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Career Guide / Career Development / 10 Business Strategy Examples (And Why It’s Important To Have
One)

CAREER DEVELOPMENT

10 Business Strategy Examples (And Why It’s Important To Have One)

July 29, 2021

By: Indeed Editorial Team

A business strategy is a powerful tool for helping you reach your business goals, defining the methods
and tactics you need to take within your company. The business strategy also guides many of your
organizational decisions, such as hiring new employees.
Creating a business strategy that's in line with the vision you have for your company takes time and
development. In this article, we’ll discuss what a business strategy is and why it's important, the
components of a business strategy and 10 examples of business strategies to help you generate ideas
for your own company.

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What is a business strategy?

A business strategy is an outline of the actions and decisions a company plans to take to reach its goals
and objectives. A business strategy defines what the company needs to do to reach its goals, which can
help guide the decision-making process for hiring as well as resource allocation. A business strategy
helps different departments work together, ensuring departmental decisions support the overall
direction of the company.

Related: The 5-Step Strategic Management Process

Why is a business strategy important?

There are several reasons why a business strategy is important for organizations, including:

Planning: A business strategy helps you identify the key steps to take to reach your business goals.

Strengths and weaknesses: The process of creating a business strategy allows you to identify and
evaluate your company's strengths and weaknesses so you can create a strategy that optimizes your
strengths and compensates for or eliminates your weaknesses.

Efficiency: A business strategy allows you to effectively allocate resources for your business activities,
which automatically makes you more efficient. It also helps you plan ahead for deadlines, allocate job
roles and stay on track for your project goals.
Control: Creating a business strategy gives you more control over choosing the kinds of activities that
will directly help you reach your goals, as well as allows you to easily assess whether your activities are
getting you closer to your goals.

Competitive advantage: By identifying a clear plan for how you will reach your goals, you can focus on
capitalizing on your strengths, using them as a competitive advantage that makes your company unique
in the marketplace.

Related: Understanding the Basics of Strategy Development

Components of a business strategy

There are six key components of a business strategy. They include:

1. Vision and business objectives

A business strategy is intended to help you reach your business objectives. With a vision for the
direction of the business, you can create clear instructions in the business strategy for what needs to be
done and who is responsible for completing each step.

2. Core values

A business strategy guides top-level executives, as well as departments, about what should and should
not be done, according to the organization's core values. It helps everyone stay on the same page and
with the same goals.

3. SWOT analysis

SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This analysis is included in every
business strategy, as it allows the company to rely upon its strengths and use them as an advantage. It
also makes the company aware of any weaknesses or threats.

4. Tactics
Many business strategies articulate the operational details for how the work should be done in order to
maximize efficiency. People who are responsible for tactics understand what needs to be done, saving
time and effort.

5. Resource allocation plan

A business strategy includes where you will find the required resources to complete the plan, how the
resources will be allocated and who is responsible for doing so. In this regard, you will be able to see
where you need to add more resources in order to complete your projects.

6. Measurement

The business strategy also includes a way to track the company's output, evaluating how it is performing
in relation to the targets that were set prior to launching the strategy. This helps you to stay on track
with deadlines and goals, as well as budgetary concerns.

Related: Ultimate Guide To Strategic Planning

10 business strategy examples

Here are 10 examples of great business strategies:

1. Cross-sell more products

Some organizations focus on selling additional products to the same customer. Cross-selling works well
for office supply companies and banks, as well as online retailers. By increasing the amount of product
sold per customer, you can increase the average cart size. Even a small increase in cart size can have a
significant impact on profitability, without having to spend money to acquire more new customers.

2. Most innovative product or service

Many companies, particularly in the technology or automotive space, are distinguishing themselves by
creating the most cutting-edge products. In order to use this as your business strategy, you will need to
define what "innovative" will mean for your organization or how you're innovative.
3. Grow sales from new products

Some companies like to invest in research and development in order to constantly innovate, even with
their most successful products. This type of strategy involves introducing new products into the market
and updated products that are able to keep up with trends.

Related: How To Increase Sales in a Small Business

4. Improve customer service

This can be a good business strategy if your business has had a problem delivering quality customer
service. Some companies have even built a strong reputation for having exceptional customer service.
Usually, companies have a problem in one specific area, so a business strategy that's focused on
improving customer service will usually have objectives that center around things like online support or
a more effective call center.

Related: Customer Service Skills

5. Cornering a young market

Some large companies are buying out or merging competitors to corner a young market. This is a
common strategy used by Fortune 500 companies to gain an advantage in a new or rapidly growing
market. Acquiring a new company allows a larger company to compete in a market where it didn't
previously have a strong presence while retaining the users of the product or service.

6. Product differentiation

Product differentiation is a common business strategy, especially for business-to-consumer (B2C)

businesses. They can differentiate their products by highlighting the fact that they have superior
technology, features, pricing or styling.

Related: What Is Business-To-Consumer Marketing?

7. Pricing strategies
When it comes to pricing, businesses can either keep their prices low to attract more customers or give
their products aspirational value by pricing them beyond what most ordinary customers could afford. If
companies plan to keep their prices low, they will need to sell a much higher volume of products, as the
profit margins are usually very low. For companies who choose to price their products beyond the reach
of ordinary customers, they are able to maintain the exclusivity of their product while retaining a large
profit margin per product.

8. Technological advantage

Obtaining a technological advantage, you can often achieve better sales, improved productivity or even
market domination. This can mean investing in research and development, acquiring a smaller company
to gain access to their technology or even acquiring employees with unique skills that will give the
company a technological advantage.

9. Improve customer retention

It's generally far easier to retain a customer than spend money to attract a new one, which is why this is
a great strategy if you see opportunities for improvement in customer retention. This strategy requires
you to identify key tactics and projects to retain your customers.

Related: 16 Customer Retention Strategies That Work

10. Sustainability

You could launch an entire business strategy aimed at increasing the sustainability of your business. For
example, the objective could be to reduce energy costs or decrease the company's footprint by
implementing a recycling program.

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