In less than two months, 2023 will begin, and you will need to get moving on your strategy for the calendar year. If you start planning in January, you will lose a few months that you could have spent on execution. If you start planning now, you can have your strategy in place by the time business starts up next year.
To ensure you can cover a lot of ground in the remaining weeks, here are six areas on which you should focus:
Start with your long-term goals and business vision
Your long-term goals might stretch further than a year into the future, but your strategy for 2023 will contribute immensely to how well you achieve these.
As you look ahead to 2023 and start planning your strategy, it is essential to analyse your business vision and long-term goals. You can adapt your 2023 strategy to account for this and ensure that it supports your overall objectives.
You can approach this analysis in a few different ways. You can review your vision and identify any changes you need to make in the coming year. When you have your vision at the front of your mind, you can also ensure that any new initiatives align with it.
Once you have done this analysis, you will better understand what your business needs to do to achieve its vision and goals in 2023. With this information, you can start breaking down your strategy into smaller short-term goals to meet over the coming year.
Conduct a SWOT analysis
‘SWOT’ stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It is an approach for revealing blindspots and highlighting where your business already thrives.
You can leverage it to identify internal and external factors that will impact the success or failure of your business. The internal factors are the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation, while the external factors are the opportunities and threats that come from the environment in which your organisation operates.
A SWOT analysis can become helpful when planning your business strategy because it gives you a framework for identifying the weaknesses and threats you need to overcome and how you can use your strengths and opportunities to your advantage.
Another reason you should conduct a SWOT analysis is that it can help you align your goals and resources. This alignment ensures you are using resources in the most effective way possible. Additionally, it will highlight gaps in resources, and you can make decisions about how to fill those.
You can also leverage a SWOT analysis to evaluate your progress against previous years and strategies. Perhaps there is a weakness you have already improved on or something that will keep affecting your business. Such information will help you set realistic goals.
Specify your small or short-term goals
It is important to remember that goals are necessary for any successful business plan. Without specific and measurable objectives, it becomes difficult to track progress and gauge whether or not you are on track to achieve your overall vision.
When defining your short-term goals, you must ensure you can realistically meet them in the time frames you set. Trying to accomplish too much too quickly can set you up for failure by burning out your team or making it harder to prioritise.
Instead, focus on setting smaller, more manageable goals you can realistically achieve within the following year. Doing so will make it easier to measure progress and reprioritise as you work towards your longer-term objectives.
Prioritise your initiatives
Prioritising initiatives is an integral part of any business’s strategy for 2023. Doing so can reduce unnecessary costs, help you maintain focus, and achieve better results.
Reduce overspending: If you know which initiatives are most important, you can focus resources on those initiatives and cut costs in other areas.
Maintain focus: It can be easy for leaders to get caught up in all the different things they need to do and lose sight of their overall goals. By prioritising initiatives, you can ensure your team works towards their most important objectives.
Improve results: By focusing on the most critical initiatives, you improve your chances of achieving the best possible outcomes.
Choose your KPIs
Setting KPIs is an essential part of any business strategy. By setting specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based (SMART) goals, you can track progress and ensure you are able to achieve the desired results. You should communicate KPIs to the relevant team members so everyone knows the goals and can work towards them.
When creating a business strategy for 2023, you must consider what KPIs you will need to track to gauge your progress. Do you want to increase sales by a certain percentage? Decrease costs by a certain amount?
There is no one-size-fits-all answer when setting KPIs, as the goals will vary depending on the specific business and industry.
Stay accountable as the business’ leader
Leaders need to be accountable for the business strategy to ensure effective execution. You are responsible for aligning the strategy with the company’s goals and objectives. You also need to be sure that you have the resources and capabilities necessary to execute the strategy. If you do not hold yourself accountable, it becomes easy for the strategy to fall by the wayside.
Accountability means that you feel invested in making progress on the business goals. When you hold yourself accountable, you must constantly evaluate your progress and make necessary adjustments to ensure your business is on track.
There are a few ways to hold yourself accountable for the business strategy:
- Create a response plan for when you cannot meet a goal
- Delegate responsibility to others but remain involved with the progress
- Hold regular check-ins with your team and offer support where needed
- Celebrate successes and learn from failures
Accountability is a critical component of any leader’s strategy when planning for 2023. Leaders who fail to hold themselves accountable will find it challenging to make progress, build trust, and be successful in the long term.
Resonate can guide your 2023 strategy
I help B2B business leaders define or refine their strategies. I provide strategic advice and consulting on various facets of strategy; business strategy, corporate strategy, product/service strategy, functional strategy, go-to-market, competitive strategy, pricing strategy etc.
I aim to work with business leaders to help them make sound business decisions. More often than not, I find that the issues businesses face are caused by strategic issues.
If you are starting a new role as a business leader, or you have been with the business for a while, and you are initiating new transformation projects, let’s connect, let’s talk. I have extensive experience in guiding business leaders on transformation and change projects. I look forward to hearing from you.
