This question goes out to all business owners. What is your growth strategy looking like this year? If your strategy is on the conservative side, we understand why. However, uncertain times are exactly why it’s always essential to evolve your strategy for success.
We’re always experimenting with management strategies at Top Applicant. So, learn how to evolve your business with the team that’s been there too. Feel free to jump to each topic with our helpful table of contents!
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Get Schooled
Chapter 2: Talking About It
Chapter 3: Get the Team Together
Chapter 4: Top Applicant’s Top Strategies
5: Talk Strategy With Top Applicant
Strategic Management 101
Before we get too ahead of ourselves, Let’s make sure everyone’s on the same page when it comes to what strategic management actually is. To evaluate and evolve your management strategies, stick to these 5 stages.
5 Stages to Progress
1: Setting Goals
This stage focuses on defining your vision for how your business operates. Your 5-year plan also includes your 5-month plan. So, make sure you fully align with your core values. Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose. Whether it’s on the gridiron or your bullpen, starting with a clear end goal sets you on the path to lasting success from the beginning.
2: Impartial Analysis
Here, you’ll need to take an impartial look under the hood of your business. Remember, this exercise won’t be successful if you only focus on what’s good. We encourage businesses to involve both internal and external analysis.
Internally, we recommend completing a SWOT analysis to anticipate potential strengths and weaknesses within your company. When thinking externally, we recommend sourcing an impartial 3rd party to evaluate your current situation and provide solutions you may not have considered.
3: Strategy Formulation
We love it when a plan comes together. That’s why you should develop your plan to be flexible while adhering to strategic priorities and objectives. By outlining the course of action you’ll take to achieve your goals, your entire team benefits.
4: Implementing Your Strategy
Now it’s time to put your plan into action. This involves allocating resources, assigning responsibilities, and developing clear communication channels to ensure everyone in the company is aligned with the strategy.
5: Keeping You in Control
This stage is about monitoring your progress and making adjustments as needed. Regularly evaluate your performance metrics to see if your strategy is working. Be prepared to adapt your approach based on internal and external changes.
The biggest thing to keep in mind is that this is a cyclical process. As you evolve, improve, and evaluate your strategy, there will always be reasons to change and adapt your strategy to meet new challenges and goals. So, if you need to update your strategy, Top Applicant’s got you covered on how to talk strategy with your team.
Internally Talking Strategy
How are you going about building your management strategies? In any business, we recommend staying on top of your strategy to ensure success. With everyone on board regarding any changes and updates, your entire team can breathe easier from the top down.
When Should You?
We recommend scheduling quarterly reviews to help your team develop and maintain an effective strategy. This allows for a proactive approach and ensures your strategy stays aligned with long-term goals. In some cases, a weekly touchbase can be a helpful way to track progress and meet goals more efficiently.
Significant Situations
Any major internal or external change can mean that you need to reevaluate your strategy. Internal changes could include a leadership shift, a new launch, or restructuring to meet growth demands. External changes might be new regulations, emerging technologies, or a shift in customer behavior.
If your business is falling short of your competitors, your strategy might need tweaking as well. That’s why it’s essential to make your management strategies clear and easy to understand.
New Opportunities
If exciting new opportunities arise, your strategy may need to adapt to capitalize on them. This could involve expanding into a new market, developing a new product line, or forging a strategic partnership.
The competitive landscape is constantly evolving. Regularly review your strategy to stay ahead of the curve and differentiate yourself from competitors.
Why You Should Get Your Team Involved
You’ll need support from your entire team to build a truly effective strategy for your business. Everyone from your mailroom to your C-suites should have a say when it comes to creating your management strategies. Here are the main concepts to consider as you call your team for help:
Promote Transparency
Share the Big Picture
Communicate the company’s vision, mission, and core values clearly. Explain how individual roles contribute to the overall strategy. We recommend holding town halls and team meetings or adopting internal communication platforms to keep employees informed about strategic goals, progress, and challenges.
Provide Data & Insights
Share relevant data and insights with employees so they understand the market landscape, competitor activity, and customer trends. This empowers them to make informed decisions within their roles.
Empower Your Employees
Strategic Cross-Functionalization
Create cross-functional teams with employees from different departments to work on specific strategic initiatives. This fosters collaboration and leverages diverse perspectives. By offering opportunities for employees to learn about different departments and functions within the company, you can broaden their understanding. This will empower your business from within as work more closely aligns with the overall strategy.
Feedback and Reviews With Focus
Develop regular surveys or feedback channels to gather employee input on the strategy itself. This allows for early identification of potential issues and course correction. As you receive data from these surveys, feel free to tie employee performance reviews to their contributions toward the company’s strategic goals.
This reinforces the importance of individual contributions to the bigger picture. Recognize and reward employees who actively participate in strategic discussions, contribute valuable ideas, or go above and beyond to implement the strategy.
Simple Implementation
By implementing these strategies, a business can create a more open and inclusive environment for strategic management. This can lead to a more engaged workforce, better decision-making, and a stronger overall strategy for the company. Remember, the key is to find the right balance between top-down leadership and bottom-up participation to leverage the collective intelligence of your employees.
Our Top 3 Strategies
Top Applicant’s top management strategies cover 3 of the most common stages of growth as businesses expand into the 21st century. Whether you’re starting from scratch or building the future, these are some of the most important considerations as you build your management strategies for the future:
Starting Small
Running a small startup requires agility, resourcefulness, and a focus on building a strong foundation. Here are some effective management strategies for small startups:
First Things First…
…you’ll need to embrace a “build-measure-learn” mindset. To do this, you’ll need to develop prototypes, test assumptions, and interact with real customers. With this mindset, you can set clear, SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) to ensure everyone is working toward the same objectives.
Through all of this, keep true to your core values. Don’t try to be everything to everyone. By working with your team to identify your target market, you can forge strong bonds to build your business.
Prioritize Your Team
To build an all-star starting lineup, look for individuals who share your company values and are passionate about your mission. Pay attention to those who thrive in a small team. Everyone needs to be adaptable and willing to take on various tasks to be capable of driving innovation and improvement. As you make these changes, we recommend creating opportunities for your team to take ownership and grow their skills through programs and mentorship. Putting good into your business inevitably gets good out!
Put Customers Second
In times of uncertainty, pay closer attention to the people showing up for you every day. Customers will come and go, but the strength of your team is crucial to the longevity of careers and your company. As you implement new management strategies, you should continually validate your product/service with customers and staff to ensure you’re addressing the right problems.
Data-Driven Decisions
Throughout every change to your strategy, make sure to thoroughly track customer throughput with analytics that inform your marketing and development teams. To carry out these plans, we recommend focusing on low-cost, targeted management strategies that can adapt quickly based on various inputs and changes to your process.
Talk is Cheap, Actions Cost Assets
It doesn’t cost a thing to keep your team informed about the company’s direction, challenges, and successes. That’s why we recommend hosting regular meetings and discussing progress, ideas, and roadblocks. Think about what happens if you keep your team in the dark. Do you really want your management strategy to compromise your most precious asset?
To foster effective communication across all relevant channels, we recommend taking advantage of project management tools and communication platforms. This will help keep everyone connected and on track. When you’re ready to grow, let’s talk upgrades!
Growing Up
A period of growth is an exciting time for any business, but it also presents challenges. Balancing capital, content, assets, and day-to-day operations are a lot to handle on your own. Here are some ways to build management strategies that can expand your business:
Scaling Strategies
Hire talented individuals who complement your existing team’s skills. But remember, quality over quantity is key. To get the most out of your team, we recommend offering training and development opportunities to ensure your team is agile enough to maintain a level of quality and quantity. Proper scaling helps to streamline workflows across your company as you improve efficiency and productivity through effective management strategies.
Build a Lean, Mean Marketing and Sales Strategy
Whether your workforce is on a cut or a bulk, you still need to fuel your growth with customers. To maximize your marketing budget, we recommend doubling down on SEO efforts to reach new leads and expand your brand. While you’re attracting new customers, look inward to discover why your repeat customers are coming back for more!
Lead Generation and Retention Strategies
Never overlook your existing customers. Implement loyalty programs, offer excellent customer service, and gather feedback to retain their business. The user experience is what effective management strategies are built for!
The end goal of every business endeavor is to build a better bottom line. We recommend leveraging data and analytics to drive your decisions. This will help you identify what qualifies a high-value lead, personalize pitches, and reach goals more effectively.
Remember, growth is a marathon, not a sprint. By focusing on these basic management strategies, you can navigate this period of growth and set yourself up for big long-term success.
Going Big
Call mom and tell her you made it! Go ahead and celebrate any wins where you can. Whether you’re launching an IPO or upgrading your office, big moves demand diverse management strategies. Here are Top Applicant’s top considerations in this stage of growth.
Maintain Your Culture
Through every decision, keep your employees informed about the company’s growth trajectory and how it impacts their roles. This is a great time to delegate tasks and responsibilities as you scale, which helps driven leaders foster a sense of ownership and deeper engagement among your employees. As your team takes on new challenges, acknowledge and reward their contributions to the company’s growth to maintain morale and motivation.
Expand Your Offerings and Intelligence
Consider developing new products or services that complement your existing offerings and cater to a broader customer base. If your business is regional, explore opportunities to expand your reach to new markets, either domestically or internationally. Collaborate with complementary businesses to access new markets, resources, or expertise.
Improve Customer Experiences
AI-powered chatbots can help with 24/7 customer support, answer frequently asked questions, and personalize interactions. Using intuitive analysis, these automated assistants can use customer data to suggest relevant products, services, or content. This ultimately leads to increased sales and satisfaction without you having to lift a finger! This is the cutting edge of consumer behavior based AI integrations.
Sentiment analysis: Gain insights from customer reviews, social media mentions, and surveys to understand customer sentiment and improve products or services.
AI-Assisted Funnel Management
We also recommend implementing AI to gather customer data and help target advertising campaigns for higher conversion rates. Automate repetitive tasks like email marketing and social media scheduling, freeing up time for more strategic initiatives. AI can identify high-value leads based on online behavior and demographics, allowing sales teams to prioritize their efforts.
Data to Guide Your Decisions
Forecast sales trends, customer churn, and market demands to make informed decisions about resource allocation, product development, and marketing strategies. Go beyond prediction and suggest specific actions based on data analysis. AI can help businesses optimize processes and make data-driven choices. These insights provide real-time KPIs across departments, allowing for faster and more effective decision-making.
Streamlining Daily Ops
A welcome side effect of using AI is that it frees up employee time by automating repetitive tasks like data entry, scheduling, and report generation. AI can also help with fraud detection and ledger management to keep your accounting team happy as well!
We also recommend AI to optimize employee scheduling, workload distribution, and resource allocation based on real-time data. By implementing innovative management strategies, businesses can gain a competitive edge, improve efficiency, and personalize customer interactions. Organic growth is possible with the right support system.
Strategize With Us!
Need to upgrade your hiring strategy? No sweat! Top Applicant is constantly evolving to serve businesses and job seekers with the best resources for true professional growth. To add our modern hiring platform to your strategy, it only takes a couple clicks! Crate your profile, post your jobs for free, and hire smarter by getting matched with your ideal candidates today.
Advertising Strategy Made Easy
Getting your name out there should always be part of your management strategy. To take your presence beyond the job boards, advertise on Top Applicant. Learn how you can support the future of hiring while creating one more avenue for leads!
