Business strategy development might seem like a vague, complex term, but it’s simply about creating sustainable, long term value for all the stakeholders involved in an organization, whether it’s the executives, employees, customers, other relationships, and the market at large. In other words, it’s a holistic plan of how the business should run and provide value to its most important relationships.

Your organization’s business development strategy requires taking a big picture, long-term view of the direction that the business needs to take. This is something you can learn about in a no GMAT online MBA. This big picture thinking requires looking at all your stakeholders and what their relationships are with each other, whether it’s your employees, your leaders, customers, suppliers, and other key players in the day to day operations of your business. As for the long term view needed for a solid business development strategy, it requires not just looking at how your organization will get past your current challenges, but also how you’ll face the months, years, and even decades to come. For example, consider the primary value your organization offers. What does this value look like in the long run as employees and customers choose to remain loyal to your business? What opportunities will emerge over the years as a result of the value your business brings? As for leadership development, what does your organization have in store when it comes to training and developing emerging leaders? What kind of succession planning is in place or needs to be in place for the long term stability of your business? While these are not easy questions to answer, this is the kind of deep thinking required in business development.

Common Mistakes Made in the Business Development Planning Process

Every business looks for the opportunity to grow and expand their reach, but if that growth is not planned out properly, it could end up having the opposite effect. Here are some common mistakes to avoid when creating a business development plan:

While vision and strategy are very important to a business, a development plan cannot consist of only these things. There must be specific, targeted steps for the business to take to reach the goals and achieve the vision. Create a vision for the company and use the business development plan to map out the actions needed to make this vision a reality. This skill is important and can help in leadership development as well. It’s also important to remember that every business grows differently and rarely will two companies follow the same timeline. Many managers and owners will try to rush their growth and speed up the development. This can sometimes cause a major issue with the quality of the growth, and it can destroy morale and confidence amongst your workforce by setting unattainable goals. Finally, trying to provide a product or service that will attract everyone is one quick way to run a business into the ground. It’s impossible for a company to succeed without planning on who their main customers are. Once it’s narrowed down to a target group, all business activities can be planned around that group. This mistake undermines a company’s entire business development strategy, as the resources needed to reach every group of people will be too strenuous to maintain.

With proper business strategy development, it can be simpler and easier to implement better systems for hiring, marketing, sales, customer service, and growth. Once your organization has a solid strategy for how these different systems work together, you’ll be able to the long term stability and growth that every business needs.