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A strategic plan is a valuable management tool that serves the purpose of helping an organization do a better job because
it focuses the energy, resources and time of everyone in the
organization in the same direction. For all that we have already
discussed, sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words. Hence,
the graph below which aptly demonstrates how each of the elements we
discussed must all work together for your success.

Smart
companies have learned how to adapt to the changing business landscape.
David H. Freedman of Inc. magazine identified the "spin-up" trend in
early 2005 when Apple launched the iPod and handed that company its
first runaway hit in years. And we’re likely to see history repeat
itself with the launch of the iPhone later this month. The basic idea
is simple: Instead of thinking in terms of expanding the company as a
whole, Apple has focused on new, fast-growth, "spin-up" business units
with their own identities - even if it meant letting other parts of the
company languish.
                  
Hewlett-Packard’s
photo-printer business likewise exploded, and the same approach works
in other industries too. Savvy restaurateurs create entirely new
concepts and occasionally even close or reinvent existing ones when
their cachet fades. Smart fashion and sporting goods firms whip up new
independent brands to "surf the fad of the moment". According to
Freedman, the "trickiest part of the spin-up is to have the flexibility
to bring a promising new aspect of a business quickly to the fore
without worrying about what gets left behind." Unlike traditional
businesses that tend to be so fixated on preserving the same core
business that potentially hot new markets are poorly served (if at
all), a "spin-up creates a new brand identity". This way of thinking
about a company encourages you to see the business not as a seamless
whole but as a "fractured conglomeration" of potentially independent
units.

It’s important to take a high-level look at your
market when you need a complete picture of your company. Consider these
steps:

1. List the three to five main markets you compete in. Also list one or two that are new potential markets.
2. For each market, determine if it is growing, shrinking, or staying the same.
3. Determine the size of each market.
4. Determine if serving the market presents an opportunity or if the market is not worth focusing on.
5. Summarize the markets you want to focus on in your opportunities section of your SWOT.

Follow these steps to create your vision:

1. Gather your senior staff and key employees together for a one- to two-hour meeting.
   Visioning is best done in a group setting. If your group is bigger than five people, break up into small groups of three to five to allow everyone to have a voice in the process.
2. Generate a list of ideas and phrases based on the responses to these three questions:
   • What will our organization look like five to ten years from now?
   • What does success look like?
   • What are we aspiring to achieve?

   Allow the group to brainstorm, even if some of the ideas are totally wacky.

3. Ask the group to pair up ideas that have similar themes.
   Identify the ideas that most closely resemble the vision for the organization.
4. Ask one or two people to develop a draft vision statement based on the condensed list of ideas.
   The vision statement should be short and use verb phrases that are forward-looking such as to be.
5. Ask another one or two people to generate the vivid description based on all of the themes identified.
   When developing the vivid description, use th future tense, such as
   "We will…"
6. Bring the vision statement and vision description back to the group.
   Revise until you have something everyone agrees on.
7. Evaluate the vision statement against the mission and values statements.
   Make sure they all connect.

With their annual Social Capitalist Awards, Fast Company
(Jan 2007) celebrates those leaders who “combine savvy business models with
solutions to pressing social needs in ways that challenge our assumptions about
making a profit and making a difference.”  One 2007 award winner was TransFair USA which
certifies fair-trade coffee and other developing-nation crops, then works with
certified growers to get higher prices. When CEO Paul Rice hosted Perry Odak,
CEO of the Wild Oats Markets grocery chain, on a Mexican coffee trip, the strategy
played well for Wild Oats and for the farmers. Odak was impressed to learn from
farmers that joining a fair-trade cooperative could mean scholarships for their
kids, preventative health programs, and better futures for all. With a steady
income, many more young people are also staying in their communities and returning
to work on the fields. When Wild Oats promoted their fair-trade coffee with
giant signs that described to customers the effect of the labor, price and
environmental requirements of fair trade, volume
sales went up 20% despite a $2/pound price increase (organic beans cost
more to grow). The company’s purchase also yielded more than $1.5 million in
additional revenue for 100,000 farmers and their families. Needless to say, Wild Oats has introduced
fair-trade loose tea, bulk sugar and fruit as well.

TransFair’s whole model is based on consumers’ voting with
their wallets. Fair trade consumption is growing at 75% per year, CEO Rice
says, and TransFair has sparked partnerships with Costco, Sam’s Club, and even McDonald’s.
According to Jeff Hamaouli, founder of Origo Inc., a consulting firm that helps
both nonprofits and for-profits navigate this blended arena of social
enterprise, “Companies are beginning to realize that these questions of ‘How
can I accomplish more good in the world?’ and ‘Where is the market
opportunity?’ are essentially the same question.

Consider these approaches for finding opportunities to
include social responsibility in your business

1. Scout
   new market
2. Unleash
   the consumer
3. Invent
   new products

To that
end, let me begin at the requisite starting point – your mission statement. A
mission statement, we all know, is a statement of your company’s purpose or its
fundamental reason for existing, but it should also serve as both a guide for
day-to-day operations and the foundation for future decision-making. In other
words, it should determine your primary business and organization purpose AND
be the roadmap in a strategic plan to empower your employees to be more
effective. It should be specific, short, sharply focused, and memorable. The
mission statement of Olsen & Associates Public Relations is “Dedicated to
improving and optimizing public perceptions on behalf of our clients.” If the
company doesn’t live up to this mission, it has no reason to exist.

I encourage
you to think beyond bullet points on a memo or a posting on the break room
wall. Instead, think of your mission statement as the primary guideline for
leading your organization to higher levels of performance. It should provide
the framework for independent decisions and actions initiated by departments,
managers, and employees into a coordinated, company-wide game plan.

Your
vision, likewise, should provide long-term direction while it delineates what
kind of enterprise your company is trying to become and infuses the
organization with a sense of purposeful action. Identify your corporate values.
Create an image of what success will look like. Your vision statement needs to
be something you can achieve at some point in the future while also serving as
a unifying focal point for everyone in the organization – like a North Star. I
recommend developing one that’s far reaching but attainable. A vision statement
can be as far reaching as 100 years or as short as five. It just needs to work
for your company and the industry in which you operate.

Here are
two examples of visions that were very lofty at the time they were established,
but they don’t sound so crazy now:

• “We will put a man on the moon before the end
  of the decade and bring him back” (President John F Kennedy)
• “A
  computer on every desk and in every home using great software as an empowering
  tool” (Microsoft)

 Together
the mission and vision statements function to clarity why your organization
exists and what the end game is. In this way, your mission and vision should
drive every action and initiative on the road to where you are going and
provide a constant reference point to keep your strategic plan on track.

Join me
again as we continue with the Strategic Planning Process Checklist to keep you
and your team on track while also making the strategic planning process a
habit. Next time I’ll be discussing your Strategic
Position. And remember, success is
not a matter of chance, but rather success is a matter of choice.

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The standard growth strategies are numerous (and
confusing) such as partnerships, market expansion, acquisition, product
extension, and franchising. While these strategies are important and useful, I
believe growth is ultimately determined by providing value to your customers,
the people you hire, the processes they develop, and culture you choose to
build. So instead of thinking about the detailed strategies themselves, let’s
look at a few exciting and practical ways to help you move closer to the $1
million mark.

Drive the organization with big
vision. Growth requires thinking big,
then executing like crazy. Success is 10 percent inspiration and 90 percent
persistence. But that 10 percent is critical, otherwise the 90 percent is lost,
aimless, and unproductive. According to Alvin Toffler, “You’ve got to think
about the big things while you’re doing the small things, so that all the small
things go in the right direction.” Growth comes from pursuing a worthwhile plan
with measurable rigor.

Account for big goals. Every organization sets goals, but sometimes they aren’t
big, and sometimes they are not written down! A big vision is achieved through
accomplishing big objectives and goals. That’s all execution really is – your
organization’s ability to achieve goals. First, pick 3 to 5 strategic goals
that you will focus on in 2007. Make sure all of these goals are focused on
growing your business to $1 million. Second, develop action plans for each
goal. Identify a responsible persona and a due date for each action item.
Review regularly and hold people accountable. Create a culture that people that
people feel responsible for “not missing a due date here.” That’s all there is
to it – it doesn’t have to be complicated, confusing or time consuming.

Celebrate wins along the way. Publicly share big accomplishments, milestone, project
completion, revenue goals. This sharing drives growth in two ways: 1) It
motivates the people driving those accomplishments to press on. 2) Success and
profit sharing breeds confidence, fueling enthusiasm for further growth.
Everyone wants to be appreciated and we often dwell on what we failed to
achieve, instead of celebrating the small wins. Do something special for yourself
and your team. After all, it’s the journey, not just the destination that
matters. Enviable growth business happens when you create something with ‘a
feeling that we’re in this together.’

Seek out new ideas. Invite left and right-brained people into your
organization to create a complete “brain trust” of skills and competencies. You
need both perspectives to invent creative solutions, challenge the status quo,
find hidden connections, new models, analyze data for discoveries, and explore
parallel industries for new methods. Henry Ford could not have grown faster
than everyone else had he not borrowed the division of labor manufacturing line
concept from a meat packing plant. Walgreens could not have grown as fast had
they not changed their approach to increased convenience instead of big stores,
big ticket items. Southwest could not have grown had they not reinvented
airline service and the hub-and-spoke approach. Challenge conventional wisdom
to solve your customers’ issues and pains with non-traditional approaches.

Ignore distractions. In tandem with new ideas, we must focus! This is the
never-ending struggle for entrepreneurs – too many ideas, too little resources.
In an increasingly competitive environment, growth comes from being great at
one thing at a time. Succeed at one thing that you know customers need. That
takes focus – focus on the customer and focus on what you choose to do better
than anybody. Use your vision as a filter to keep out distractions. If the
activity is not line with your big goals, even if it is a good idea, table it
and move on.

Empower through ownership. Inside almost every motivated employee is a frustrated
entrepreneur. As we know, entrepreneurs like to build and own their work. They
are achievement-oriented and take pride in results. Feed these engines with
premium fuel by assigning ownership. Recognition is the number one motivator.
You can unleash powerful output by clearly defining roles and responsibilities.
Give ownership of action plans. And help everyone in your organization
understand their purpose and impact on the big picture.

Neutralize negativity. There is no such thing as “try,” there is only “do.”
That’s the attitude of a sustainable growth company. The question is never,
“Are we going to make it?” The question is “What do you need to make it” and
the answer is “here’s how we can”. But be realistic. Most growth companies
don’t grow quickly without sustaining some damage. Consider how to avoid road
blocks and road bumps along the way.

Know your market cold. As a wise person (I can’t remember
whom) once said – sell something that people want to buy, not something you have to convince them to buy. In other words, know (don’t guess or assume)
the needs and wants of your customers. Offer them something that solves their
problems, makes their life better, something they can’t live without. Talk to
them, go to their business or home, and learn as much as you can about how they
use your product or service. And use that information to make your offering the
best it can be. Don’t forget, it is your customers that will get you to that $1
million mark!

Passion overall. If you’re motivated and excited about what you are doing,
people will follow and your organization will grow. This may be the most
important element because it is the true spirit behind growth.

To everyone out there who is striving to hit $1 million
(me included), may you hit that goal and them some!

Dan Bobinski http://www.management-issues.com/display_page.asp?section=opinion&id=2837

Here’s an experiment you can try: Walk into a company’s office and find its mission statement hanging on a wall. Take note of its meanings, and then speak to any five people you meet from that company. Ask them if they know their company’s mission. Chances are you’ll hear either five different responses, or the ever-popular, "I don’t know." Some people may even laugh at you. It’s no small wonder the majority of employees scoff at mission statements. Usually what we see is fluff - overly vague generalizations that could apply to almost any company, and often they’re paragraphs long; too long to be recalled by anyone, and therefore, largely useless. The problem is made worse when vision and mission statements are intermixed, further clouding their practicality. At the core of this all-too-common problem is a simple lack of understanding. Ask those same five people you talked to earlier to define "vision" and "mission" and you’re likely to get an equally wide range of responses. So, with the intention of making life more simple and companies more profitable, I offer an easy-to-remember way to create clearly understood - and useful - vision and mission statements. Here are some definitions (and differences), in very simple terms: Vision Statement: Where you "see" yourself being; where you want to go Mission Statement: What you do to get there In a more practical example: Vision: Widget Manufacturing will be known worldwide as the highest quality widget producer. Mission: Widget Manufacturing strives to: research and integrate the latest, most reliable widget technology, use the most reliable widget manufacturing processes, and provide unparalleled customer service to every widget customer. Note that the vision is not what they do, but where they want to be. The mission statement outlines what Widget Manufacturing will do. The differences are clear, and quite simple. Most of the time a company keeps its vision statement to itself, since where a company sees itself being is nobody else’s business. Besides, if the competition knew where you wanted to be, they could easily create a strategy that gets in your way. The purpose of a vision statement is to guide top leadership when making strategic decisions. A mission statement clarifies what your company does. You want people to know what you do - both internally and externally. Internally, it keeps employees focused and it forms a basis for making tactical decisions. In other words, if two options for action are on the table, looking at them in light of the mission statement often helps in choosing a course of action that moves a company in the direction of its vision. Externally, publishing your mission statement tells your clients what they can expect from you. Just knowing that provides them a sense of stability and security, and they’ll be more comfortable doing business with you. Does a company need a vision and mission statement to function? Obviously not. The mere fact that so many companies survive without them answers that question. So what’s the benefit of having them? Again, the answer is focus, flow, and a foundation for decisions. In other words, thriving instead of surviving. Aligning our efforts with an agreed-upon focus saves both time and frustration, and it makes a company much more profitable. For example, much strife exists in companies due to no shared focus. When a company lacks a vision to which all subscribe, individual visions and missions tend to rise up and compete with each other. The result is conflict, delays, and lost revenues, all because of unnecessary turf wars consuming time and energy. Creating a clear corporate vision minimizes big pet projects and helps point everyone in the same direction. Your mission statement should be posted on a company website, on published literature, and throughout a company’s brick and mortar structures so people can see it, be reminded of it, and use it as a guideline for operations. Everyone from the top on down should be able to recite it from memory, and recite it often. If top management eats, drinks, and breathes the mission statement, everyone else will, too. If top management ignores it, so will everyone else. Ideally, mission statements should not be more than one sentence long. A couple of bullet points (such as in the example given) are fine, but multiple paragraphs are not practical for keeping people focused, and are therefore ineffective. If you find your mission covers a lot of ground, find a way to boil it down; it can be done if you take the time. Bottom line, vision and mission statements create clarity and form a basis for making both strategic and tactical decisions - all of which help a company thrive instead of survive. If thriving profitability is what you seek and your company vision and mission are unclear or non-existent, investing time to clarify these statements will help.

This article comes from www.management-issues.com

In a world full of deadlines and time constraints setting aside time for goal setting can be a challenge. Remember that time spent carefully choosing your goals and success measures will save time in the long run by accelerating your overall strategy.

The 5 basic steps in goal setting are as follows:

1. Identify your goals.
   Put your goals in writing. Choose goals which are meaningful, measurable, and those that you can impact.
2. Identify specific achievements or steps and obstacles for each goal.
   Write down achievements, actions and obstacles associated with each goal along with a step-by-step action plan for accomplishing goals and overcoming obstacles.
3. Make the goal measurable.
   Identify the key performance indicators you will use to track the progress of your goal.
4. Assign responsibility for each goal.
   Assign each goal to a specific department or specific staff members who will then take ownership of the goal and be responsible for its success.
5. Create a tracking system to monitor the success of each goal.
   Have a system in place for tracking each goal before you take action. Include measures, dates and the name of the person or group who is responsible for each goal.

I have heard a lot of excuses as to why people choose to not actively set goals and admittedly I’ve used a few of these myself! Gary Ryan Blair, better known as "The Goals Guy", walks us through the myths and realities of goal setting http://www.goalsguy.com/Knowledge/t_05_myths.html.

Myth #1:	Goal Setting is Not That Important.
Reality:	Success Requires Goals - End of Story! A life of meaning needs goals and specific plans to achieve them. Success does not happen by accident.
Myth #2:	Goal Setting is Difficult and Takes Too Much Time.
Reality:	Performance is accelerated by time invested in strategy. The game of life is won behind the scenes, in time spent on preparation.
Myth #3:	New Years is the Best Time To Set Goals.
Reality:	There’s no better time than now to take control of your life. Goal-Setting is not about timing it’s about decision. This life is not a dress rehearsal; it’s the only one you’ve got.
Myth #4:	Goals Don’t Need To Be Written – Keep Them In Your Head.
Reality:	Written goals clarify thinking, objectify their potential, and reinforce commitment. The palest ink is better than the strongest memory. Goals once out of site, soon become goals out of mind!
Myth #5:	Long-Term Planning Is A Waste of Time.
Reality:	Your Future deserves consideration. It will someday be your present reality. It’s worth considering seriously.
Myth #6:	A Good Plan Is All You Need To Be Successful.
Reality:	Success is active, not passive. All plans require action. Preparation is no substitute for action. Commit to the philosophy of implement now - perfect later.
Myth #7:	The Best Way To Achieve a Goal Is To Just Begin.
Reality:	Action without planning is the root cause of most failure Success is a choice. With a plan to lead you, you can figure out how to get where you are going.
Myth #8:	All It Takes is Hard Work To Achieve Your Goals.
Reality:	Hard work is important, but working smart is mandatory. Quit trying harder, look for new solutions, and you will accomplish far more in far less time with only a fraction of the effort you have been giving.
Myth #9:	I Can Do It On My Own. I Don’t Need Help.
Reality:	Success requires cooperation. Nobody does it alone. In order to achieve more you must learn to help yourself. Success requires the cooperation of others.
Myth #10:	Goals Only Need to Be Reviewed Once a Year.
Reality:	Inspect what you expect. Everything changes. Your goals must keep shaping, shifting and flexing to fit these fast-changing times. Adopt a regular and consistent review process.

This is just the start to setting and achieving your goals. I would love for you to share your tips and stories about goal setting.

• 12% more successful?
• 12% more profitable
• 12% more effective
• 12% more jobs
• 12% more impact.

That would be a world-wide strategy.

Why 12%? Organizations that act with a clear strategic direction realize 12% better returns.

Because we believe that thriving organizations are the lifeblood of healthy communities, we’re committed to making visions become reality. We’re starting a world-wide strategy. With your help, we can. What’s your vision? What’s your 12% strategy?

Go on, be a visionary. Join our strategy revolution!

What is your vision?

Aveda’s Mission Statement
Our mission at Aveda is to care for the world we live in, from the products we make to the ways in which we give back to society. At Aveda, we strive to set an example for environmental leadership and responsibility, not just in the word of beauty, but around the world. http://aveda.com/customerservice/ourmission.tmpl

What is Aveda?
From their website: Aveda The Art and Science of Pure Flower and Plant Essences develops, manufactures and markets an extensive collection of plant-based hair care, skin care, makeup, Pure-Fume™ and lifestyle products which are sold in more than 8,000 salons, spas and Experience Centers around the world. Entrepreneur and environmentalist, Horst Rechelbacher, founded Aveda in 1978. The company is headquartered in Minneapolis and New York City.

Want more examples of mission statements? We are collecting them here:
http://www.mystrategicplan.com/strategic-planning-topics/mission-statements.shtml#Examples

Want to share your mission? We’ll add it to our growing list!

Source: Kouzes, J. and Posner, B. “Envisioning your Future: Imagining Ideal Scenarios”