Strategic Planning

Happy New Year

How to Start Strategically Simple in 2012

by Lake Furney on January 3, 2012

The New Year is full of hopes and, for many, fresh resolve to reach our personal and professional goals.

Everywhere you turn, you’re probably inundated with yet more ideas about what your New Year’s resolution should be. So we won’t add to the noise.

But what we would like to do is offer you one strategic idea… and it’s a simple one. In fact, this one simple idea could literally mean the difference between a 2012 of just getting by, and one that is absolutely thriving.

And here it is: have a simple conversation with us.

If you stop to think about it, the greatest innovations in history came to life with the help of simple conversations. The sharing of ideas, perspectives, and insights is more powerful than most people realize.

We’ve seen it… thousands of times. In fact, the idea sharing that we participate in has led to billions of dollars in products bought and sold for our clients.

And it all started with a conversation.

Just talking with us about the challenges, visions, hopes, desires and obstacles that you face in your business will allow us to help you identify simple, strategic solutions.

So, there it is. No complicated planning that leaves you feeling overwhelmed, no grueling sessions at the gym. Just a simple, straightforward, relaxed conversation.

Reserve a time with one of our e-commerce and e-business experts, and let us help you start 2012 in a simple, strategic way.

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Is being profitable your only goal?

by Alan Lowe on November 10, 2011

A wise man once told me, “ For a business, profits are like breathing – without them you die.”

But profits cannot be the only goal.  For a company to grow and be successful, there must be a greater purpose for the enterprise than just making money.  People want to make a difference with their work.  In general, we as human beings want to feel like our lives count for something.

What is the reason that your company exists?  Do your employees know what it is?  It is this sense of shared goals and values that can transform an ordinary organization into a high performing team.  Do your company’s employees know what your values are?

Are they written down and shared with all of the members of your team?   Are they talked about and utilized in your hiring process?  What happens to employees who do not live up to them or ignore them?  CEOs have exactly the kind of staff that they deserve.  That is a sobering thought, isn’t it?  If we as leaders tolerate poor performance and behaviors that are not aligned with our company’s values, then we deserve the poor results we may be seeing.

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Goals Based Planning

by Alan Lowe on September 30, 2011

As companies grow, they often evolve into a Goals Based planning model. This model focuses on the major Opportunities and Challenges facing a company or organization. The Planning team begins by defining or revisiting the Vision, Mission and Core Values of the company.

Next, the team assesses all aspects of the company’s strengths and weaknesses especially as compared to the strengths of their competitors in the marketplace. In this phase, it is critical to gather as many facts as possible to confirm or refute the validity of the assessments being made.

The focus of the process then moves to the external environment in which the company operates- the markets, the customers, economic forces, governmental regulation, demographics and more. All are evaluated to identify the potential opportunities and the possible negative impacts that these forces will have on the company and its future growth.

Explicitly identifying and documenting the key assumptions that are being made in planning for the future of the company – its ideal customer, target markets and competitive advantage is a big part of this step.

Once all the analysis is completed, the planning team then begins to set goals and objectives that will address the opportunities and challenges identified in the previous steps.  For each goal that is agreed upon, 3 additional items must be spelled out:

(1)   Identify the action steps needed to reach the goal, including who will be responsible for executing this part of the plan and what resources are needed.

(2)   Determine the strategies that will be employed in reaching the goal.

(3)   Agree on the metrics that will be used to track and measure the company’s progress toward reaching the goal.

The last phase of process is documenting in writing all of the conclusions, assumptions, goals, objectives, action plans, and performance measures that have been developed.  From this document the leaders can now outline a 12 month operational plan to be communicated to all employees.

Remember …… less is more. Having fewer goals but having them well defined and well executed is better than having many goals that are never realized

Each quarter the planning team should set aside a day to evaluate and measure progress against the goals, make any needed adjustments and set priorities for the next 3 months.  Internally, the team must communicate the plan to all levels of the organization and assure that individual goals are aligned with the overall direction and strategies of the organization.

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