Business driver statement samples

If you've mapped out your company's operating strategies before considering your strategic business drivers, you may be putting the cart before the horse.

Your organization's strategy is a critical statement that outlines how you expect to achieve certain goals. But what are the underlying drivers of your company's beliefs, actions, and desire for success? Defining these should come first, and then your corresponding strategies and projects will follow.

What Are Strategic Business Drivers?

Your business' strategic drivers are the collection of people, conditions, and information that initiate and support activities that will help your company define and accomplish its goals. These drivers represent the key influences or factors that matter to the success of your organization. Some of the most common strategic business drivers include:

Financial Objectives

Increase Shareholder Value. Many people believe that the sole reason for a business to exist is to turn a profit. While this makes logical sense, a company that is only focused on the bottom line is likely going to alienate their clients and ultimately fail. If you exist as a hedge fund, this might work. Otherwise, having profits as a strategic business driver is fine provided it isn't the only factor that is influencing your company's strategies.

Brand. Your brand is the collection of values, symbols, customer experience and reputation that creates recognition and awareness in the marketplace of your company and its products or services. Some organizations are driven to build a particular brand image or reputation, often including visual representation to enhance recognition. This is particularly true with consumer brands. Some of the world's most valuable brands are recognizable based on logo alone, including Apple, McDonald's, and Nike.

Value. A company that wants to increase the perceived value of its product or service to build a competitive advantage would have value as a strategic driver.

People. Aside from serving customers, a company may also be driven by a desire to serve other stakeholders. This might include investors, employees, business partners, suppliers and even members of their community.

Strategic drivers are shaped by both internal and external forces. Internal drivers may include mission, people, and profit goals. External drivers include markets, competition, taxes, regulations, technology, and customer needs. Once you choose the particular drivers for your business, you can prioritize them and create strategies around them. The following are examples of several common strategic drivers and strategies that stem from those drivers.

Strategic Driver - Strategy Examples

• Profits - A regional bank has a goal of achieving a 20% annual growth rate in profits.
• Customers - A business wants to maintain a 90% or better positive customer satisfaction rating.
• Social/Environmental - An automaker vows to make 40% more of its vehicles either hybrid or EV within the next 5 years.
• People - A construction firm promises to reward business partners and employees for exceeding production goals.
• Technology - A chip manufacturer has a goal of producing a CPU that is 10% faster than anything currently on the market.
• Threats - A business in the cannabis industry invests in a fintech firm to protect its financial interests.
• Ownership - A biopharmaceutical company commits to hiring additional staff to handle and monitor drug patents as well as the FDA approval process.

Most companies undertake a variety of short and long-term projects that are either internal to the organization, external, or some combination of the two. If you've ever been involved in a project that has fallen off course, you know how frustrating, time-consuming, and expensive that can become. One of the best ways to ensure that your firm's projects remain on track is to align them with your company's strategic business drivers.

Agreeing to launch a new product or begin a project just because it's convenient or advocated by management may not make sense once it is viewed with a fresh pair of glasses. Before a project is even considered, the first step should be to confirm that it aligns with your firm's top strategic business drivers. When your company follows a formal process to prioritize and agree on the right projects based on this strategy, you will have fewer missteps and a higher success rate with each venture.

Strategic Business Drivers at Successful Businesses

For an organization to find long-term success, it should clearly define the strategic value that it brings to its stakeholders (e.g., clients, employees, suppliers) and the marketplace at large. One of the first steps to defining your company's goals is to identify and prioritize its strategic business drivers. These in turn serve as the basis for strategies, tactics, and programs/projects necessary to run and grow your business.

These strategic drivers are the DNA of your overall business. If they are poorly defined, your goals may run off course, and your business could fail. It's essential that you have a method in place to monitor your business drivers and make adjustments as needed.

If you need help managing the day-to-day finances of your business, please reach out to us! Our team provides top-rated accounting services for businesses and nonprofits at all stages. We also offer accounting and finance recruiting to place management-level professionals into accounting manager and controller roles. Contact us to find out more today!