Business Strategy and Start-up Support
A business strategy is essential as it allows us to initiate a change programme that is targeted at a client's specific issues. It is often the case that this may call upon the full spectrum of our service offerings. Certainly, it will involve a team approach among all the parties involved.
The purpose is to assess organisational viability and sustainability and is critical to future decision-making.
- Strategic Audit
The entire process starts with a strategic audit. It is important to know where things stand at present as this forms the basis of all future direction. Following seamlessly from this, complete business, marketing, and communication plans are fully documented and defined.
- Information Gathering
This phase of the process will focus on supplying information which is missing, yet essential to the development of a strategy. The issues that could be examined in this phase of the process are:
- Market size and segmentation together with growth indicators;
- Competitor analysis in terms of the market segment serviced, product or service offering;
- Market penetration; and
- Market or product feasibility or acceptance.
- Strategy Development
Strategy development is a highly disciplined and structured process undertaken in three distinct sub-phases involving business strategy, marketing strategy and communication strategy.
In many instances, the focus is mainly on marketing and communication, but a full business strategy is often required in market segments that have experienced rapid change or the client is refocusing or repositioning its business.
- Business Strategy
The business strategy provides the global strategy for the organisation. In some instances this is already in place but often benefit is gained from an objective opinion from a third party of professional experts. Sithole examines the strategy from a holistic perspective and puts the strategy through rigorous tests, especially where assumptions have been made.
- Marketing Strategy
A marketing strategy will flow effortlessly from a clearly devised business strategy. Using the markers from the business strategy, together with marketing intelligence gathered by our research team, a comprehensive marketing strategy and plan is developed.
Care is taken to match the strategic vision and culture of the organisation to that of the marketing effort to ensure that a consistency of values and image are maintained.
A key component of Sithole's approach is the integration of traditional marketing techniques with e-business and Internet based communication. This ensures that the best of both worlds are embraced.
This phase will result in clear pathways for:
- The desired image of the client
- Channels to market for each of the services provided and to each of the market sectors targeted
- The communication philosophy and the brief for the communication strategy
- Budget recommendation for the various marketing activities to achieve the overall marketing goal.
- Communication Strategy
Giving more focused form to the marketing strategy, the communication strategy ensures that the intellectual capital invested thus far is given creative impetus. A creative rationale is developed along with various campaigns using guidelines set within the marketing strategy.
Both traditional and new media are integrated into the process.
An essential ingredient to the success of this phase, is that the internal communication campaign is in tune with that of consumer communication. This ensures that both internal and external communications are matched. Specific communication interventions are decided upon, and budget is allocated.
- Implementation
Like you, we want to see results. Thus at Sithole, successful engagements do not end with the rendering of strategies.
Once all the strategies have been finalised, a project manager from the team is assigned to ensure that the plans are implemented on schedule and within budget.
Ultimate accountability rests with this project manager and therefore a close working relationship and cultural fit between the client and the project manager is essential.