"Corporate strategy involves answering a key question from a portfolio perspective: "What business should we be in?" - Wikipedia

A business strategy is the combination of all the decisions taken and actions performed by the business to accomplish business goals and to secure a competitive position in the market.

It is the backbone of the business as it is the roadmap that leads to the desired goals. Any fault in this roadmap can result in the business getting lost in the crowd of overwhelming competitors.

A business objective without a strategy is just a dream. It is no less than a gamble if you enter into the market without a well-planned strategy.

With the increase in the competition, the importance of business strategy is becoming apparent and there’s a huge increase in the types of business strategies used by the businesses. Here are five reasons why a strategy is necessary for your business.

• Planning: Business strategy is a part of a business plan. While the business plan sets the goals and objectives, the strategy gives you a way to fulfil those goals. It is a plan to reach where you intend to.

• Strengths and Weaknesses: Most of the times, you get to know about your real strengths and weaknesses while formulating a strategy. Moreover, it also helps you capitalise on what you’re good at and use that to overshadow your weaknesses (or eliminate them).

• Efficiency and Effectiveness: When every step is planned, every resource is allocated, and everyone knows what is to be done, business activities become more efficient and effective automatically.

• Competitive Advantage: A business strategy focuses on capitalising on the strengths of the business and using it as a competitive advantage to position the brand in a unique way. This gives an identity to business and makes it unique in the eyes of the customer.

• Control: It also decides the path to be followed and interim goals to be achieved. This makes it easy to control the activities and see if they are going as planned.

• Source: FEEDOUGH