If you want to see your business succeed, you need to have a strategy in place.

And not just any strategy – a smart strategy. A strategy that is based on sound principles and pillars. Without these strategic pillars, your success will be short-lived.

Strategic pillars are simply the 3-4 strategic battlefields that your business needs to win in, no matter what else happens. In order to determine your strategic pillars, you need to answer the following questions:

• What does your customer need from you?
• What does your competition do better than you?
• How can you beat the competition?
• What are your core strengths?
• What is your unique selling proposition (USP)?

Once you have answered these questions, you will be able to identify your strategic pillars. And with these pillars in place, you can be confident that your business will sustain its success for many years to come.

So what are the most common strategic pillars?

The most common strategic pillars typically have something to do with the following four areas:

1. Smart Growth – Not just growth at all costs.
2. Being a great place to work
3. Having Customer Empathy or Customer Centricity
4. Operational excellence

Of course, these are just examples. Your strategic pillars will be unique to your business and should be based on the specific needs of your customers and the competitive landscape.

But whatever your strategic pillars may be, remember this – they key to sustained success is having a strategy in place that is based on sound principles and pillars.

With these in place, you can be confident that your business will weather any storm and come out stronger on the other side.