Anisuzzaman Chowdhury: Strategic Leadership

3 min read

Anisuzzaman Chowdhury has enjoyed extraordinary success as an entrepreneur, having established businesses spanning numerous industries. This article will look at business vision and leadership, and why formulating solid business strategies is integral to commercial success.

Strategic leadership requires executives to develop a vision for their organisation that enables it to adapt to changing economic and technological climates in order to remain competitive. Strategic leaders use their vision to motivate employees and teams, fostering a sense of unity and direction throughout the workforce to help the business negotiate change and challenges more effectively.

Strategic leadership can be used to streamline processes, promote innovation, boost productivity, and cultivate an environment that encourages employees to be more creative and innovative. Incentive programmes and other reward systems are often implemented by strategic leaders to encourage employees to pull together cohesively towards corporate goals.

To lead strategically requires a thorough grasp of the organisation’s mission, including an understanding of the company’s reason for being, who its customers are and precisely how it delivers value to them. Strategic leaders use this information to create a vision of the company’s mission, then craft a strategy to put that vision into action. An effective business strategy essentially maps out the steps and changes necessary to enable the business to get from its current state to its most desirable destination.

Strategic leaders have an ability to challenge established viewpoints without provoking substantial pushback. Capitalising on their ability to see the big and small picture concurrently, strategic leaders are capable of swiftly adapting to marketplace changes and challenges, recognising and exploiting untapped opportunities. Strategic leaders often have to make difficult decisions, balancing an analytical perspective with the human dimension of strategy building. They also engage with and advocate for employees.

According to Harvard Business Review, strategic leadership demands the following competencies:

Challenging views and reframing problems from multiple angles to gain a thorough understanding of underlying issues
Anticipating the moves and reactions of competitors by collecting and analysing information
Interpreting situations by exhibiting openness and curiosity when testing various hypotheses, and involving others before committing to any conclusions
Achieving alignment by examining stakeholders’ tolerance for change and identifying potential conflicts of interest
Learning from both successes and failures and using these vital lessons to change course as and when the need arises

Most large companies have three defined leadership classifications: strategic, organisational, and production or action-orientated. Led by top-level executives, strategic leadership guides a business’s long-term strategic direction.

According to a 2023 report by Forbes, despite 90% of business leaders recognising the vital importance of strategic planning, a staggering 48% admit they spend less than one day per month discussing business strategy. Against that backdrop, it is easy to understand why almost half of all organisations fall short of achieving at least half of their strategic goals. The importance of business strategy is impossible to overstate. Rooted in scrupulous planning, business strategy requires a thorough understanding of the business’s current position, desired future state, and the steps necessary to reach the most desirable outcome.

Although business strategy is conceived at a high level, it is important that everyone involved in the organisation understands it, recognising their role in achieving key objectives. While senior managers are responsible for shaping the overall business strategy, this vision will need to be communicated clearly and effectively to employees, customers and other stakeholders using consistent messaging that everyone understands.

When crafting a business strategy, leadership teams need to set clear and realistic goals to help employees maintain motivation and focus. An intrinsic part of business strategy is the company’s mission statement, providing a summary of the company’s values and goals and encapsulating its core identity to develop purpose, build community, align behaviours and guide corporate culture.