Making decisions is not the same as taking a shot in the dark and hope you hit your goal for a professional in the business world. If you want to be successful in business, you can hardly withstand the long-term effects of such impulsive behaviors, which could be disastrous. To contribute to the long-term success of your firm, your decision-making must be in line with its strategy.
So what exactly is strategic decision-making?
Making strategic decisions involves planning a company's course of action based on long-term objectives and a long-term vision. When a business considers the broad picture and is aware of its long-term goals, it can align every part of its operations in accordance with those goals, increasing the possibility that it will succeed in the market. After all, you can only get where you're going if you know where you're going!
How do I start thinking strategically?
Begin by clearly stating the reasons for which you exist as a business: the mission and vision of your company. Say, you are in the business of manufacturing air purifiers. You might be dedicated towards providing clean air using the best technology available, or you may just look to be the highest revenue-earner in the market for this product. The point to note is that once you know what you wish to do and achieve in the long term, you can make your daily decisions according to these.
What departments require strategic decision-making?
Across all aspects of a company, strategic decision-making is, by definition, essential. After all, you would not want to be tossing a coin to decide your budgets, or asking a random person about how you could market your products. Let us look at some particular departments to understand this better.
Finance
Quite possibly the one factor that underlies all decisions a company makes, finance plays a role in everything that a business does. The role is two-fold: it helps a business to work within a budget, paying bills and monitoring expenses; and it looks to generate more money for the business and make it more profitable. Crucial to the overall success of the business, finance sets the overall financial goals for a company and then monitors progress towards those goals, in the process helping other departments establish their own budgets and goals. Finance truly plays a strategic role in every business decision.
Marketing
This is not a simple matter of putting up a few flyers or shouting yourself hoarse. Marketing strategy decisions involve a lot more key steps: gathering all necessary information; selecting the most attractive and profitable target market(s); positioning the brand well and pricing the product right; choosing appropriate market channels; and picking the right product-service mix. Doing so will allow you to have a suitable marketing plan in place, in line with the long-term direction of your business.
Operations
Operational decisions in essence are about how you will implement your strategic decisions. Typically medium-term in their scope, they target the production process while maintaining a focus on growth. Simply put, they are the “how” of achieving the strategic goals of a company. Say, your strategy is to offer small gift hampers with every family meal at a restaurant you open in a crowded, competitive marketplace. The operational part would be figuring out and sourcing the contents of the hamper, and pricing it to stay profitable.
How do I get picked for a role in strategy?
Strategic thinkers are needed everywhere! They add value by planning for the future, looking at the big picture, and keeping tabs on external as well as global factors. Selecting the right candidate for organizations is hard, but certainly not impossible. They look for someone who values strategic thinking, uses the right words (“strategic goals”, “multiyear”, “root cause analysis”, and more), can solve real-world problems, identify flaws in early-stage strategy plans, and asks the right questions of you.
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