do this, then our checklist "How to create a project plan in 44 minutes" will come in handy.
Also, Irina independently created two sales funnels from 0 with a profitability of more than 100% in the company and is constantly working to improve their performance.
When Mark Zuckerburg launched Facebook in 2004, he was not a pioneer. At that time, there were already dozens of social networks with millions of investments and thousands of registered users. But still he managed to create the most popular social network on the planet.
How was Facebook able to get ahead of the big and much better funded competitors? The answer is simple - it's all about a well-thought-out strategy, which over the years has become a clear advantage.
What is a strategy?
If you ask several people to answer the question "What is a strategy?", you will most likely get several completely different answers. For example, the author of the well-known treatise The Art of War, Sun Tzu, says this about strategy:
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest path to victory. Tactics without strategy is noise before defeat.”
In modern management theory, the term "strategy" appeared only in the 1960s, but representatives of Eastern philosophy were the first to use it in their writings.
Henry Mintzberg, professor of management at McGill University, can rightfully be considered one of the most significant figures in modern strategic management. In his book Schools of Strategies. Strategic safari: a tour through the wilds of management strategies ”Mintzberg offered 5 different interpretations of this term (Mintzberg's 5P):
- strategy as a plan (a Plan);
- strategy as a pattern (a Pattern, a principle of behavior, a stable scheme of actions);
- strategy as a perspective (a Perspective);
- strategy as a position (a Position);
- strategy as a smart move (a Ploy).
At first glance, the definitions are completely different, but they are all similar in one thing: they are means to achieve a given goal under conditions of uncertainty.
Strategy is the answer to the question "How?"
The ultimate goal of any business is to realize the full potential of the found idea and create a working business model. Many entrepreneurs often make the same mistake: they start improving the product without paying due attention to the vision (a concise and inspiring statement of how top management sees the development of the business in the foreseeable future) and strategy (the plan to achieve the strategic vision).
Strategic pyramid: vision - why, strategy - how, product - what?
Vision and strategy are the main components of the above pyramid, because without them, even the best product can not compete in the market. A vision is what helps you set long-term goals, and a strategy is what helps you achieve those goals.
Strategy as a pattern
Any science is built on collective knowledge. The same can be said about innovation.
Sam Walton, an American businessman, founder of WalMart and Sam's Club, traveled widely (and long distances were never a barrier) to study his competitors. He drew ideas from what he saw to try them out in his stores. What can I say: even Google borrowed a model from its competitor Overture.
However, ideas for creating something new do not necessarily come from competitors. In 1831, going on a trip around the world on the ship Beagle, Darwin took with him Lyell's book "Fundamentals of Geology", and after 5 years he returned from a voyage with a huge amount of materials confirming the ideas of the scientist. However, Darwin's most important treasure with which he returned home was the conviction that all kinds of plants and animals go through a long process of gradual, continuous change, eventually leading to the emergence of new species.
Ironically, Charles Lyell, who influenced Darwin to write the main work of his life, On the Origin of Species, criticized the theory of evolution for many years.
Many innovative business models have been built on ideas borrowed from other industries. History knows a lot of examples when a company that released an analogue of a product that has long existed on the market turned into an industry leader. However, blind copying won't do you any good. Borrowing an idea and borrowing a strategy are two different things.
Strategy as differentiation
Someone else's idea may push you to create a strategy, but one way or another, you still need to think about how your product will differ from the products of your closest competitors. In other words, you have to find an "unfair advantage". ;)
“Madness: Doing the same thing over and over again, each time expecting different results.” - Albert Einstein.
The bad news is that you are unlikely to be able to immediately discover your “unfair advantage”. Most likely, intuitively you know exactly where to look for it, but do not yet know how. Therefore, initially your “unfair advantage” is a secret. ;)
“A secret is a unique opportunity that no one else knows about.” – Peter Thiel, Zero to One
The secret of the Facebook social network was connected with its users: Zuckerberg realized that people love to communicate (gossip, tell each other about their hobbies, etc.), but the modern rhythm of life prevents them from doing this. Zuckerberg decided that in order to create a new social network, it was necessary to simply eliminate all the shortcomings that were in existing social networks, and not try to follow the example of competitors. The Harvard campus - like the campus of any other university or college - was the perfect "petri dish" for experiments.
In order to reveal your own secret and ultimately understand what your “unfair advantage” is, you will need to study not only analogues of your products, but also, possibly, their anti-analogues. The concept of anti-analogs, first described in the book by Randy Komisar and John Mullins, Finding a Business Model. How to save a startup by changing the plan in time, is to study the negative experience of competitors, received by them when introducing innovative products to the market.
"The world gives way to those who know where they are going."
Ralph Waldo Emerson
When developing a company development strategy, many questions arise, starting with the questions: “Where to start developing a strategy?”, “Can we implement it, and what will it give us?”, And ending with the question “How to develop a real development strategy in general? We tried, it doesn't work!"
Developing a development strategy is indeed a difficult task, and there are often more questions than answers. Therefore, I will try to propose a general algorithm for solving this problem.
- Business is, first of all, the business that a person, a group of people or a company is engaged in.
- A business development strategy is a way to achieve a significant goal (strategic goal) in a big way.
- The beginning of any business is always an Idea. Let's call it Intention. Any business must have a worthwhile vision. The key word is not only “intention”, but also the word “worthwhile”.
The idea is what the entrepreneur wants and can do - what he can do. Or what he wants to learn. Coaches conduct trainings, doctors treat, consulting companies provide services.
A worthwhile vision is a vision associated with the provision of goods or services that, at a minimum, are in demand in the market. As a maximum, an entrepreneur's understanding of how to make money by providing specific goods or providing specific services.
If there is a worthwhile idea, then goals are formed. For example, to become a high-class doctor, trainer or the best consulting company in Russia.
Each company currently has the current state of its development, which it has reached in 2-3 or 15-20 years of work on the market. Let's call it "State A" for simplicity. Further development of the company is always (!) associated with a new level of conception and its achievement. Let's call it the target "State B". "State B" is nothing but a new Strategic Objective.
Stage #1: Preparation of input data for development strategy development
A business development strategy is a way for a company to move from its current state to the next target state in a big way. To develop a development strategy, it is necessary to determine the target “State B” and understand the current “State A”. Therefore, the first step is to form the target "State B".
Stage #1.1: Formation of a new target "State B", which we want to achieve.
Example. Let's say your company needs a development strategy. To do this, it is necessary not only to answer the question: “What should the company become at a completely new qualitative level?”, but also “What should it become in terms of target indicators?”.
In my opinion, the key difference between strategic development and current (or "just") business development lies in the presence/absence of a completely new qualitative level of the target state, which is described (digitized) by target indicators.
Therefore, the target state of the company (strategic goal) should include at least two key components.
The first component is content. It - first key element author's methodology. For the development of any company that has been successfully operating on the market for many years, new ideas are also needed. Therefore, the new goal should be based on the new revised Intent. Most often, this is due to the expansion of the product line or the strengthening of the existing one.
The strategic goal is formed according to the aspirations, desires and interests of business owners. If they don't want to trade metals, they won't do it for the foreseeable future, even if it looks attractive. And this is not a matter of expediency. It is expedient for business owners what is closer to them today, and what their thoughts and thoughts are directed to: to have a compact business or a very large one, to be a leader in 2-3 services or provide a wide range of services, and constantly fight for new projects in a highly competitive environment.
If your company provides one "locomotive" (main) Service-1, for example, "Development of the Sales Department ...", then your new content target state could be the addition of a new Service-2 "Development ...". This will expand the range of your services and allow you to provide your Customers with a more comprehensive service: Service-1 + Service-2.
As a result, your company can receive (and will receive!) many more projects. Of course, if there is demand and the ability to provide high quality services.
If the business development strategy is developed by an external business expert, then the generation of a new revised Concept, of course, falls "on his shoulders", but, of course, it is formed in dialogue with the Customer and agreed with him.
The second component is a description of the new target state (Strategic Goal) according to the required indicators (digitization). It is best if the strategic goal is presented in the form of a tree of goals. Subsequently, this tree of goals will be achieved by all employees of the company. It - second key element author's methodology.
If your company provides services and your main asset is people, then the list of targets to be achieved as part of the implementation of the strategy should include, for example: a list of services, including new ones (product line), the number of key specialists, the number of projects per year, other characteristic indicators for your company, turnover, marginality, profit.
The following is fundamentally important: there is no point in deeply analyzing the current state of the company until there is an understanding of what the company wants and what it will strive for. It - third key element author's methodology.
Thus, the result of Stage 1.1 is: the Strategic Goal is formed, based on the new revised Concept (Idea), and described by the necessary target indicators.
From the point of view of the well-known S.M.A.R.T. goal setting methodology, it is dramatically important that the strategic goal be meaningful or difficult enough, but achievable.
Therefore, the second step is to understand whether this goal can be achieved? Setting large and ambitious goals is usually not the biggest problem.
To begin with, you need to deeply analyze the current "State A". It should be noted that at the previous stage 1.1. it is also necessary, but not deeply, but at a sufficient level, to study the current state of the company.
Stage 1.2: Deep analysis of the current state of the company.
To form the current "State A", I also suggest using a few rules that I use myself. But first, let me give you an example.
Example. Let's say that your consulting company now completes 80 projects a year, and your team is 20 business consultants. You have a "locomotive" Service-1, certain turnover, marginality and profit. And you want the target turnover to become 2 times more. If there is high demand and the market is buying your Service-1 well, then your team should be at least larger. This is one development option. What tasks need to be solved, I think, is clear. If the demand for your Service-1 is low or the market size is limited, then, for example, you need 1 new service that is comparable or complementary to Service-1. This is the second development option. The given example is simple, but the search for a new service is far from a trivial task and occurs not just often, but constantly.
Analysis of the current state of the company also has at least two key components.
The first component - "State A" (capacity and potential of the company) should be described by approximately the same indicators that describe "State B" (Strategic goal). Then we will understand what we have and what we want.
The second component is an analysis of the dynamics of 2-4 previous years of the company's development, and its description. It - fourth key element author's methodology.
Why is the dynamics of the company's development necessary? Because the current figures, without taking into account the dynamics of the previous 2-3-4 years, are not enough to talk about.
Example. The turnover of your company in 2015 was, say, 20 million Euros. Is it a lot or a little? This number means nothing! To put it simply, if in 2014 your turnover was 40 million euros, then this is not enough. If the turnover was 10 million euros, then that's a lot. If competitors similar to your company have several times less turnover, then there is a lot and vice versa. Of course, it is necessary to take into account the general economic situation and a number of other parameters. But in life, and not in theory, this approach allows us to make an assessment that is quite close to the truth.
For the development strategy development by an external business expert, exact numbers are not so important. The order of figures, dynamics, market volume, volumes of the closest competitors are more important indicators.
Looking ahead, I want to say that the achievability of the strategic goal is certainly related to the current “State A”, since, “State A”, to a certain extent, is a “reference point” (“ready, willing and able”, as well as the current capacity and potential of the company).
For example, a company with a turnover of 200 thousand euros wants to achieve a turnover of 200 million euros. Perhaps this is the right goal, but you need to understand how many stages ("B", "C", "D", ...) a company must go through in order to grow and become a truly large company. And when (in terms of time) this goal can be achieved.
Thus, the result of Stage 1: the current and target state of the company are formed, digitized by the necessary indicators. This is the input data for the development of the company's development strategy.
The following questions: “How to move from the current state to the target state?”, “For how long?” and “What should be the strategy for achieving the goal?”. See Fig.1.
Fig.1. Current "State A" and Target "State B" (Strategic Objective).
Stage #2: Development of a company development strategy
The purpose of this article is to propose an algorithm for the implementation of projects to develop development strategies. However, I will only say a few words about this.
From a practical point of view, in my opinion, a company's development strategy should answer 4 main questions:
The planning horizon should be selected according to a range of criteria. For example, for companies that implement relatively long-term projects (IT companies, engineering companies, consulting companies), the planning horizon I propose is from 2 to 3 years. Why? Because with a sales cycle of several months and up to a year, the company is unlikely to have time to get significant financial results in a year. With a planning horizon of more than 3 years, psychologically, "there is still a lot of time before the end of the strategy implementation period" and ... "you should not rush." If you have a real and competent strategy for 3 years, in almost any industry, you can achieve the first significant results (for example, get new contracts and new projects).
I said above that a business development strategy is a way to achieve a significant goal (strategic goal) in a big way. "large" means, for example:
- Choice of direction of movement (development). For example, to become a technology leader as part of a product strategy - a strategy aimed at creating a unique product or service.
- Achieving significant or unique competitive advantages. For example, to become a market leader in terms of providing the highest level of service, to form a strong Sales Department, to achieve high logistics efficiency, or to find a way to get "long" cheap money.
- Or, according to the goal tree, you need to achieve, say, a number of large goals that are sub-goals of the strategic goal. On the example of a consulting company:
- Calculate (select, create) a new Service-2, which is, indeed, highly demanded by the market.
- Form a practice of 10 business consultants. For example, sequentially - as projects are received, and to begin with, invite 1-2 key business experts.
- Enter the market with a new service.
- Start providing an expanded range of services, combining existing services and new ones.
- Get 20 (30, 40, …) major projects within 1-2 years.
- Implement projects at a high professional level and receive letters of thanks and recommendation from Customers.
- Thus, to increase, for example, turnover by 3 times, marginality by 15%, profit by 8%.
I would like to draw your attention to the fact that the first in the list of goals are qualitative goals, and only then come the financial ones. As a rule, it is not possible to achieve a financial result without the right active actions.
What really matters? It is critically important to develop 2-3 options for a business development strategy, compare these options and justify the proposed option. It - fifth key element in my methodology. This will allow you to delve into the proposed option as deeply as possible, and understand why this option of the strategy was chosen, and not another. Everything is relative!
Thus, the result of Stage 2: the current and target state of the company is formed, digitized by the necessary indicators, and the company's development strategy is developed.
Now you need to understand whether the developed strategy can be implemented and the Strategic Goal achieved? And how exactly to do it? See Fig. 2.
Fig.2. Described and developed: current and target state of the company, development strategy.
Stage 3: Checking the developed strategy for feasibility
Check whether the developed strategy is realistically achievable and feasible, specific, measurable, equally understood by all team members, etc. you can, for example, using the well-known S.M.A.R.T.
How to do it practically? There is only one way to check - to develop a Plan of Specific Active Actions and KPIs, according to the responsibility centers, and to model the implementation of this plan. It's already a tactic. Strategy without tactics is dead! At the same time, it is important that the plan is achievable by the efforts of managers and key employees! It - sixth key element author's methodology. If the implementation of the plan is not achievable by the company's employees, then who will carry it out and implement the strategy?
Therefore, checking the strategy for achievability is a test for the achievability of all points of the Plan of Specific Active Actions. It - seventh key element author's methodology. This review can be done through targeted meetings and meetings with managers and key employees.
As a rule, business owners, TOP management of the company and key employees say that “yes, we can complete this item and we know how”, or they say that “no, we cannot complete this item, it’s not real!”.
If the answer is “No!”, then what?
Then, you need either an external business expert who will help implement the most difficult points of the plan. Or the company needs to find the appropriate full-time employees for those tasks that are important, and which the company is not able to implement with the existing forces. Otherwise, a number of points of the plan should be abandoned. However, I said above that the plan must be implemented by the company's employees. Otherwise, such a plan is obviously impossible.
The external executor of such projects, in a good way, should know and understand how to implement the proposed complex points of the plan. Otherwise, this is not the development of a development strategy, but advice to "become hedgehogs."
- The project is implemented by business experts who understand what they write and what they offer.
- At the time of the formation of the next target state of the company, there is an understanding of the current state of the company, sufficient not to offer the company “something not at all real” or something “out of the ordinary”.
- A business expert must be of a high level, have knowledge, and most importantly, skills related to the implementation of the points of the plan, which he also offers. etc.
With the correct organization and implementation of such a project, situations should not arise when at the last moment, when “everything is done”, it turns out that “everything is not right, and everything is not right”. To do this, a business expert must not only competently manage such a project - in a dialogue with the Customer, but also be able to deeply analyze information and draw conclusions.
- Design;
- Strategic goal (Target Condition "B");
- Strategy;
- Plan of Specific Active Actions (tactics);
- Goal tree;
- KPIs
- Motivation system;
- Internal projects;
- Achieving results.
It remains to briefly list 8 key elements of the author's methodology.
First key element- the new goal should be based on the new revised Intent. If this is not so, then this is just a "strategy" - a proposal to become "hedgehogs".
Second key element- The strategic goal is presented in the form of a tree of goals and digitized. If this is not the case, it is not clear how the strategic goal will be achieved by all employees of the company.
The third key element- it makes no sense to deeply analyze the current state of the company, without understanding what the company wants and what it will strive for.
The fourth key element- obligatory analysis of the dynamics of 2-4 previous years of the company's development, and its description. To really understand the current state of the company and how it came to it.
Fifth key element- proposal of 3-4 variants of the development strategy and substantiation of the proposed variant. So that it does not turn out that the strategy was adopted, but there is no understanding why it is such and not different. For (again) everything is known in comparison!
Sixth Key Element- verification of the feasibility of the implementation of the strategy, through the development of a Plan of Specific Active Actions and modeling the implementation of this plan.
Seventh Key Element- The Plan of Specific Actions must be achievable by the efforts of managers and key employees! Otherwise, it is unclear who and how will implement the strategy.
Eighth key element- based on the results of checking the Plan of Specific Active Actions for feasibility, the following are modified in the reverse order: the Plan itself, the Plan for the transition "in a big way", the Development Strategy, the New (refined) level of the Concept. After that, the results of the project are brought to the final form. This allows you to get a real strategy for the development of the company's business.
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