part0009

For some, the term ‘strategy’ is more of a stigma than a business tool and is best avoided because it has that stink of corporate bad breath hanging over it. I should know, because that used to be me back in the day when I thought that ‘strategy’ was the preserve of only the educated and their intellectual neural pathways. It certainly wasn’t for the likes of me, having left school with just a few exam results under my belt, and little else. After all, I’d still been able to work my way up and improve my lot by running a business with my co-partners without a fancy set of letters after my name, so why did I need any such thing called strategy? To a certain extent that was true – our business in the 2000s was performing well and we were turning over a healthy revenue with clients all over the world. We didn’t really have a plan, we just wanted to make money, and more of it, and that’s exactly what we did. Until the financial crash in 2008, when our business ground to a halt. It wasn’t until then that, better late than never, we realised that if we were going to ride out this storm, we needed a plan. Or, in other words, a strategy.

Quite why I’d never made that link – between a strategy and a plan being more or less the same thing – I can only attribute to the fact that I’d always dismissed jargonistic words as irrelevant to my own experience or aspirations. It never occurred to me that it was just another term for an activity that I carried out in my everyday life all the time – such as planning a car journey. This needs a well-maintained car of the right size to fit the required passengers, with enough funds to pay for the return journey; the tank needs filling with the right fuel type, and the route needs plotting and the journey times calculated to ensure an appropriate arrival time. It’s exactly the same in business if your aim is to become a market leader.

At this point I accept that you’re keen to get to grips with formulating your own strategy and wondering who can best mentor you by sharing their advice and experience. In my case, for our drones business, I and my partners knew we wanted it to be an innovative enterprise that embraced technology. We’d always been forward-looking and because we identified an opportunity, just as our traditional maritime business was maturing, we began by investigating various concepts that formed the ‘internet of things’, or ‘IoT’ as it’s known. That entailed me researching what was out there and attending numerous high-tech conferences in San Francisco and wondering how the hell anybody ever sold anything because everybody only seemed to sell ‘concepts’ and ran for cover when I tried to talk commercials. However, one of those concepts was drones, which immediately triggered my interest and desire.

The consumer market for drones was already growing nicely but it occurred to me that on a commercial level there were very few early adopters in a potentially significant and, as yet, untapped market. Reporting this back to my partners and by employing the VAP process I described in Chapter 3 , backed up by encouraging forecast studies conducted by the likes of PwC and Goldman Sachs, we recognised that this could potentially be an amazing opportunity. Our strengths lay in our B2B product and service skills and, on that basis, we saw no reason why we couldn’t become the biggest commercial supplier of drones in the UK and Ireland to start with. Together with our already established international reputation, we also set our sights on becoming the biggest in the world. However, following careful consideration, given that we were a relative newcomer into the market and a small operation, we agreed that we should refocus our goal to be the No. 1 in the UK and Ireland. Globally the market is worth $154bn so being the dominant player in the fifth biggest economy within five years from launch was still an extremely attractive and ambitious proposition. What’s more, our refocused strategic thinking made that ambition more achievable. Part of that refocusing was based on analysing what we would have required (as fuel) to become world No. 1, such as the extra funding, thus increasing our risk and exposure. Plus, the thought was in our minds that if we tried to serve everybody, we’d serve nobody. It taught us that one of the big advantages of strategic planning, using the hedgehog test and our VAP process, is the ability to know from the outset what not to do. While the VAP results showed us we might not be able to be best in the world at selling drones, we could, however, be the best on our home turf. It also confirmed our instinct that, based on our B2B expertise, we shouldn’t try to enter the business-to-consumer (B2C) marketplace, despite that sector showing a healthy growth in demand and sales. We then further refined the strategy by ruling out targeting commercial photography and videography for the film and TV industry because that was already a relatively mature market (with less expensive kit). Instead, we targeted surveying, as that was an area in which we could excel, and it also attracted a high premium. We also set our sights on the emergency services and industrial safety inspections (which was also a natural fit with our background). Through our strategic planning, we had discovered our niche and had identified an achievable pathway to maximise results. Niche is good.

Therefore, if you have ever struggled, as I once did, with the notion of creating a strategy, I hope that by now your fears, concerns and adversity towards it have been allayed. I’ve included a starter checklist below that will help this vital process and encourage you to focus your thoughts on your business, and how it can be most profitable by creating a strategic plan so that your business can navigate from A to B. I am the first to admit that, even to this day, occasionally the thought of strategic planning can bring me out in a cold sweat, because the questions raised always pose certain challenges. However, just like any physical journey, by road, rail, water or air, it requires a process of thinking it all through and ensuring that you’re in a fit state to reach your goal. Once you can apply that analogy to your business, the term ‘strategy’ begins to feel more relevant – and important – to the long-term growth of your empire.

As I mentioned in Chapter 1 , having a growth mind-set means that you’re capable of thinking big. While others in your well-meaning family or friendship circles might think you’re a dreamer with unachievable aims, take no notice. In fact, take yourself away to that quiet place again so that you can begin to rationalise your plan and piece it together, chunk by chunk. Give your thoughts the time and space to develop freely and write them down as they occur to you, until you are able to say to yourself, ‘This is what I want to do.’ Whether that’s to be known as the best in your area or your niche, or to expand from a local business into a national concern, committing yourself to a strategic plan is key to that eventual outcome. Nor should you feel overwhelmed or alone at this point, because this is where mentorship can play a significant role which needn’t cost you a penny in the first instance. Both online (such as LinkedIn) and offline networking resources offer a wide range of opportunities to reach out to business leaders who will be willing to share their advice. One of the most powerful statements I’ve ever heard in business is: ‘I wonder if you could help me?’ I’ve never heard anyone respond with ‘no’ before they hear what you want. The last place to seek advice is from friends and family – they are well meaning, as I say, but unless they share your vision, mission and values, and believe in your dream big time (and unconditionally so), then their advice could potentially trip you up at the first hurdle. They might want the best for you, but that doesn’t mean to say they are best equipped to advise you on your strategy. You are the one with the entrepreneurial spark and it’s akin to speaking a different language.