Company strategy, SWOT analysis, risk management and other dances with tambourines for those who want to grow

Attention to owners of small and medium-sized IT, Internet and software companies! In the tenacious hands of Alconost got another valuable report from the equally valuable IT-conference ISDEF . In it, Alexander Lyskovsky, co-founder and CEO of Alawar Entertainment , told how to grow the company and what needs to be done for its successful growth.

At the very beginning of the company's formation, few people think about the tactics of its development and SWOT-analysis. Moreover, all these terms in themselves are able to scare away the work on the company's strategy. But the development of strategy and the definition of tactics are key points for the continuous and sustainable development of the company. Unfortunately, the average owner of the company is not familiar with the concepts of strategic management. This is a consequence of education in our universities, where the issues of strategy are not considered at all or are studied on optional, non-binding courses.
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An interesting fact: any activity related to the strategy seems to be untimely. Like, if the company is doing well, then why waste time and energy on an incomprehensible strategy? On the other hand, in case of problems, in a crisis time, it is also not up to the strategy - we must do something faster, and not “plan plans”.

Do not think that the question of strategy can be outsourced to consulting companies. Of course, you cannot do without the help of experts, but you have to do everything yourself. But there is good news. It lies in the fact that strategy is a skill that can be learned!

Therefore, let us proceed to the consideration of basic terms and concepts in the difficult task of creating a company strategy.

Life hacking from Alexander Lyskovsky: “The key moment for the company when it is worth starting to work on strategy is the moment when it missed one market”

Strategy is the task of the director

First you need to realize that writing a strategy is the task of the company leader. This is his vision of the company's goals will form the basis of strategy and tactics. Remember that a company leader has two main qualities that give him undeniable advantages over others. First: he knows where he is going. And second: he is able to convince others to go after him.

To facilitate the process of writing a strategy, answer for yourself the question: “Where do we want to go?” Or, more precisely, “What is the purpose of creating a company?” . This will be the goal of your company. The term “vision” is associated with the concept of “goal”. And if the goal is a brief explanation of the end point on the company's development route, vision implies an emotional decoding of the goal. An important nuance: the goal of the company should not be only financial.

After you have presented the goal of your company, answer the question “What path do we choose in order to achieve the goal? ". This will be your strategy. Agree that it is so much clearer and easier. Remember that professionals who work in your company need to explain in simple and understandable words what they do and, in fact, why they do it. And we will leave difficult terms for teachers of the academic HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS.



After answering the question about the company's strategy, it is worth answering the question of how to achieve this. Therefore, we proceed to the next item, namely tactics.

A strategy without tactics is just a beautiful picture.

A typical and gross mistake is the lack of tactics. The strategy should be tied to life, to employees and not be divorced from reality. If employees do not understand how their tasks are related to strategy — that is, they do not know tactics — this will negate all strategic work.



Tactics should not and cannot describe what to do, according to one scenario, because there are always different options. Strategy and tactics are a kind of map on which we move towards our goal. When moving to a goal, we see forks on the map that show how you can change your movement. The choice at any given moment within the framework of the already chosen strategy is certain values ​​and attitudes within the company that all employees share. Values ​​help choose the direction of travel. Remember that company values ​​are always in priority.

Life hacking from Alexander Lyskovsky: “Get into the habit of thinking about the question“ What could have been done a year ago for the development of the company ””

After we have decided on the key concepts of strategy and tactics, let us turn to general concepts that will help develop the basic principles of working on a strategy.

Strategy strategies

Let's talk first about the goal. It must be clearly defined, marked and measurable. An example of the erroneous goal "We want to make all people happy." It will never be achieved as well as measured.

The following principle: do not be afraid of the new and do not wait for the results immediately .

An example from the life of Alawar Entertainment. It was decided to make games for Android. The first game saw the light exactly one year after the decision was made. Therefore, it is necessary to lay time in the strategy for making a decision and the time itself to achieve the goal.

Never absolutize the opinion of an expert ! Listen to their opinion, but draw your own conclusions. History is full of examples of how experienced experts make mistakes. Take for example at least the history of the Beatles.



Another key principle - do not be afraid to make mistakes . Often, the one who creates a strategy makes mistakes in interpreting the market or misunderstanding the situation at the moment. There is nothing scary or unique. History knows a huge number of examples of mistakes in writing the company's strategy. Remember Bill Gates: in 1981 he believed that a PC user would always have enough RAM capacity of 640 kilobytes. Therefore, listening to experts, do not trust them 100% and do not be afraid to make mistakes again and again. A strategy can be compiled from completely erroneous judgments, and there is nothing terrible or irreparable in this. Wrong? Create a new strategy!

Learning new is another aspect of strategy strategies. Any strategy implies that you come to a certain point and start doing something new there. A new always implies learning. One of the things that is worth and must be learned is strategic learning. You can learn in different ways: read books, attend conferences, trainings, courses, communicate with company executives. The last point gives a lot of valuable information. Communicating with colleagues ask them, ask questions about how they see the goals of their enterprise, the path of development.

And finally, a few terms on strategic planning to systematize the knowledge gained, so to speak.

Glossary of Strategic Planning

Mission is the meaning of the existence of the organization, the value that the company gives to the world in the long run and which the consumer is ready to acquire

Values are a series of systematized emotional phenomena, principles and norms, corresponding to the organizational model and culture of the company, which make it possible to manifest themselves in the thinking and behavior of employees in such a way that allows to realize the company's strategic vision.

Vision (goal described in detail) - the target picture of the enterprise; perspective view on the direction of the organization, the basic concept of what the organization is trying to do and what to achieve.

Strategic goals are measurable results that are expected to be achieved in order to realize a strategic vision.

Functional strategies - decomposition of the growth strategy and competition strategy into the company's functions and focused tasks of the development of functional areas. Alawar has a technology, HR, PR, investment strategy, as well as a strategy for working with developers. Functional strategies should inherit the principles of the main strategy, they are written after writing the main one.

Anti-risk strategy is part of the company's strategy that answers employees' questions:

• What events can happen that prevent us from achieving the mission and realization of the vision?
• How will we prevent, minimize risk?
• How will we act if the risk is realized?

And the last tip: do not come up with financial goals for your company.

By the way, you will soon be able to discuss these and other issues personally with Alexander Lyskovsky and other gurus of IT business. Conference ISDEF - in September!

Video report - here .