Harper’s team of experts have created a checklist for business owners and senior leadership teams to support the process of reviewing their business strategy for 2023. Taking the time now to adapt and upgrade your business operating model will allow you to prepare your business to be Lean and Fit in the New Year, and protect yourself in a challenging economy.

 

   Strategy – Navigating a challenging marketplace

 

• Be clear on how to support existing revenue channels: modify your go-to-market plans accordingly
• Decide on additional sources of revenue and get an implementation plan in place
• Review and upgrade your business operating model to meet new requirements 
• Build a plan to offer high value and deliver outstanding customer experience at a lower cost 
• Better and faster use of information: embrace technology and become a player in the digital economy
• Engagement of your staff, customers, and other stakeholders will be key

 

   Business alignment – Knowing how to cut and shape 

 

• Plan now for tomorrow: redeploy and prioritise resources to increase and secure opportunities
• Create efficiencies: continue to cut fat, not muscle, to deliver profit with reduced costs 
• Stress test your business: understand your risks to minimise business exposure, be sure you can respond to market movements, supply chain challenges, and competitor realignment
• Monitor and update in real-time and only focus on business critical priorities 
• All decisions based on impact to cash

 

   Sales Plan – Be clear and focused on what is achievable

 

• Ensure your sales target is built bottom up and is realistic and achievable
• Reviewing your client portfolio and focus on maximising individual client revenue 
• Ensure new business plans are aligned to your strategic goals
• Maximising your sales resource by adopting sales excellence 
• Stay close to your market to understand changes in buying behaviour
• Build meaningful relationships with your customers and look for opportunities to collaborate and develop further trust and loyalty

 

   Expanding your brand and marketing activities

 

• Have a plan to keep the brand light burning – understand the changes in the marketplace
• Understand the relationship between brand building and tactical marketing activities
• Create relevant content and communication plans to your target audience
• Strengthening good will and trust – this will continue to be key in a hardening market
• Review competitive landscape in light of changing consumer and buyer behaviour

 

   Digital Marketing – Embrace the digital economy

 

• Adopt a simple strategy to expand online presence for additional revenue
• Plan to reach and engage with a significantly larger target audience​
• Increase online revenue generated by the website​
• Be sure to outperform your competitors online​
• Adopt an agile, dynamic, scalable digital marketing channel to deliver a higher ROI than traditional marketing​

 

   Supply Chain – Continuity of supply fuels your business

 

• Protect and stabilise vulnerable supply chains – build contingency against supply interruptions
• Ensuring long term resilience and diversification – top strategic priority 
• Protecting margin – improving supplier commercial terms 
• Simplify SKU’s, concentrate on high demand, high margin products to increase stock movement and improve cash cycle
• Forecasting for tomorrow’s unknown demand – don’t rely on inventory history

 

   Operations – Lean and fit for the future 

 

• Review customer journey to identify waste, optimise process, and enhance possibilities of collaboration
• Break down any silos and engage in operational improvement programmes 
• Complete value stream mapping and build a new Lean target operating model 
• Find a new way of working to enhance your customer experience and deliver at a lower cost 
• Engage your team, share responsibility, and share your new vision for a secure future

 

   How can we help?

 

Putting this into place, and ultimately achieving excellence in all aspects of your business can be a lengthy and complicated process to navigate without the right knowledge or experience. This is our area of expertise, and by allowing us to guide you through these changes, you will open up a shortcut to stable and scalable growth. Whatever it is your business is struggling with, needs improvement upon, or if you’re looking to achieve absolute excellence in your processes, Harpers can help you achieve this with a hands on, profit-lead approach. 

 

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