From CNBC:
Cameron believes that despite the high costs coming at the wrong time, 3-D will prevail, and it will be key to the future of the movie industry.
According to this article on Tiny Comb, Myspace is fighting the recession by outsourcing work to India. Contrary to Facebook’s strategy of paying top dollar for talent, Myspace has consistently fought to save money on developers.
The Functional Approach to leadership is a perspective that defines a leadership role by the functions or responsibilities of the person holding that role, rather than a list of traits or behaviors.
See Integrating Mission and Strategy for Nonprofit Organizations for more information.
Guest post from Chris Champayne
Customer relationship management centers around three concepts familiar to every business owner:
The premise of CRM is that by identifying individual customers, businesses learn the customer’s specific needs and desires. This allows the business to provide the service that differentiates it from competitors.
The Key: Relationships The concept moves a business’ focus from the singular transaction to the lifetime value a loyal customer holds. And here’s the dirty little secret: Small businesses can accomplish the objectives of CRM more effectively than big business — and for a lot less money.
Big business realizes the necessity of managing customer relationships. Its efforts to do so have resulted in the development of computer software that focuses on such things. Generally speaking, this software attempts to gain a 360-degree perspective on the customer — that is, to view, gather and learn from all of the customer’s interactions with the company. These software packages typically cost $250,000 (U.S.) and up.
Big business’ fatal error in attempts at CRM lies in the fact that a corporation is incapable of having a good relationship with an individual. Only individuals can have good relationships. This often overlooked fact gives small business the upper hand in all CRM. Most small businesses practice good CRM in their daily routine. The question becomes how to incorporate technology into a CRM routine.
Here’s How It Works In a town of 10,000 people in the state of Wisconsin, a family-owned hotel has been in business for several decades. The company has a healthy community relationship, complete with a great location.
Being digitally hip folks, the owners of this hotel want to use a Web site as a tool for travelers needing to book a room. And in a stroke of pure CRM genius, they decide they don’t want their online reservation form to simply result in an e-mail confirmation. Rather, by using a service that converts e-mail messages into faxes, their online reservation form is faxed to their front desk. To make the confirmation, a hotel employee contacts the customer at a time the customer has specified as convenient. Additionally, all customer data, such as “prefers tea not coffee,” are maintained in a database. Total cost for setting up the above-described Web site, fax service and database: less than $2,000.
You Hold the Key By using technology to funnel customers to a human being, this hotel has unlocked the key to CRM — relationships. And in focusing on relationships, small business can maximize the value of its current customer base while establishing the quality of service that leads to the best new business — referrals.
Customer relationship management is a matter of realizing that the lifetime value of a customer is much greater than the single transaction, then using each interaction as an opportunity to learn so superior service can be provided.
When it comes to CRM, a small business can use its size to its advantage.
For more information: If you have any questions regarding these articles, or desire further information, please contact us.
Every business owner is familiar with these three concepts:
It’s clear that keeping customers and developing customer loyalty brings remarkable value to a company. Certainly, it is one of the primary reasons behind any firm’s success. And most all owners and employees know customers are one of your most valuable assets. But just how valuable are your customers? According to a 1994 Harvard Business Review study, Putting the Service-Profit Chain to Work, found “an increase of 5% in customer loyalty can increase profitability by 25-80%.”
While this statistic emphasizes the importance of customer loyalty, it is even more helpful to understand exactly how much a customer is worth to you now. This is also called the “Lifetime Value of a Customer.” There are numerous ways to calculate the lifetime value of a customer to a company. No matter the measure, producing a concrete dollar figure gives you a tangible point around which to design customer retention strategies, promotional campaigns, and even bonus plans. (Note: The following calculation does not determine profit, rather the overall customer value.)
Here’s a quick way to determine the lifetime value of your customers. The box to the right corresponds with explanation below.
Let’s apply this calculation to a local personal coaching business. If each coaching session is $150 and the average customer has two sessions a month, the gross sales per customer is $3,600 per year. Estimating that a customer stays with their person coach on average for five years, the lifetime value of this customer, before referrals, is $18,000. Customers that are seeing results from personal coaching will more than likely tell their friends. The power of positive word of mouth magnifies the value of each customer. If we conservatively estimate that each customer tells four people and 50%, or two, become customers, the gross sales from referrals is $36,000. Therefore, the total lifetime value of a customer is $54,000 (the gross sales per customer plus gross sales from referrals)!
Now, do the exercise in the box. Find out for yourself just how much money each of your customers is worth to you.
The outcome of this calculation represents a relatively accurate estimation of your customer’s value to your company over the course of the customer’s lifetime. No wonder it is so important for employees to understand the value of each customer! Clearly, customer retention should be among any firm’s most important priorities. But success doesn’t occur in a vacuum. Rather, strong customer retention rates result from customer satisfaction. This, in turn, results from the firm’s continuous ability to provide value at all contact points with the customer. When you have satisfied customers, you will also have a strong referral base. The impact of positive word mouth has a multiplying effect in this calculation and also in the marketplace. When designing long-term strategies or assessing the cost of losing customers, this equation can provide a sobering illustration of the results of your efforts. Keep this number in mind when you’re dealing with disgruntled customers or trying to decide your daily priorities. Do everything you can to create loyal customers!
Erica Olsen (Erica@m3planning.com) is a principal of M3 Planning, which helps companies build market-focused cultures through customer-driven strategic planning, empirical market research, and measurable marketing approaches. Her company launched MyStrategicPlan.com, an web-based strategic planning site for small and medium businesses. She is also an instructor and a writer.
For more information: If you have any questions regarding these articles, or desire further information, please contact us.
“Cows, after you’ve seen them for a while, are boring. They may be well-bred cows, Six Sigma cows, cows lit by a beautiful light, but they are still boring. A Purple Cow, though: Now, that would really stand out. The essence of the Purple Cow — the reason it would shine among a crowd of perfectly competent, even undeniably excellent cows — is that it would be remarkable. Something remarkable is worth talking about, worth paying attention to,” writes Seth Godin, author of the Purple Cow.
The world is not only full of boring stuff – brown cows – but it is also full of thousands of competitors, which is why so few people pay attention to what you are trying to communicate and sell. If in doubt, measure the level of market noise in your industry by typing in your business description into Google to see how many companies are doing the same thing you are.
Godin’s analogy is simply a visual representation of an age-old marketing concept called positioning. Positioning is the space your product/service occupies in the mind of your customers. No matter what, companies will consciously or subconsciously influence their position – the real estate – they own in the customer’s mind. You may or may not be positioned the way you want to be. You may also just be a brown cow – invisible and boring.
So how do you get customers and potential customers to pay attention? Become a Purple Cow.
Start with finding out what market positions exist Identifying available positions doesn’t begin with you. It begins with listening to the needs and wants of your markets. You can do quantitative market research, focus groups, and surveys. But there is an easier method to determine the positions your segments have defined. Actively listen – everyday – to your employees, sales people, user groups, customers, competitors (this is a big one), and general information about your industry.
For example, let’s take the mundane product category hand-washing soap. Here is a short list of the numerous needs and wants a user of hand-washing soap might have: prefer bars, prefer liquid, disinfectant, moisturizing, fragranced, non-fragranced, all-natural, attractive packaging, attractive color or color combination, with Aloe, with vitamins, low-price, etc. These needs also reflect the various positions a soap manufacturer could select. Naturally, some of these potential customer needs are complimentary while others are mutually exclusive.
The basis for successful positioning rests on clear understanding of the positions that exist in the marketplace – in your customers’ heads. This point cannot be over emphasized. With a greater understanding of the hand-washing soap market, we would undoubtedly identify many more potential positions.
For existing products …own your position Armed with the market positions, you should have a good understanding of where you stand and what makes your company and/or product/service different from all the rest. It’s time to summarize this information in a positioning statement. A positioning statement is the core message you want to deliver in every medium and everything you do. Here are the steps:
For new products … be remarkable It is in new product/service development where wildly successful Purple Cows are created. Don’t just think about positioning when it is time to develop marketing materials. Rather, take positioning one step further by creating a product/service that is remarkable instead of common. If you have an offering that was created specifically to meet the needs of a customer segment and it delivers benefits your competition does not, your positioning is built into the product. You will not only have an incredibly strong position; you will create a Purple Cow.
Don’t forget: The customer himself does the real positioning by paying attention and deciding to buy your product/service. What you do have control over is assessing what positions exist in the customer’s mind and then determining which of those you have the best chance-based on your own strengths-of occupying and defending. And stand out in the crowd.
There are numerous resources on positioning and specific positioning strategies available. For good examples of positioning statements and strategies, look at Trout and Reis’ Positioning – The Battle for Your Mind. For case studies about Purple Cows, go to www.apurplecow.com or read Purple Cow by Seth Godin.
For more information: If you have any questions regarding these articles, or desire further information, please contact us.
It is a dilemma as old as business itself: “I could cut my marketing expense in half if I knew which half to cut.” With most businesses focused on driving fat out of their operations, it is time to figure out which marketing efforts are working and which need to be cut. The days of spending untold billions on “building brand equity” and “increasing customer awareness” are quickly coming to an end. Increasingly business owners and executives want to know how effectively their companies’ marketing dollars are being put to use. What is the company’s return on its marketing investment (ROI)?
For hard-driving businesses, ROI means nothing less than accountability. If I give you $100, I expect $150 in return. A marketing expense should be no different. By looking at marketing more as a quantifiable science instead of a short-lived art, businesses can start to determine marketing ROI. Here are five tips that can be applied to make your marketing pay off.
Tip #1. Do a “marketing audit”. Look at your marketing efforts objectively and pinpoint where you excel and where you have work to do. Start by reviewing some of your key statistics:
Talk to your customers, employees, and vendors to get a quick snapshot of what your marketing efforts look like. Take action on what you learned.
Tip #2. Quantify every marketing program. Set up a simple monthly marketing scorecard to track each of your marketing programs. You can use this to evaluate past efforts if you have the data, however this is the cornerstone for quantifying all future programs. Here are some areas to include when setting up metrics or measurements:
Example metrics include direct mail response rates, web site visitations, specific product/service sales, response rates to specific messages and/or sales promotions, in-store traffic, number of new and repeat customers, awareness by channel (how did you hear about us?), profit per customer, customer acquisition cost, etc.
Tip #3. Link marketing to financial performance. Add a final metric to your marketing scorecard – ROI for the specific marketing program. To be sure, calculating marketing ROI is not as easy as figuring out ROI on a new machine. With hard assets, such as machines, it’s relatively simple to look at the incremental costs and revenues associated with specific assets. Marketing costs are easy to determine, but associated revenues or sales are less straightforward. This is the critical part of determining what is working and what is not working. You need to connect to the financials. Just like an income statement, a marketing scorecard will let you know if you are in the black or the red. If your scorecard returns a campaign that is consistently in the red, has a negative ROI, or has no way to track revenue…see Tip 4.
In addition to selecting measures and determining ROI, selecting the right timeframe is also important. Many marketing expenditures don’t have an immediate impact. It can be about 18 months before some marketing programs might result in measurable changes in consumer attitudes and behaviors.
Tip #4. Test, track, and optimize. If properly set up, you run a marketing program for a set time period, tracking on a monthly basis, and optimize the program as you go. At end you have real results. This channel works, this one doesn’t. Change one variable at a time, keep testing, and tracking. But never, ever implement a program without first having a method to track its effectiveness. Tracking is never an easy feat and it can be a creative challenge to figure out how to measure some programs. But ask yourself, are you willing to commit to an expense with no obvious return? It is worth the effort to determine a measurement of effectiveness.
Tip #5. Maximize programs with high ROIs. Use data from the monthly marketing scorecard and the marketing audit to brainstorm new marketing ideas. Then, look at the ideas realistically and acknowledge that, within budgets and time constraints, you can’t implement every idea. Instead, prioritize and implement a few ideas you can do well based on the highest possible ROI. Use existing metrics to estimate results.
In summary, your marketing programs need to pay off instead of being a black hole. Implementing these tips will dramatically change your view of marketing programs – moving from emotional to rational. But like any management function, managing your marketing requires experience and knowledge to set the vision and the measures to make it a reality, combined with the process and the patience to learn and adjust.
For more information: If you have any questions regarding these articles, or desire further information, please contact us.
La competición para obtener acceso a los bolsillos y al dinero de los consumidores es intensa y a consecuencia de ello el consumidor cada día se está volviendo más exigente en su manera de comprar. Por ese motivo se necesita tener una filosofía dinámica para los negocios -esa filosofía debe existir en todas las funciones de la empresa y debe tener un enfoque hacia las actividades del mercado y hacia las necesidades del consumidor. Entre comillas se encuentra lo que de una manera elocuente dice Sam Walton, fundador de la compañía Walt-Mart-
“Hay solamente un jefe -el cliente o consumidor- él o ella puede despedir a cualquier empleado de la compañía porque ese cliente puede decidir gastar su dinero en cualquier otra tienda o negocio.”
El Concepto de Mercado o Marketing Concept, que ha sido considerado la base principal de un negocio por media década, es la filosofía que se sigue adoptando – un negocio o empresa que desea tener éxito debe poseer un mejor enfoque para satisfacer las necesidades y deseos del cliente que sus competidores. Esto se puede obtener al ofrecer al cliente un beneficio superior.
¿Cómo un negocio o empresa realmente puede obtener esa meta? Implementando un enfoque definido y una orientación hacia el mercado. La orientación y el enfoque hacia el Mercado se define como:
la creación de una generación a nivel de toda la organización que posee la inteligencia necesaria para descifrar el mercado con respecto a las necesidades actuales y futuras de los clientes, que se ocupa de la diseminación de esa información en todos los departamentos y que está dispuesta a crear una reacción a tales necesidades.
De esa misma manera, tener una orientación hacia el mercado implica tener un comportamiento tridimensional porque se debe generar, diseminar y responder a la información acerca del cliente o consumidor y con respecto a los participantes del mercado comercial. Esa información sobre el mercado se encuentra incluida dentro de un contexto más amplio (por ejemplo, la competencia o regulaciones) que afectan las necesidades actuales como también las necesidades y preferencias futuras de los clientes. El proceso de implementación de la filosofía del Concepto de Marketing se puede medir, guiar y establecer específicamente. Sin embargo, ese proceso no significa que sea uniforme en todas las circunstancias. Las actividades de Enfoque y Orientación hacia el Mercado necesitan ajustarse a las condiciones, situaciones y al ambiente de cada negocio o empresa.
El concepto de orientación hacia el mercado se basa en las actividades que ayudan a establecer un mejor desempeño del negocio o empresa. Además, las actividades de una compañía que están dirigidas hacia el mercado ayudan a crear una ventaja competitiva sostenible que es aparente a través de los beneficios superiores que se ofrecen a los consumidores. Ese tipo de ventaja es necesario para que un negocio o empresa pueda establecer un desempeño o rendimiento superior al de las otras empresas. Numerosos estudios realizados en los Estados Unidos han demostrado de manera cuantitativa la relación positiva que existe entre un negocio que tiene una filosofía de enfoque y orientación hacia el mercado y el desempeño operativo del mismo.
Howard Olsen ha llevado a cabo 2 estudios internacionales que demuestran que la Orientación hacia el Mercado produce causa y efecto con respecto al rendimiento de una compañía.
Ejemplo en Paraguay
| Factor | Grupo Bajo | Grupo Medio | Grupo Alto |
| Enfoque y Orientación hacia las actividades del Mercado | 84.3 | 105.9 | 111.2 |
| Desempeño o Rendimiento Mixto | 43.2 | 60.2 | 72.2 |
| Un aumento de la orientación hacia el mercado de un 26% tuvo como resultado un aumento en el desempeño de un 39% | Un aumento de la orientación hacia el mercado de un 5% tuvo como resultado un aumento de un 20% |
Ejemplo en Argentina
| Factor | Grupo Bajo | Grupo Medio | Grupo Alto |
| Enfoque y Orientación hacia las actividades del Mercado | 87.9 | 96.4 | 112.5 |
| Desempeño o Rendimiento Mixto | 45.9 | 59.6 | 69.9 |
| Un aumento de la orientación hacia el mercado de un 9.6% tuvo como resultado un aumento en el desempeño de un 29.7% | Un aumento de la orientación hacia el mercado de un 17% tuvo como resultado un aumento en el desempeño de un 17% |
BENEFICIOS DE UNA COMPAÑÍA CON ORIENTACIÓN Y ENFOQUE HACIA EL MERCADO
BENEFICIOS ADICIONALES DE LA ENCUESTA PARA LOS PARTICIPANTES
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First appeared: NNBW 8/20/02
“There is only one boss – the customer – and he or she can fire everybody in the company by spending his or her money somewhere else.” Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart
Sam Walton definitely understands the power of customers and one of the mantras in today’s marketplace is “customer-focus.” Why is that? Because in today’s economy, more than ever, customers are becoming more powerful as they become increasingly discriminating about their purchases.
This is leading to intense competition for businesses. Whether you are a business-to-business or a mass-market company, selling a product or a service, the competition for your customer’s pocketbook is intense.
If you want to out perform your competition and keep your customers coming back, implement one basic business strategy – focus on your market. This means taking customer focus to a higher level and having a company-wide strategy that is not only customer focused, but is also market focused.
What does it mean to be market focused? Specifically, you need to understand your customers’ needs and wants better than your competitors do and provide your customers with superior products or services. To do this you need to: 1) Gather information about your customers and your marketplace; 2) Communicate the information collected to your managers and employees; and 3) Respond what you learned by responding to the markets’ needs. These are three basic business activities that most companies do, but not formally or systematically.
Gather and use relevant information about your customer and marketplace. Information or market intelligence that your company needs to make strategic decisions includes knowing more than just data on customer needs and wants. You also need to look at environmental factors like government regulation and policies, technological changes, competitors and their activities, and more importantly, future industry trends.
Your company probably informally gathers a significant amount of customer information in meetings and discussion with customers and distributors, in sales reports, and in databases, to name a few. Sources for environmental information include trade publications, industry events, and your local network. Intelligence gathering can be broad or specific depending on your company and budget. The key is to gather information that is comprehensive enough, but is also relevant and usable to your company. After you have the information, what do you do with it?
If you are going to all the effort to learn about your market, communicate the relevant market intelligence to the people in your company.
Most companies don’t formally do anything!
The information you gathered needs to be regularly compiled in a usable form and then effectively shared with your managers and employees. Spreading the information throughout your company can be as basic as informal hallway meetings or as thorough as building a customer and market database.
Other ideas include periodic newsletters, management lunches, forums, internal message postings, and formal reports. In the end, what is crucial is not the method of distribution, but the end result. Intelligence needs to be communicated clearly, continuously, and appropriately so your staff can strategically respond to the market.
Responding to your market is the critical last step to being market focused. You can generate information and communicate it internally, but unless you respond to market needs, nothing has been accomplished. This is the hardest step for companies to implement, but it is the most important. If you’re still in business, your company must be growing and developing. Just like the other two steps, using market intelligence to respond to your market is not taking on a new activity. Rather it is using what you’ve learned to drive your strategies. Your company should be driven by understanding what your customers want, figuring out if and how to meet their needs, and producing and offering the wanted product/service they want.
How does this help my company’s performance? If you link these activities together, you will provide superior value to your customers, which results in improved firm performance. Here is a motivating fact: Numerous academic studies have proven that companies that link these activities together and therefore are more focused on their market, achieve greater levels of financial, non-financial, and overall business performance when compared to their competitors. A company that increases its market focus by 10 percent will see an increase of between 17 and 20 percent in overall firm performance.
How market focused is your company? UNR is currently executing a benchmark study assessing the market focus of businesses in this region in conjunction with EDAWN, the Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce, the Sparks Chamber of Commerce, and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. If you would like to know how you compare to other Reno-area companies, you can take the survey at http://www.coba.unr.edu/faculty/olsen/study/.
For more information: If you have any questions regarding these articles, or desire further information, please contact us.
At the end of the day, what is every business trying to do? Grow. More customers, more sales, positive cash flow, larger deal sizes, higher volume, more billable hours, justification for higher prices, etc. Ask any hard-working entrepreneur what he or she is working on and you’re bound to hear a comment related to business growth. Why? Because if you’re not growing, you’re shrinking. It’s why we are all in business – to build or create something bigger than ourselves.
The classic growth strategies include partnerships, market expansion, acquisition, product extension, and franchising. While these strategies are well known, how does an organization come to select one over the other as a means for growth? And once decided, how is the company run? Ultimately, I believe growth is 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, here are some practical considerations to keep in mind on your constant quest for growth…
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, objectives and goals must be understood. Everyone needs to understand how they contribute to and impact the goals. Second, they must be measurable and actionable by having someone responsible and a due date. 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. This is similar to accountability, but slightly different. 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 a key business metrics. Then give that individual or team the autonomy and authority to drive that revenue past the forecast!
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.
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.
Erica Olsen (Erica@m3planning.com) is VP of Marketing for M3 Planning, which helps companies build market-focused cultures through customer-driven strategic planning, empirical market research, and measurable marketing approaches. Her company launched MyStrategicPlan.com, a web-based strategic planning site for small and medium businesses.
For more information: If you have any questions regarding these articles, or desire further information, please contact us.
With all of the latest and greatest concepts, seminars, webcasts, and “How-To” books vying for your attention, you would think that growing your business was as complicated as building the space shuttle. The fact is, there are only three ways to expand business…
Option #1 – Increase the number of customers You increase the number of customers you have by reaching new customers 1) with your existing offering or 2) developing a new offering. Ideally you will leverage the offering you have to enter a new market or expand the reach in your existing market. Three key questions to answer to increase the number of customers are:
• Who has a real need for the product/service I’m selling? Does my product meet that need in a manner that either saves money or provides additional value? • How much, if anything, are they spending to address that need today? • How many of those potential customers are there? How do I reach them?
Answering these questions meaningfully necessitates market research. Market research is a prelude to selling. It teaches you a great deal about what you will need to know to effectively reach these new customers such as what to say, how to say it and to whom.
For example, our company just completed a national market research study that provided our client with the issues and challenges facing its target market. Using the research, which provided a keen understanding of the needs and wants of its customers, our client developed messaging and marketing materials that resonated not only with existing customers, but with new customers as well. Response rate to their lead-generating events have doubled.
Option #2 – Increase the frequency of purchase The quickest path to increasing the frequency of purchases is by making it as easy as possible for your existing customers to do business with you repeatedly. Another way to look at this is providing additional customer value – and ultimately building customer loyalty. If you make it easier for customers to buy from you, relative to your competition, then you will continue to win their business. This, of course, assumes your products or services are comparable or superior to your competitors.
Outside of customer loyalty programs, here are a few areas to consider improving: Responsiveness to requests, calls, emails; accessibility to the customer’s primary contact; consistency in offering; follow-up and follow-through on meetings; and accurate and timely billing. While these may seem like common sense, consider how many vendors you no longer use because they were too difficult to do business with. Don’t become one of them to your customers.
Option #3 – Increase the number of units sold By default you will increase the number of units sold when you increase the number of clients and frequency of purchase. But you can also increase the number of units sold by understanding how to add value. If you want to sell more products or bill more hours, providing a value-add benefit or solution will begin to strengthen your customer relationship. If you are to consistently add-value to the customer relationship, you need to fully understand how your customers interpret, define, and quantify the value they receive from your products and services.
Here is a consumer example: A restaurateur offered existing customers 20 percent off for parties of 4 during lunch and early dinner. The idea was to add value to his existing clients by providing them with a benefit they could share. Result: His lunch business went up by 88% in one month and by 53% over the campaign. On the frequency side, he experienced 71% retention of his customers when he dropped the campaign after 3 months.
Finally, don’t forget, to see real results, you must start with what you already know about your customers. It is the market research, customer knowledge you already have, that is literally a hidden goldmine of profit that can grow your business and increase your company’s top line. It is this customer-focused information that will provide the foundation for generating more sales, retaining and cross-selling customers, and acquiring new customer business. Armed with customer-focused information, you will know which is the best way to grow your business.
For more information: If you have any questions regarding these articles, or desire further information, please contact us.
As we head into the strategic planning season and begin executing strategy, take a few moments to consider the legacy you want your business to leave. Will it continue on indefinitely or pass to your children or employees? Do you plan on cashing out or will it just cease to exist? Many entrepreneurs are not clear about what their businesses will look like without them – leaving their exit strategy to chance instead of intention. Bottom line – business ownership will someday be transferred either due to careful planning, death or unforeseen life changes.
Studies show us that a majority of owners are in denial or just postponing the inevitable. Here who is and a few reasons why you don’t want to be part of the majority:
Knowing your options Of course the reason why the majority of business owners avoid this entire discussion is because it is not an inspiring topic. But setting a clear exit strategy is imperative to ensure your years of hard work pay off in the end. Knowing your options and a few best practices can make this task seem less intimidating.
Even though exit planning and succession planning are used interchangeably, there is a distinction that should be understood to adequately manage the overall exit process. The first phase is the process of directing how to transfer the business when you exit – exit planning. The second phase is determining who will run the business upon your departure – succession planning. There are basically four ways to exit your business:
A frequent question asked is – when should the entrepreneur-owner start the exit planning process? The resounding answer by all experts is – NOW! The ideal timing is when a venture is started, launched or purchased. Numerous long-term financial considerations are developed at the initial stages that will impact operations for years.
Exit planning is an important ingredient of you and your organization’s strategic direction. Consider drafting your own personal vision statement for your business, which includes your exit strategy. This does not need to be shared with your staff, but can guide the strategic growth of the organization.
Six key considerations for exiting No matter whether the entrepreneur is considering an outright sale or deciding to groom another to lead the business, a strategy is an absolute necessity. Here are some critical considerations to start developing your exit strategy:
Preparing for a smooth exit Once you’ve determined how you can exit the business, succession planning helps you determine who will run your business upon its transfer. (Naturally, this is relevant for all exit strategies except liquidation.) The key point is to exert input now while you still have ownership and control. No one knows the business better than you – no one. So take advantage of your current situation and provide for a successful succession. Here’s how to make sure it’s a smooth transition:
Helpful resources Developing sufficient responses to these critical considerations and eventually setting a solid strategy can be easier with outside expertise and resources. Best practices suggest that you assemble a group of trusted advisors to help protect your assets and future desires. The group should include the expertise of the following: CPA with estate planning experience, estate attorney, valuation expert, financial planner or money manager, and life insurance specialist. Additionally, here are a few free resources to start the process: www.cashing-out.com; www.buysellbiz.com; www.thebizseller.com; www.inc.com/valuation.
What you can do today As a business owner, you have goals and aspirations for the business you created. For most of us entrepreneur-owners, we do intend to exit our business someday. Clearly, a strategy is necessary to ensure orderly transfer of the business for maximum value to obtain sufficient resources for your financial goals. Based on the information provided, what are three things you can do to move your exit strategy forward this coming year? To guarantee a lasting legacy, start thinking about tomorrow today.
For more information: If you have any questions regarding these articles, or desire further information, pleasecontact us.
More than likely you have explored your company’s strengths at least once over the last few years, (or several times if you have ever hired a consultant). Embracing business best-practices guides you to look at the business strengths of your shop, especially as you put a 2010 strategic plan together. But from a strategic perspective, you are not interested in a laundry list of everything your company does well. In fact, sometimes this can bog the planning process down.
You want to identify the strengths that matter. (Let’s call these key strengths.) Everything else is just icing on the cake. Finding these key strengths can be like panning for gold. You sift through the sand to find the most valuable nuggets. Uncovering those nuggets, those core activities, processes, products, services and intangible assets that propel your company forward is critical to the success of your organization and its growth. Here are four different places to look for your key strengths. Use the examples and questions to identify a handful of your strengths to help guide your strategic plan.
Finding meaning: Do not let the title of this section scare you away. No intense therapy session is needed to dig into defining the purpose of your business. You may or may not have a mission statement for your company, but somewhere on paper, or in your thoughts, you know why you started your business. Here are a few questions to get you started:
Companies are founded for reasons as varied as something to do during retirement to making the world a better place. Challenge yourself to answer the above questions honestly and with conviction. To jump-start your thinking, here are some examples from organizations large and small:
Putting all the semantics and flowery words aside, state the purpose of your business in a few short sentences.
Getting motivated: An intangible, but powerful, force in all companies is the motivation of its employees. While this may seem like an odd place to look for your key strengths, consider that nothing gets accomplished without some sort of human intervention. Most likely, your employees have the choice, or the opportunity, to work anywhere. Yet they work for your organization. Why? What brings them to work everyday? What brings you to work everyday? What are you passionate about? Without passion or motivation, nothing gets done.
Consider the example of a small, privately held construction company that specializes in the construction of water and wastewater treatment plants. The company’s employees are passionate about building world-class water facilities. In fact, one employee told me he loves going to work every day and could not imagine doing anything else. Because of this key strength, the company is the “contractor of choice” of many public agencies in its region.
You and your employees are the organization’s biggest assets. Find out what keeps them and you going so you can feed that fire. Here are most important questions to ask:
Show me the money: If I asked you how you make money, more than likely you would reply by explaining the types and number of products or services you sell. While this is correct, look at your revenue generation from a different perspective. Resist looking at your income statement for the moment. We will look at a strategy best-practice to gain some insight into what really drives your profit engine. The best-practice is to think about your revenue in terms of profit per “X” such as:
You might be tempted to look at the list above and decide that several of these are your profit engines. However, the challenge is to determine which one is actually the best revenue driver for your business. That is to say, they may all bring money into the business, but one will have the biggest impact. Looking at your revenue generation from this perspective is just like panning for gold. You do not need to do change your activities, but you might need to look at your pan from a different angle to see the nugget.
Consider a regional retail chain, which focused on the individual revenue and margin of each store. Therefore the owner thought his profit engine was simply profit per store. Of course the individual profitability of a location is critical and makes sound financial sense. But from a strategic standpoint, think about how shifting from the perspective of profit per store to profit per customer might change some activities. Now instead of stores competing, they collaborate. Not only do the employees behave differently, the customers feel a difference and so does the bottom line.
Keying in on your resources: The sum of all individual resources is what combines to make up your company. Things like skills, assets, capabilities, competencies and so on are all the resources you use to deliver your product or service. What unique skills, resources, capabilities and assets set your company apart in the marketplace? How can these skills and resources be used to create value in the marketplace? Here is a list of some areas that you might consider when looking for your key resources:
Your Key Strengths: So now it’s time to identify your strengths by using the questions provided above. After you have listed your company’s purpose, passion, profit engine and key resources, review your list for common supportive threads. Then synthesize your list of strengths down to your top five key strengths. Remember – be specific so the list is useful. Make your organization stronger in 2006 by strengthen your key strengths.
Erica Olsen (Erica@m3planning.com) is a principal of M3 Planning, making strategy a reality for entrepreneurial-spirited organizations. Her company launched MyStrategicPlan.com, a web-based strategic planning site for small and medium businesses. She is also an instructor and a writer.
For more information: If you have any questions regarding these articles, or desire further information, please contact us.
Are you ready to make more money in your business? Who isn’t? Even if you are running a nonprofit or government agency, you’re always looking at improving your profit margins. Your margins tell you how much is left over after you’ve paid your direct expenses. So what’s the secret to making more money? Stop doing things that lose money. Now, before you roll your eyes, don’t overlook the simplicity of this statement.
Reality is that we are creatures of habit, not logic. We do things the way we’ve always done them because we’re attached to our ways. Not to mention, everyone gets caught up in their ego now and again.
Here’s a classic example: A mid-sized business-to-business software company realized that every dollar of revenue generated from its marketing campaigns cost the business about $1.20. Result: The new business is costing more than it is worth ($1.00 – $1.20). Why didn’t they see this before launching the campaign? Because most of the time businesses don’t attribute marketing dollars directly to the sales generated. Taking the time to run the numbers can illuminate where your margins are positive and negative. Ready for some ideas on how to improve your margins?
Identifying cash creators Let’s first look at some ways to free up or create cash. There are plenty more out there, but here is a quick hit list:
Detecting cash drains No one likes throwing money away. But in organizations, it can be hard to pinpoint when money is going down the drain. Here a few ideas on how to detect cash drains and improve your margins:
Erica Olsen (Erica@m3planning.com) is a principal of M3 Planning, making strategy a reality for entrepreneurial-spirited organizations. Her company runs MyStrategicPlan.com, a web-based strategic planning site for small and medium businesses. She is also the author of the upcoming book Strategic Planning For Dummies.
First appeared: NNBW 10/20/02 What does your company do best? What is your competitive advantage? Or better yet, what can your company potentially do better than any other company? And perhaps just as important, what can it not do best?
According to Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, answers to these simple questions offer insight into your firm’s purpose. And, if answered with brutal honesty, they are key to moving your company to greatness. Why? Because this is your competitive advantage.
Specifically, it is your company’s unique skills and resources working to implement strategies that competitors cannot implement as effectively. Understanding your competitive advantage is critical. It is the reason you are in business. It is what you do best that draws customers to buy your product/service instead of your competitor’s. Extremely successful companies deliberately make choices to be unique and different in activities that they are really, really good at and they focus all of their energy in these areas.
Of course once you have identified your competitive advantage(s), you’re not done. It is not enough just to have an advantage over your competitors. For your business to be great, it needs to weather competitive and environmental storms. You have to be able to combat today’s fierce market forces and uncertainty. In other words, your competitive advantage needs to be sustainable and able to endure the test of time for your company to be great. Why? Because most advantages can be duplicated within a period of time.
Here are the hard and cold facts: Roughly 70 percent of all new products can be duplicated within one year and 60 to 90 percent of process improvements (learning) eventually diffuses to competitors. And everyone knows competing on price is never sustainable.
So, what is your firm’s competitive advantage? Do you have one? And if you do, are you focusing on it? Here’s a quick way to check your pulse. Do any of these statements sound familiar?
Summing it up is Michael Porter, the Harvard competitive advantage guru. Mr. Porter states, “It is incredibly arrogant for a company to believe that it can deliver the same sort of product/service that its rivals do and actually do better for very long. It is extremely dangerous to bet on the incompetence of your competitors.”
If any of these statements do sound familiar or if you are banking on the general incompetence of your competitors, it’s time to get serious about the purpose of your company. First, assess what your company does best by looking at what you are good at and what you are not good at. Turn it into a competitive advantage by focusing your energy on these activities. Lastly, make it something that will endure by continually developing and working at it.
Now it is time to put your competitive advantage to the test. How do you know when you have developed a sustainable competitive advantage? Here are three criteria that can help evaluate if you are on the right track and keep you there:
Before you put this article down, ask yourself: What is my competitive advantage? And is it sustainable? Your company depends on it.
For more information: If you have any questions regarding these articles, or desire further information, please contact us.
Written by Chris Champayne
Ready for anything? Most people aren’t, nor are most businesses. Readiness is not just about disaster preparedness, it is being ready for opportunity, as well as adversity. Readiness is a lifestyle, and any organization reaps the rewards of “all those little things” that seem to add up when the time is right. Just like they pay the price when “all those little things” weren’t done until it was too late.
Little things like examining disability insurance, especially when you’re the sole proprietor, or main principal of your business, and nothing really happens if you’re not functional. Take a moment and imagine that you sustained some kind of injury that kept you completely out of your business for ten days, and only 20% effective for 20 days beyond that. Say a bee sting that got infected and you almost lost your leg. What does your business look like in that scenario?
Little things like knowing exactly what kind of industries you want to play in, and client types you want to play with, so when someone else approaches you for partnership or an alliance, you can readily estimate whether this is an opportunity, … or a distraction.
Little things like reliable back-ups of your data and documents that are protected on site, and a shadow copy off-site. For folks in a hurricane zone, that off-site might be in a bank vault’s safety deposit box, because the news is filled with people who lost their homes and their businesses in one storm.
Little things like knowing what kind of sales person or office manager you’re looking for, and realizing that you just met a person that fits the bill on the plane ride back home from a conference.
We’re surrounded by circumstances and choices. It’s about being ready. And the first step to getting there is to simply focus on what you want, and then create a mental picture of what would fulfill that desire. If your house and your office are in ruins, it’s a lot easier to pick up the pieces when you know the only thing standing in town is that bank vault with everything you need to get back in the game. Ten minutes to burn a CD or make a tape back-up, … or make photocopies. Ten minutes to run it over to a safe place every month or so. It’s not that hard. Even if it all for naught, you never use it or the off-site get wiped out, too, … at least you know you did something.
The real barrier? Procrastination. People often feel overwhelmed by “trying to think of everything.” Stop. The old adage asks: How do you eat an elephant? Answer? One bite at a time. If you’re procrastinating, understand that worry is the source. So ask yourself, what is it about this task that concerns me? Make a list. There’s your “bites.” Eat one. Just one. Then another.
So get a folder out. Put stuff in it. Photocopy it a bit later. Now you have a spare set of those important documents. You don’t have to do it all at once. One bite at a time works just fine. Just do something, because opportunity is on its way and so is adversity. The real question is, … Are you ready for it?
For more information: If you have any questions regarding these articles, or desire further information, please contact us.
More often than not, life and day-to-day operations take over a well-intentioned strategic plan implementation. If it is one more thing everyone has to do, the strategic plan beings to feel like a burden instead of being exciting. By embedding your strategic planning into daily operations, you begin to make strategy a habit instead of an event. Then acting strategic or completing items on your strategic plan becomes natural instead of something extra. Here are ten quick ways to keep your strategic plan from hitting the shelf and collecting dust.
1. Getting Everyone Involved from the Start Make your organization’s plan everyone’s plan. Taking a top down approach is a recipe for failure. Instead, involve everyone on you staff from the start. Throughout the chapters there are references to group exercises and employee feedback. Use them to help develop a strategic plan that everyone feels part of. Take the next step and assign every staff member a goal or objective. Then he or she has direct responsibility for achieving a piece of the organization’s strategy.
2. Deleting the Fluff The sure death of a strategic plan is entombing it in hundreds of pages of text. Less is more. Delete the non-essential verbiage that just clutters up the page. Remember: Your strategic plan is not a business plan. Your strategic plan is for you, your staff, and board. It’s not a sales piece. Delete the fluff.
3. Appointing a Strategy Engineer Appoint someone besides yourself to be the point person for the strategic plan. Anoint this person as the strategy engineer. He or she is responsible for keeping track of your progress through the use of a scorecard (see Chapter 14); getting updates from managers and staff on goals, objectives, and action plans; and organizing meetings and communications about the strategic plan. Ideally your strategy engineer is highly organized and commands the respect of everyone in your company or department. Remember: No matter how much you’d like to do it, it can’t be you.
4. Creating a Strategic Plan Poster By putting your strategic plan on one page, by default, you keep your strategic plan from even touching the shelf. Yes, you need back up documentation, which probably should be in a three-ring binder on a shelf. But put the key parts of your strategic plan on one page, blow it up at Kinkos, and hang it in your break room or common area. By creating a strategic plan poster, you keep everyone focused on your organization’s strategic direction.
5. Hooking Achievement into Incentives We all like to be rewarded for a job well done. Dangling a carrot out there for successfully implementing your strategic plan is a sure way to get some action. Incentives take all different shapes and colors. The green kind is always welcome, but you can develop all sorts of creative perks. By paying for performance, you elevate the importance of your strategic plan.
6. Using a KISS When all else fails – Keep It Simple Stupid. For your strategic plan to be implemented, everyone in your organization has to understand it. Failing prey to big business lingo and confusing jargon diminishes the effectiveness of your plan. It’s really easy to develop a confusing strategic plan. Resist the urge. Use the KISS rule.
7. Holding a Monthly Strategy Meeting Groan…another meeting? Well, yes and no. Replace one of your regularly scheduled staff meetings with a strategy meeting. Meetings about strategy are exciting and people want to be involved. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the status of your plan. Cross of what has been completed. Troubleshoot if something is not happening. Make changes where needed. See for more info. You’ll be surprised at the enthusiasm and effectiveness for this type of meeting.
8. Using a Scorecard Keeping your plan alive requires constant communication. This can seem like too big of a task, so it just falls by the wayside. But if your staff does not know where they stand, it’s impossible to keep implementing. Ignorance is bliss. By using a scorecard you keep everyone in the loop. A scorecard provides a quick snapshot of your organization’s strategic position. Turn the scorecard in to charts and graphs and you have a quick visual that communicates your progress and is fun to look at!
9. Leading by Example There is no better way to keep your plan alive than your leadership. Your complete and total commitment is critical to the success of your plan. If you pull back, even just a little, it gives everyone a license to slack. So talk about your organization’s strategy regularly. Use it in conversations with clients, customers, and board members. Ask questions of your staff about its progress – is it working, isn’t working? When making budget decisions, point back to your plan. Does it fit or doesn’t it? Be a strategic leader and your people will follow.
10. Celebrating Your Success Too often we are so focused on tomorrow’s tasks, we forget to recognize successes today. Don’t wait until the end of the year to recognize achievement. Celebrate small successes along the way! Did you achieve a big goal? Bring in pizza. Take the staff to lunch. Give everyone the day off. Go on a fun outing. No matter how big or small, by celebrating success along the way you’ll keep everyone excited and engaged.
For more information: If you have any questions regarding these articles, or desire further information, please contact us.
While we all know it is important to plan for the future, very few businesses actually do. Instead of citing the benefits of business planning and strategic planning, which we’ve all heard, here is a list of warning signs that indicate whether or not your business has a clear focus and if you are ready to be strategic this year.
If someone asked where your business would be in 2007, you would have to think about it. If you asked your partners or management team the same question, you would get different answers. And you would not know what you are doing in 2006 to make 2007 a reality.
Your company will not hit its revenue goals this year. While there can be many reasons for the shortfall, you are not sure how to grow the top line. Maybe it is time to apply the 80/20 rule. Do you know what 20 percent of your customers contribute the 80 percent of your revenue?
There are inconsistencies in your brochure, website, sales collateral, etc. You can’t understand the content. More importantly, neither can anyone else. You find you have to explain your business to a potential client. You are telling different stories about how you provide value.
You’re ignoring your competition. You don’t know who your number one competitor is and what they are doing, who their clients are, what products they offer, their pricing, or key message points. When your customers ask you to explain why your company is different, you don’t have a good response.
Everything on your “to do” list is a priority. You don’t know where your time is best spent.
Friends and colleagues can’t refer you because they aren’t sure exactly what value your business provides and to whom. They often ask, “What is it you do again?”
When you’re presented with a business opportunity, you are unsure how to evaluate if it is something your company should pursue. In fact, you normally pursue all opportunities just in case you might miss the big one.
You enjoy what you do, but you are not passionate about your business. You’d quit everything and follow that passion tomorrow if you could.
Your business development consists largely of attending networking events, but you spend most of your time talking to people you know. And you rely solely on word-of-mouth for new customers.
You don’t know why your customers buy from you. The majority continue to do business with your company, but you’re not sure what keeps them coming back. You’ve never really asked.
You find your clients contracting with other companies for services you provide. When asked, they say they didn’t know you offered those services.
When you ask your employees what success looks like, they don’t have a consistent answer. And your incentive plan does not synch up with performance expectations.
You complain when your customers call because you just don’t have time to talk to them. And you notice your staff complaining too.
You don’t do market research or solicit customer feedback because you know your market. You’ve been in the industry for years and you know customers’ need and wants.
You determine your pricing by looking at your competitor’s prices and discounting slightly. All your prices are based on your competitors’ offerings.
You can’t articulate what your company does best, but it is a good point of discussion at the Christmas cocktail party.
When asked why you are in business, your only response is profit.
Sound familiar? Maybe it’s time to get serious about your business and get focused. Having a strategic plan and, therefore a succinct strategy, brings clarity and focus to your organization. It ensures your time, resources, and actions are not wasted. If every part of your organization is not pointed in the same direction, you’ll end up going in circles – frustrating yourself and your employees. Why not get strategic and make this year your most successful year?
For more information: If you have any questions regarding these articles, or desire further information, please contact us.
First appeared: NNBW 9/9/02
“There are three kinds of companies – those that make things happen, those that watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened.” – Anonymous Do you know where your company is going? What will your business be like in three years? Will you be a few steps closer to realizing your vision? No one can predict the future. But if you don’t change anything, will the future be any different than the past? Probably not. But one sure-fire way to impact your company’s future (and profitability) is to dust off an old tool – the Strategic Business Plan.
A company’s strategic plan is the “game plan” management has for positioning the company in its chosen market arena, competing successfully, satisfying customers, and achieving good business performance. Most business owners and executives have a myriad of excuses for not having a formal strategic plan. I’ve heard everything from “We’re too new,” “We’re not big enough,” to “We’ve never had one, why start now?”
If these excuses sound familiar, here are a few interesting facts: Studies indicate that 50 percent of new businesses fail within the first 18 months due to a lack of direction and roughly 90 percent of all businesses lack a strategic plan.
If you are part of the 90 percent, ask yourself: Could your company be more focused? Could you be more effective? Could your employees be more efficient? And most of all, could your company be more successful? Most of us would probably answer “yes” to all of the above. Here’s how each part of a strategic plan will change how you answer these questions. Vision: It Brings Focus You get what you focus on. Everyone knows this, but most of companies are busy tending daily urgent problems, and not focusing on long-term important aspects. Unless your staff can focus on a common vision, the company will go nowhere. A strategic plan helps direct energy and guide staff toward a shared goal in an ever-changing world. Orit Gadiesh, chairman, Bain & Co., sums up the importance of focus, “In the current environment, companies can’t afford not to have a set of guiding principles — a vision that communicates ‘true north’ to the entire organization.”
Mission, Goals and Objectives: They Empower Employees Vision is useless unless it can be channeled in a way to empower your employees. The mission statement, goals and objectives are the roadmap in a strategic plan to do this. A long way from being just a paragraph on the wall and bullet points in a memo; these are the primary guidelines for leading the organization to higher levels of performance. They provide the framework for independent decisions and actions initiated by – departments, managers, and employees – into a coordinated, company-wide game plan.
Strategy: It Saves Time and Energy Once the mission, goals and objectives are clear you can establish how you are going to achieve them. A strategy provides the vehicle and answers the question “How are we going to get there with the available resources?” Strategy focuses on how to achieve performance targets, how to out-perform your competition, how to achieve sustainable competitive advantage, how to grow, how to satisfy customers, and how to respond to changing market conditions. Basically, strategies keep your whole company acting together while strengthening the company’s long-term competitive position in the marketplace.
Execution and Evaluation: It Ensures Success All the best missions and strategies in the world are a waste of time if they are not implemented. To be truly successful, the plan cannot gather dust on the bookshelf. Know what your end result looks like and where your milestones should be. Plan your near term actions and evaluate every quarter. Are you where you thought you’d be if you had been on target? Or, if you’re off target, by how much? The course correction to put you back on track becomes your next action plan.
If done correctly, a strategic plan is a living, dynamic document. Strategic planning becomes a process that is ongoing and never-ending, changing as the market and your environment changes. A strategic plan drives your business and must be integrated into every fiber of an organization, so every employee is helping to move the company in the same direction.
When your company has a clear plan and takes appropriate action, you get “traction” to take you from where you are, to where you want to go!
For more information: If you have any questions regarding these articles, or desire further information, please contact us.
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