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Hoàng Thị Thanh Mai đang tìm kiếm từ khóa What is strategic focus and why is it important được Update vào lúc : 2022-12-19 20:00:12 . Với phương châm chia sẻ Bí kíp Hướng dẫn trong nội dung bài viết một cách Chi Tiết 2022. Nếu sau khi Read Post vẫn ko hiểu thì hoàn toàn có thể lại Comment ở cuối bài để Tác giả lý giải và hướng dẫn lại nha.So far, we've written about how to create the perfect vision statement, as well as a set of great company values. Now we're going to show you how to start creating your actual strategic plan - starting with creating strategic focus areas.
Nội dung chính Show- What is a strategic focus area?Focus area meaning Creating strategic focus areasKey focus areasLinking focus areas to your vision statement & valuesArea of focus examplesWhat does it mean by strategic focus?What is strategy and why is it important?Why is the strategic focus area important to the business success?What is strategic focus and plan?
This article is part of our mini series 'How To Write A Strategic Plan'. You can tải về our không lấy phí 'How To Write A Strategic Plan' eBook which contains all of the articles from the series.
You can find the individual articles below:
How To Write A Strategic Plan: The Cascade ModelHow to Write a Good Vision StatementHow To Create Company ValuesCreating Strategic Focus Areas (This Article)How To Write Strategic ObjectivesHow To Create Effective ProjectsHow To Write KPIsWhat is a strategic focus area?
Focus areas are the foundation stones of your strategy. They expand on your Vision Statement and start to create some structure around how to actually get your organization to achieve its goals.
Focus area meaning
Stay focused on delivering your vision, it's now time to move on to the specifics of our plan, starting with how to create strategic focus areas. As always, we'll start with a quick refresher on how our complete strategic plan will look:
In past articles, we've used the example of a bike manufacturer to illustrate aspects of a solid strategic plan - we'll continue that theme here. To recap:
Our Vision:
“To be the premier bike manufacturer in the Pacific Northwest."
Our Values:
- InnovativePassionateAccountabilityCompassionate
Our Focus Areas:
- Aggressive GrowthNation's Best BikesModern ManufacturerTop Places To Work
A common question we receive from organizations using our cloud system Cascade is 'How many Focus Areas should we create'? The answer is in the question.
How many things can you and your people realistically focus on one time? In our experience, 3 to 6 is probably a reasonable range. Focus Areas should be easy enough to remember so that any employee you bump into in a corridor should be able to easily recap them.
Any more than 6 Focus Areas runs the risk of you being, well....unfocused!
One of the hardest things about creating strategic focus areas for your organization is deciding what to leave out. You probably have a thousand things that you want to achieve, but one of the key outcomes of this process is to refine these things down to those that really matter in the here and now for your organization.
The rule is, if an activity does not fit into one of your focus areas - it shouldn't be happening - least not right now. Sure there may be 'emergency exceptions' here and there - but it's important to commit to the process of refinement wholeheartedly, so spend enough time creating your focus areas to ensure they cover the gambit of everything you want to achieve.
Creating strategic focus areas
To help you while creating strategic focus areas, we've devised the following checklist that by-and-large, all your focus areas should conform to:
1) No longer than 6 words each
Long winded strategic focus areas are an oxymoron - if you can't distill your focus into 6 words or less, keep refining it until you can - it needs to be simple and memorable.
2) Not too broad
Don't cheat by creating strategic focus areas that are too broad, like 'Be profitable'. Unless this really is a specific focus (e.g. for new startups) - this defeats the point of the exercise and doesn't help you to focus all!
3) No jargon
Avoid ambiguous terms like 'maximize' or 'succeed' - state what you are trying to achieve as an outcome, not how you are going to do it.
4) No metrics
Conversely, it might be tempting to add specific targets or metrics to your focus areas - avoid this. Metrics will absolutely come into play for your plan, but not this stage. Keep things high level for now, but still outcome focused.
Key focus areas
In truth, when we distill the various focus areas of clients we work within Cascade, we can surmise that the vast majority fit into one of the following broad business objective categories.
If you're struggling for inspiration, think about which of the following categories you want your organization to focus on and start creating strategic focus areas from there:
- Expansion / Growth - e.g. Expand network to the Asia PacificRevenue / Cost / Margin - e.g. Increase salesCustomer Satisfaction - e.g. Repeat business from customersCompliance - e.g. Zero regulatory issuesInnovation - e.g. Launch new product linesEngagement with a Stakeholder Group - e.g. Engage with our communityEmployee Happiness - e.g. Proud & Happy Staff
You may well create strategic focus areas that don't fit into any of the categories above, but hopefully, this list gives you a good starting point.
The methodology is not dissimilar from ones such as the Balanced Scorecard and most other strategic frameworks for that matter.
Linking focus areas to your vision statement & values
The key outcome that we're trying to achieve when creating strategic focus areas, is to realize our Vision Statement. Ask yourself, if you succeed on each of your focus areas, will you realize your Vision in full?
If your gut tells you 'no' - then you've got a couple of options. Either revisit your focus areas or revisit your vision statement. Either approach is valid - one of the key rules around creating our vision statement was to incorporate an element of pragmatism (not too much though!).
If your focus areas encompass the entirety of what you think your organization can realistically achieve (even with any growth that forms part of your plan), and they still won't realize your vision - don't be afraid to go back a couple of steps and make some tweaks.
When it comes to aligning our strategic focus areas to our company values, this is equally important albeit for a different reason. Well written company values should encompass our desired organizational culture.
Area of focus examples
Our culture is the environment, or if you prefer the enabler for our activities. There are no hard and fast rules about how company values and focus areas should fit together - but a couple of obvious examples might be:
(Value) Energy - [Focus Area] Expand our business internationally
(Value) Empathy - [Focus Area] Responding to Customer Feedback
(Value) Continuous Learning - [Focus Area] Staff Training & Empowerment
In much the same way as for your Vision and Values - we would strongly encourage you to involve your key team members in the process of creating strategic focus areas.
As always, the more involved people are in the creation process, the more empowered they will be to deliver them. There are many ways to do this, from running Focus Groups, issuing Surveys and simply being responsive to ideas and suggestions as they come up as part of business-as-usual.
However, nothing beats a culture of open and honest communication where such discussions occur naturally as a result of people's pride and passion for the organization.
What does it mean by strategic focus?
The strategic focus areas outline the areas on which you need to work to attain the company's vision. The strategic objectives define what exactly you want to achieve in that focus area. These objectives have to be clear, measurable, and time-bound.What is strategy and why is it important?
One of the most commonly accepted definitions is that strategy is a method of long-term planning and directing operations to achieve an end goal. In business, these goals are primarily driven by growth and based on building revenues.Why is the strategic focus area important to the business success?
Strategic focus areas are part of a strategic plan, which is an essential part of a business. After all, without a plan, you're setting your business up for failure. There's no way to measure the success of your business, no clue of what your goals are, and no way to get your team moving towards a common goal.What is strategic focus and plan?
Strategic planning is a process in which an organization's leaders define their vision for the future and identify their organization's goals and objectives. The process includes establishing the sequence in which those goals should be realized so that the organization can reach its stated vision. Tải thêm tài liệu liên quan đến nội dung bài viết What is strategic focus and why is it important