Business Strategy and Planning

Exposure to strategy concepts alters the way one looks at businesses. Strategic thinking involves a comprehensive analysis of a business in relation to its industry, its competitors and the business environment in both the short and the long term.

Ultimately, strategy is a company's plan to achieve its goals.

Corporate managements often do not know clearly what they want or how they'll get there. For example, if the question posed is which way do I go from here and the answer is it depends on where you want to go, then if the resulting answer is I don't really care then the ultimate conversation finisher could be then it does not matter which way you go.

Corporations need carefully thought-out plans strategic plans or inevitably they will become victims of the market-place as opposed to the victors who shape it.

Strategic plans cannot be formed in a vacuum; they must fit organisations just as marketing plans must be suited to products.

Strategic planning is essentially characterised by two separate stages -- formation and implementation.

This is the optimum point at which to introduce the seven S model:

Structure

Systems

Skills

Staff

Strategy

Statement of Mission

An organisation's ability to change can be measured and each of the "S" factors should be able to complement each of the others in a perfect organisation.

This is essentially no different from a marketing plan, which should be internally consistent and mutually supportive.

The seven "S" models is a helpful tool to organise one's thoughts in order to define and effectively attack complicated problems.

Structure

A corporation's structure affects its strategic planning and its ability to change.
A company's structure may have a customer or a geographic focus. For example. if a company decides to alter its strategy to become more responsive to its customers it may need to adopt a customer structure, which will channel all the skills of a company to meet customer's specific needs.

Systems

The procedures, both formal and informal, by which a company operates, are known as the systems of a company.
When a company confronts a major challenge in the market place, management must have detailed data about its operations, customers, and competition to determine the gravity of the situation. Market research and sales tracking systems give information about the customers while competitive intelligence systems give an insight into what other companies are up to.

Skills

The skills imparted by the employees into the business have to be judged by the employer at the point of the interview so that the necessary improvements can be made to the business.

Staff

With no people, there's no company .The human resources system, which includes appraisals, training, wages, and intangibles such as employee motivation, morale and attitude. With a motivated workforce, companies are able to adapt and compete. This is an essential factor however, because without employee co-operation a company will not have the ability to succeed.

Strategy

This refers to the actions that a company plans in response to or in anticipation of changes in its external environment, its customers and its competitors.

Style

Culture or style is the aggregate of behaviours, thoughts, beliefs and symbols that are conveyed to people throughout an organisation over time.

Mission Statements

These are often mentioned when companies speak about their goals. A mission statement should be a short and concise statement of goals and priorities and not long, bland and tedious documents.

In summary, properly followed the seven "S" formulae could mean the difference between a business being successful or not. Use this as a checklist from time to time to keep the business on a true path.

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Strategy and Planning in Small Business

I guess the first thing you may be thinking is that you don't need fancy strategies in your business, because it's so small, so why should you bother with this article. Surely you just keep working hard and you'll make more money without going through pointless navel-gazing exercises to come up with strategies!? Well, I'd kind of agree with you that you don't need FANCY strategies, but in reality every business has strategies whether it consciously acknowledges them or not. So wouldn't it be better to choose those strategies intentionally than to drift into them?

It's all because the word "strategy" sounds a bit technical, something that generals do in wars when they have to organise lots of soldiers. It has connotations that sound big. But that need not be the case. Really a strategy is just a specified approach to overcome a problem or achieve an aspiration. And each strategy can have a number of activities within it that can be planned specifically.

So if you have a problem you want to overcome or an aspiration you want to achieve, then your approach to doing that will be your strategy. So you see that we all have strategies, even if your strategy to date has been to "wing it"!

One of my philosophies is that if you want to get anywhere with anything you have to be intentional and analytical. Being intentional is my point for now. For example, when I am trying to coach my son in how to get better at playing football I often tell him to be "intentional". In other words, don't just stand around on the pitch waiting for the ball to come your way, and when it does come your way don't just swing your foot at it and hope for the best! You must have a reason for being where you are, to gain an advantage for your team, and when you kick the ball you must know where you want it to go.

It's exactly the same with business strategy. You have to be intentional. And it doesn't have to be fancy and complex. Just have an intention. Because if you have an intention, it means you must have thought about it and have a reason for it.

Hopefully I've persuaded you that even if you have a small business you still need strategies. In the remaining space let's have a look at what you need to develop good strategies.

First, you need a "vision". A vision is simply a statement of where you want the business to get to. What's your dream for the business? How much profit? How much turnover? How big a valuation? Market share? Being number one? Even a one-man business has a dream. I know I do. But if you are going to be intentional you need to be specific about all the things you want the business to achieve.

Second, you need to know what the "strategic issues" are. Strategic issues are the barriers and challenges to be overcome or met in trying to achieve the vision. And to know what these are you have to be analytical. You have to gather facts and be honest about the market, the competition, your customers, your suppliers, the economy, and many other things. I know that small businesses often don't have the time and resources to gather all the information they would like, but mark my words, the more information you have the better equipped you will be.

Third, you need "strategies" to address the strategic issues. And to decide on strategies you may have several options to consider. Being clear about your vision and the strategic issues enables you to weigh up each option on its merits. Does this particular option address the issues completely or partially or not at all? Does it help with more than one strategic issue?

Fourth, each strategy needs a "plan". In order to successfully carry out a strategy you need to plan it, so that you know what needs to be done.

Last point - write it down and make a record of your vision and strategy. I wish I could remember where I heard this, but there was some research done on some graduates and whether they achieved their dreams. A much higher percentage of those who wrote down what they wanted to achieve did achieve their dreams. They had something to go back to and remind them what they were supposed to be focussing on, something to measure their performance against.

If you haven't ever thought of any of these things, why not have a go at jotting something down? Sure, there are coaches that can help you and courses, seminars and workshops that can give you more guidance and depth (and I would definitely recommend these things if you can afford them), but in my opinion you can get a long way by simply being intentional and analytical and ensuring that all your plans link through strategies to your vision.

All the best!

About the Author
Andrew Burrows is owner and director of Charis FD. He is a senior finance professional with 15 years experience working with a variety of businesses, large and small, in a range of industries including telecoms, software, marketing services, maintenance, foreign exchange, banking and retail. He is a qualified chartered accountant and a member of the Institute of Directors. He lives with his wife, Heidi, four pre-teen children and several pets, in North Hampshire, England.

About Charis FD
Charis FD works with owners, investors and CEOs of small and medium-sized businesses in the South of England, that don't yet have the benefit of a senior experienced finance professional on their team. They may be finding it tiring and tedious to manage the finances at the same time as managing the business. Maybe they have a particular problem with cashflow or profitability, management information or control. Or it may just be they feel that they spend too much time getting nowhere on finance matters when they should be maximizing business opportunities. We work with them in a flexible way to generate more cash, improve profitability, implement change and strengthen controls.

To find out more about Charis FD, visit our website: http://www.charisfd.com There you will find out more about our clients, our service and about us. And you can sign up for our bi-weekly newsletter.

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Business - Strategy and Execution

Every company aims to formulate good strategy and execute that strategy well. But many times it is found that it was either good strategy, bad execution or bad strategy and good execution. Why and how to avoid this?

Let us begin with what is a strategy? In simple terms, it means the plan to achieve the desired goals or results. If any organization has well defined goals, and can develop a strategy to achieve them, it should be half the battle won. But it is seen that execution fails. Why should that be so? It may be the fault of the team that executes the strategy, or certain unknown factors that unexpectedly or unknowingly creep in while executing the plan.

What should be done? Ideally the team that forms the strategies should consider the factors such as who are the people who will execute, does the company have the capacity to execute, what if any unexpected change or event occurs while executing, what are the risks involved, and so on. No strategy can be created without taking into account the ability of the people who will be executing it. One may create a great marketing plan but if the field marketing staff fails to understand and execute the game, it is bound to fail and then the blame game begins.

Can a company make a single team that not only creates the strategy but is also responsible to execute it? This will eliminate many such hiccups on the way. The problem is expertise. I am a good strategist and not a good executor. You are a bad strategist but a good executor on the ground. What if such arguments are presented by the team under formation? All right, how about creating a strategy and keep the execution team in the loop throughout the process of creating strategy? This creates another set of problems. The views of both the teams may be so different that no positive outcome will ever result.

I have discussed in brief about these factors above. In real life, more complications arise and especially in large organizations, the complexities increase. The only solution for the top management is to set goals and discuss them with every one. After getting every one in confidence, create strategies and let every one participate in the strategy formation. Decide about what is totally achievable and why may be achievable. Let the team that will execute commit itself to achieve what is totally achievable and promise them with rewards if they manage to achieve the other part also. The synergy between the strategy makers and the executors will ultimately decide the final outcome.

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Business Strategies and Tips That Are Essential But Often Missed

Many new entrepreneurs have good intentions, great ideas, and strong goals. Coming from a job to starting a business, however, introduces new concepts that many new business owners are not aware of or familiar with. Some of these are legal, most are financial. These few tips will keep our businesses running smoothly and increase cash flow.

1. Have a dedicated business budget. After we have calculated total business costs such as fees or dues, we set aside a dedicated amount to spend on products, educational materials, and advertising. If there is an expensive item we want to purchase we average those funds if needed and add them to our monthly budget, cutting back on something else. If we stay within budget we will develop a good habit that will save us money and increase cash flow. As our business grows more profitable we can expand spending accordingly on advertising and other essentials.

2. We make sure that everything we are doing is legal and the companies and organizations we work with are also legal. If we are in doubt we consult an attorney. This is important for two reasons: illegal companies will rarely pay us, no matter how hard we work, and our reputations can be severely damaged by promoting illegal or illegitimate products and services.

3. We plan for taxes and remember to file a schedule C every year. We can claim a business loss, deduct business expenses, and recoup much of what we spend on our businesses. We make sure we are following the tax laws as well. Review the IRS guidelines for home businesses. In a recent Webinar only about 10% of the people in the business had filed a schedule C. Most did not know the tax laws also. Not following the laws can cost us money and also get us in legal trouble. Tax issues can be very costly.

4. We pay attention to proper and acceptable marketing techniques. We don't spam, we don't blast ads inappropriately, and we don't spam social media sites. We provide value and position ourselves as leaders who truly want to assist others. This is the method the leaders use to build and maintain their lists. It is much more effective than spam and ad-blasting.

5. We keep organized lists of actions to take, results we have achieved, and places to improve. This includes tracking ads, tracking responses to article and video posts, and tweaking our efforts as necessary. Being organized in this way maximizes results and reduces effort accordingly. I personally am not well organized so keeping track of everything is really important for me and makes life much easier.

Simple organization and tracking will make running our businesses simpler and more enjoyable. Paying attention to legal issues and taxes will reduce liability risks and increase cash flow. Budgets help us develop good habits and control our expenditures. Simple efforts can produce massive results in many areas and will improve the quality of our businesses. More important is that a good foundation in these areas when our business is small will pave the way for our business to grow huge with few complications.

Hello my friends, I'm Dave Cleinman. Network marketing can be fun and rewarding, but it is also hard work. For information on how to make the process easier, including tips, methods, and valuable life-changing information, visit my blog Steps to Success and sign up for my newsletter, Step by Step.

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Be careful not to leave too early

After a really good networking meeting you will often see people still engrossed in conversations. Many of them will have their diaries to hand arranging meetings. It is this follow up activity in between networking meetings that really make the difference. If you are always rushing off right on time you might be missing out.

We noticed this happening after our NRG group meetings so we now set aside time in the meetings so everyone can be engaged in this activity. Next time you put a networking meeting in your diary try and leave some space beyond the formal end so you don't have to rush off.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke