How you can be a successful Business Strategist?
When you talk about strategy most of the business leaders are clueless. They have not realized the importance of ‘strategy’. The reason most of the businesses are not able to scale up is because of a lack of strategy.
Yes, lack of strategy could result in –
- No identifiable business objectives
- Lack of focus required to achieve organizational goals
- Disengaged and disinterested employees
- Mistrust amid the staff and micromanagement of staff
- Increased attrition rates
Lack of strategy does paint a grim picture, however, not everything is lost if an organization hires a business strategist to ensure a proper strategy is formulated and is passed from the top management to the others down in the line.
While it is important for an organization to hire a business strategist, it is also crucial to understand that everyone in the organization should embrace strategy if they wish to see their organization to be successful.
The most pressing question presently could be – how could you become a business strategist? Do you have the right qualifications to become a business strategist?
The answers to these questions would be – it does take time to develop the skills and the sensibilities a business strategist requires. Understanding business strategy is part of science – it requires all your analytical ability, however, the other part, or rather the other lot is all about judgment and emotions.
As Cynthia Montgomery, puts it in her book ‘The Strategist: Be the Leader Your Business Needs,’ “being a business strategist is a way of seeing, a way of thinking, a way of acting. One learns to do it well through practice.”
In her book Montgomery had advised the business leaders world over to visualize their job as a picture in a small square, to back up and see that square as part of a much bigger picture.
A business strategist should be able to take a look at the connections across activities in the company and ask questions like –
- How well are these connections designed toward a common goal?
- Are these connections mutually supporting?
- How tightly are they connected with each other, if they are connected?
- Taking a broader perspective where does the organization fit in the market?
- How is it different from its competitors?
- Would the customers miss the organization or the product when it is gone?
. She would not only ask the above-mentioned questions would also try to seek the answers that would help her in formulating a business strategy that would further help the organization reach its goals.
Montgomery, also pointed out some of the basic flaws in the development of organizational strategy and the important one is that while there is a load of literature on what is strategy there is virtually nothing on how to be a successful business strategist.
Understandable there is no program or degree courses related to business strategy but this is where the credentialing bodies like The Strategy Institute, EDX, Cornell among others offer certification programs in business strategy for enthusiastic candidates vying for the role of a business strategist.
Business certifications ensure the prospective recruiter that you are committed to your role as a business strategist, self-motivated, and are an eager and quick learner.
