101 Marketing Strategies Phần 9 pdf

Effective business planning is perhaps the single greatest challenge

facing the small business owner today. Whether you call it a “re￾treat” or a “strategic planning session,” going away from the busi￾ness at least once per year to plan for the future is critical to a

company’s success.

With the fast-paced environment we operate in today, it is too

easy to lose sight of the vision and the goal of balancing the busi￾ness’ goals with the objectives of the shareholders. Failure to plan is

like starting the Boston Marathon with no idea where the finish

line is.

Bob Reynolds,

Brady Wane & Schoenfeld,

Richmond, Indiana

Strategize

During one of our client’s advances, the executive team exam￾ined their strategy for developing a technology consulting prac￾tice. The executive team members had a clear vision of the next

three years: “to be the dominant financial advisory firm for

small (less than $150 million in revenue) manufacturing busi￾nesses.” The firm’s mission is also clear: “to utilize our most￾trusted-business-advisor role to help our clients succeed in a

challenging world.”

The technology strategy that had been used positioned the

firm as a vendor of software. The executive team decided this

strategy did not align with the vision of being an “advisory” firm

and that being a vendor of someone’s product threatened the

perception of objectivity on which “the most trusted business

advisor” role is founded. A more powerful, technology strategy

emerged during the advance that is in alignment with the firm’s

vision and mission.

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89 Retreat and Advance 2

The first time you hold an advance, you can spend all the

time on developing a mission and vision. Once your vision

and the process becomes established, you will spend more of

your time on how to achieve specific goals.

Prioritize and Organize

With a solid mission in place, an executive team can select the

action steps that are most important to the accomplishment of

the firm’s vision. Otherwise, everyone seems to let the latest

“rush job” divert attention from the important actions.

Here’s an example: A business had gotten behind on deliv￾eries. Some customers were complaining and the employees

were ducking calls because of the many complaints. One prob￾lem was leading to another. Once the timeliness problem was

addressed at the advance, the executive team identified the bot￾tlenecks and prioritized the steps to solving the problem.

Within 30 days of the advance, systems for logging, preparing,

reviewing, and streamlining delivery were revamped. Within 60

days all deliveries were timely. Had the problem not been prior￾itized, serious customer losses could have occurred.

Energize

There is something intangible that occurs when a team is fo￾cused on a common vision and mission. When the systems and

strategies are in place to accomplish the vision, a powerful be￾lief develops. Focus and belief can energize your clients’ execu￾Becoming an Insider

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