Hit Your Sweet Spot

“Can you summarize your company’s strategy in 35 words or less?” Meaning, can you summarize your company’s objective for aligning your products, services, and capabilities for meeting your customer’s needs in a way in which your competitors cannot?

Sounds simple enough, right? In fact, the first time I read that, I quickly accepted the challenge and jotted down on a napkin, “ABC Solutions is a company providing marketing and business development services to the fresh produce industry.” And while this is true and important that I know this about my business, it is only a “who we are/what we do” statement – far from a real strategy statement.

This statement doesn’t even provide objectives for what we are trying to accomplish or set a platform for our decision making. Even worse, while it covers the scope in which we operate, it sorely lacks any identification of our competitive advantages. “There are three basic components of a strategy statement – scope, objective, and competitive advantage.”

So what is a strategy statement, what is not, a what is the difference between strategy, mission and vision statements. You may be thinking, why in the world do we need another statement to develop or promote?

Having spent the bulk of my career with a company that valued and made its business from strategic planning, the importance of mission and vision statements was not new to me. I have seen the positive impact on companies that invested in this planning process wisely. i also saw the complete waste of time it can be when the outcome is only tons of paper produced or the awful number of hours company decision makers were held hostage in hotel meeting rooms.

Identifying a strategy statement to me is the “next” obvious and most critical step a company must take, regardless of the size of the company or the industry in which it operates. I believe it is an exercise that can easily be executed internally, to help leverage its "business sweet spot".

Most businesses in our industry are operating with specific strategies and tactics in place, whether or not they have captured these in a statement or not.

While executing is imperative for survival, the benefits of crafting a "true value outside of price and availability" can be easily overlooked. So we must take the time to identify our “strategic sweet spot,” or the “spot of a company where it meets customers’ needs in a way that rivals can’t, given the context in which it competes.”

The Essence: Understanding who we are, what we are selling and where we want to go as a company is very very important. But never has there been a more crucial time to identify your company’s “strategic sweet spot,” or the value your company provides to your customers that your competitors cannot.

Developing a clear believable strategy statement will ensure company leaders stay consistent. More importantly, it provides the parameters for company decision makers to make decisions, and help the company’s objectives turn into reality. While mission and vision statements are basic foundations for any company planning on enduring, strategy statements speak more about how they intend executing on that plan.

Hit Your Sweet Spot News

Sep

2010-09-07

Sep

world of warcraft burning crusade codes | Leveling Guide Wow

2010-09-07

Once you have them at your sweet spot, frost nova them down, blink away, bring out your pet if you need and start casting blizzard. Should they get close enough to hit you and your frost nova is not back up, use your pets. ...

Jul

Tee It Up and Discover Your Sweet Spot | Peak Performance Golf Swing

2010-07-19

“Try your current method and try the tee methods I have discussed. Nothing feels better than a well struck ball on the 'sweet spot.'” Amen, about hitting the ball sweet. That's why they call it the sweet spot. I sounds so solid, ...

Sep

A Few Principles That Will Radically Change Your Game Of Golf ...

2010-09-07

Abandon the mindset of hitting the ball from point A to point B, as an illustration, you can proceed to hit the same to your sweet spot, that area where your shots never seem to fail, where your game is at its peak. ...

Aug

The Hallmark of Life Design: The Sweet Spot | Life Design By Mike

2010-08-16

The “sweet spot” of the bat is roughly in the middle of the fattest part of the bat. It's farther away from the handle than most people believe it to be. In my experience, if I hit a baseball in the physical middle of the bat, ... Most importantly, do not give up control of finding your “sweet spot” to someone or something else. This is how “fad diets” start when it comes to weight control (for example). Advertisements, clothing models and the media all assume that a ...

Sep

How to select new iron clubs - Golf Rewind

2010-09-06

Blades are not game improvement irons, your X-18's are, but not forged blades. Blades are made for really low handicappers. A blade will hit the ball a bit further, softer feel, and allow you to work the ball easier (fade or draw) but extremely ... You would probably benefit most from cavity back (perimeter weighted) irons. They have a larger sweet spot and are more forgiving than blades. I've been playing Ping Zings and Zing 2s for some years and they work very well. ...

Sep