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What is Strategic Thinking and How to Apply it to Your Business

Guest post by: Anne Bachrach

Article Overview: Strategic Thinking is not a new way of thinking; many successful large organizations have used these practices to establish a clear and precise path on which to carry out their vision. Applying Strategic Thinking practices to your small business will accelerate your success by allowing a crystal clear focus to drive daily tasks - for you and your team.

What is Strategic Thinking and How to Apply it to Your Business

In recent years, the theory of strategic thinking has been gaining steam in the business world. While it follows the same outline as strategic planning, it differs in that it allows more flexibility, greater creativity, and more collaboration among multiple levels of management, which includes the following:

- Understanding the implications of strategic actions

- Holding the past, present and future in mind in order to make effective decisions

- Focusing on the goal with the intent of achieving it

- ombining critical and creative thinking to all decisions

- Having the ability to respond to good opportunities

Each of these steps is categorized into the following:

Vision of the future: Only the shape of the future can be predicted. The past and present have already been set and cannot be changed.

Strategic formulation and implementation: Formulation and implementation are interactive rather than sequential and discrete. This is a more interactive way to strategize and involves multiple levels of managerial roles, providing creative input and potentially improving the results.

Managerial role in strategy making: Lower-level managers have a voice in strategy-making, as well as greater latitude to respond opportunistically to developing conditions.

Control: Relies on self-reference – a sense of strategic intent and purpose embedded in the minds of managers and employees throughout the organization.

Managerial role in implementation: All managers understand the larger system, the connection between their roles and the functioning of that system, as well as the interdependence between the various roles that comprise the system.

Strategy making: Sees strategy and change as inescapably linked and assumes that finding new strategic options and implementing them successfully is harder and more important than evaluating them.

Process and outcome: Sees the planning process itself as a critical value-adding element. The process is seen as a valuable piece, since it brings greater creativity and potential with its broader managerial scope.

Whether you run a small business or a large corporation, strategic thinking can help your business run more efficiently and effectively. Here are five steps to implementing Strategic Thinking in your business.

Step #1: Have a vision for your business.

Write out a mission statement for your business, and think big!

Step #2: Have clear and focused goals and milestones.

Once you’ve written your mission statement, create smaller milestones or goals that are very focused and specific with target dates. Your entire team should be on the same page in order to achieve all the goals.

Step #3: Learn to work efficiently and effectively.

This takes a combination of building the right team, creating the right systems and documenting them, and delegating for optimal results.

Step #4: Remain aware of the direction your team is headed.

This does not mean you should micro-manage, but you should always have an understanding of how the actions of your team affects the future of your business. Come up with creative ideas for supporting them, which will help them to remain enthused and focused on the goal.

Step #5: Keep your eyes open for golden opportunities.

When you are prepared, you can take advantage of opportunities that your competition may not be ready to take. Support creative input from your team and teach them how to spot opportunities that will create more growth.

Strategic Thinking is not a new way of thinking; many successful large organizations have used these practices to establish a clear and precise path on which to carry out their vision. Applying Strategic Thinking practices to your small business will accelerate your success by allowing a crystal clear focus to drive daily tasks - for you and your team.

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Article Tags: critical thinkingsmall business, drive daily tasks, strategic thinking



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