A Strategic Guideline for Entrepreneurs

A Strategic Guideline for Entrepreneurs

Background

∙ Strategy matters more to entrepreneurs than to established businesses as it defines

boundaries to focus.

∙ When they act within these boundaries, the scarce resources can do research on

innovative ideas and evaluation methods to achieve a lasting success.

∙ The lean strategy process combines traditional strategy with lean start-up practices and

create an emergent strategy after accommodating daily decisions of all levels of

managers.

Understanding

Leaders of start-ups consider strategy as an enemy because it requires a clearly defined track

which is systematically articulated in advance. Start-up ventures have no evidently defined path

as they are opportunistic in nature. They quickly changes their decisions according to the

customer needs.

The leaders of the company should know what not to do. The strategy guides them to figure

out the dos and don’ts in the industry. One of the challenges faced by the entrepreneurs is how

to make wise choices between numerous options after analyzing the positive and negative

impacts. Another challenge is the decision making and it is really crucial. They need to check

that decision’s consequences in every departments of the company. Another challenge is how

to find an effective way to test the products and ensure agility and adaptation.

Strategy helps the entrepreneurs to choose a feasible opportunity which contributes

sustainable competitive advantage over years. The boundaries set by strategy help them to stay

focused and give them a visibility in the market. It also aligns the entire organizational activities

to support the distinctive value proposition. Strategy allows them to make necessary strategic

fit investments.

The lean strategy process starts with identifying the vision- the reason for existence. Then craft

deliberate strategy based on senior executives’ agreement upon firm’s objective, scope and

competitive advantage. Alter the strategy according daily decisions and conduct experiments

guided by the strategy. All employees of the organization should develop and test hypothesis to

improve the strategic positioning by examining strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats,

resources and capabilities of the firm. This is an iterative process.

Recommended Applications

This lean strategy can be applied in DCS Technologies Inc, an IT outsourcing company head

quartered in BC, Canada and a development center in India. This company started nine years

ago, and its principal activities are development, marketing and support of Computer

Consultancy, Networking Solutions, IT Business Solution, Digital Video Surveillance, POS

Solution for Restaurant and Retail industry, Web Marketing Solution, Corporate UPS Solution,

Server Solution and Web Design/Hosting. They have total 30 employees; 10 employees work in