Identify which will best enable your future company exit event
Ask yourself this question – is the strategy I’m employing at my company enabling our operating effectiveness or is it enabling how we are truly going to be different in the market versus our competition?
Having a strategy of operating effectiveness means you are playing the game the way your competition does but are trying to do so better than they do. This differs from a strategy of your team working to position your company to be vastly different than your competitors, trying to change the rules of the game in your industry.
Let’s be clear, both of these strategies can build the value, or net worth, of your company. But, depending on your industry and depending on what type of future exit event you desire for your business (i.e. how much net payout you would like to receive for your company and in what time frame), one of these may be of greater value to you than the other.
It’s important that you determine which strategy your company needs to bridge to your long-term exit event desired outcomes. You don’t want to work hard for years only to find a focus on an operating effectiveness strategy didn’t get you to the euphoric exit event you desired because you needed to tackle a more differentiating and game changing strategy. And the opposite could apply in that you may not need to employ game changing strategies to achieve your desired end game and incur the associated risk and potential costs only to find that a strategy of operating effectiveness would have been more effective in your situation.
Don’t lose time in thinking this important topic through. Use time as a friend to consider which type of strategy will bridge you to your future euphoric exit event.
