Are you clear on what you want to achieve?

Goals are part of every aspect of business and life. They provide a sense of direction, motivation, focus, and clarify importance. By setting goals, you are providing yourself with a target to aim for - without a goal, your efforts can become disjointed and often confusing. Goals will influence how and where energy and resources are used. Goals provide a destination for you to get to, so they encourage motivation and reduce procrastination. By setting goals you can measure your progress. Once you reach your goal, it gives you a taste of victory and you will want to taste that again so you will set yourself new goals.

The Whiteark Guide to Strategy & Execution

The key building blocks to guide the process of strategy to execution.

Answering strategic questions will form the basis of the key components to the Company Strategy building block.

•What is your current situation?

•Where do you want to go from here?

•What do you want to accomplish?

•How do you get from where you are today to where you want to be in the future? What are the steps do you need to take?

•What obstacles will you have to overcome? What problems will you have to solve?

•What skills and capability do you require to achieve your strategic objectives?

•What problem does your company seek to solve?

•Why do you believe this problem needs to be addressed?

•Does this problem matter to others?

•What are your offerings to solve this problem?

•What is the nature of your products and services?

•What specific customer/consumer needs are you addressing?

•Who are your ideal/target customers?

•What is your unique selling proposition?

•Are there other comparable offerings in market?

•What differentiates you from your competitors?

In today’s unpredictable environment strategic planning needs to be adaptive.

Covid-19 has been the catalyst for companies to reset their business strategy. In a time of such uncertainty, executive leaders need to be increasingly reliant on adaptive strategies so that they can set long-term goals but still flex with evolving conditions.

Contents of the Guide.

• Key building blocks for strategy to execution

• Considerations for each building block

• Adaptive strategy

• Building block one - market and industry trends

• Building block two - companies strategy

• Building block three - build the plan

• Building block four -manage performance

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Looking for help with your strategy? Reach out.

Whiteark is not your average consulting firm, we have first-hand experience in delivering transformation programs for private equity and other organisations with a focus on people just as much as financial outcomes. We understand that execution is the hardest part, and so we roll our sleeves up and work with you to ensure we can deliver the required outcomes for the business. So, if you’re looking to transform, reimagine or upgrade your strategy, then give us a call on 1300 240 047 for an no-obligation conversation.

Our co-founders have a combined experience of over 50 years’ working as Executives in organisations delivering outcomes for shareholders. Reach out for a no obligation conversation on how we can help you. Contact us on whiteark@whiteark.com.au

What's your story?

Stories make your business relatable and more importantly make you stand out from the crowd.

Data alone can be overwhelming for some people being walked through presentations, reading articles, and listening to interviews. Stories instead, engage hearts and minds and allow watchers, readers and listeners to relax into the moment.

Every great sale starts with a great story

In today’s competitive market offering a standout product or service isn’t enough. Every one of your competitors are trying to make more noise than you. But it’s not always noise that cuts through. It’s your story. Stories teach us about life and help us appreciate others and their different perspectives. A great story humanises a brand, allowing customers to feel some kind of connection and understanding. But crafting that story can be hard, especially when you’re so immersed in the detail.

Here are some tangible actions and questions to help clarify what you do and why, and to ultimately tell your business’s story in a genuine and engaging way.

Why do you exist?

When you decided to start your business there was story that went with it. This could have been related to a commercial problem you wanted to solve or for some personal reason. Revisit ‘why’ you exist and remind every member of your team, your customers and whoever will listen. This will deliver a holistic view of the background to your passion and why your purpose matters so much.

Stories make your business relatable and more importantly articulate the problem your product or service is trying to solve for them. To be authentic the story must have context for the audience otherwise it becomes a sermon and you’re back to old school selling by telling.

Action: Write down why you started doing what you do and why it matters?

How does your story silence your competitors?

Your customers, like you, are exposed to many narratives and messages, so having a story that will elevate your company from the rest is so important. It gives you an edge and more importantly ensures your customers’ choice becomes an emotional one.

Action: Check that your marketing messages reinforce the story of why you do what you do. Create consistency across your social media, website and employee sales collateral. Your story should be everywhere!

Your staff are your story tellers

Ensuring your staff understand the reason why you exist is important. They also need to be clear on their role and importance in the story. Put simply, if they believe and connect your story’s meaning for themselves, their motivation will naturally resonate when they share that with customers.

Action: Ask your staff to share their pitch of your story? Is it compelling?

Customers that care are the best ones

Your story is a chance to create an emotional connection and perhaps even make customers feel good about a particular problem or opportunity they may have. If you want someone to trust you with their hard earned dollars you need to engage in a way that entices understanding and meaning.

Action: How does my story help customers feel good or solve a problem?

Stories drive choices

There’s a gap in the market when it comes to businesses sharing their own unique, organic, human stories to drive a connection with customers on an emotional level. This is one of the key reasons we started Whiteark.

Stories give us life and your brand deserves the most awesome story ever.

I hope you have some fun creating your story, there’s no time like now…