Business is full of failures. Failure is inevitable, but it’s also good. You learn from it, grow from it and ultimately, it helps you find the path that will lead to your business’s success. Now that you know that the outcomes of your early business expeditions is most likely failure, you as an entrepreneur need to know how to deal with it. One of the main changes a company can bring when reviving itself from a failure, is altering its strategy.

“What’s the point of business school then?, Aren’t we taught methods to not fail?” And the answer is, no one can really prepare you to do that. Your business is as successful as the decisions you make. Every company has a vision for it, which never changes. It has its own image, its own target audience, its on personality, and its own ideal path to success. And starting a company, how do you know what the right decisions to all these unknowns are? You learn from your mistakes, understand your company,so that finally you understand these unknowns, and the strategy to use to implement the vision you have for your company.

A company needs a well defined road map. The central vision of the company, with a thorough understanding of its market, defines the strategy that the company uses to base its decision trail on.

Let’s look at Airbnb. Airbnb is a norm now, with millions of users, but its taken a lot for Airbnb to get to this point. In an interview with Brian Chesky, he talks about how when the company just started, every investor was against it. No one thought there was a market for a stranger to stay in another stranger’s house. But the founder’s had a vision, and as Brian Chesky said, he kept relaunching the company after it failed, again and again, till he found thew right formula for his company, understood the strategic path to follow, and the rest is history.

Once your company is defined, it will use smaller strategies for sustained success. Let’s look at something as specific as Muji’s expansion into Canada. Muji has defined its identity as a company, and is well established to its market. It’s plan is for slow expansion, opening 7-8 stores in all of Canada over the next 5 years. Its strategic expansion plan, shows its understanding of Canadian markets, and how best to grow its revenue and business.

In conclusion, strategy is central to a companies success. It’s a direct tie to the vision of the company, and because of its specificity to a company, it’s going to take more than a few failures to figure out what works. So I guess the lesson is: Perseverance is key….hmm..

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References:

G. (2015, November 30). Retrieved October 29, 2017, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W608u6sBFpo

How to Create Simple Business Strategy. (2017, April 14). Retrieved October 29, 2017, from https://www.jcount.com/how-to-create-simple-business-strategy/

R. (2014, September 30). Muji plans 7 or 8 Canadian stores over the next 5 years, senior executive says. Retrieved October 29, 2017, from http://business.financialpost.com/news/retail-marketing/muji-canada-stores

Watkins, M. D. (2017, March 21). Demystifying Strategy: The What, Who, How, and Why. Retrieved October 29, 2017, from https://hbr.org/2007/09/demystifying-strategy-the-what