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10 Business Strategy Examples (And

Why It’s Important To Have One)
July 29, 2021
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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.