Posts Tagged ‘Strategic Planning’
Wednesday, June 26th, 2024
As I’ve worked within organizations and, for the past 15+ years as an external consultant, I’ve come to admit that most employees, including many senior leaders, really don’t enjoy strategic planning. I think one of the biggest reasons for this is that they see it as a waste of time. Lots of hours spent by lots of people in closed door meetings that lead to a laundry list of activities and assignments that rarely seem to drive meaningful change.
I’d get tired of that too. But I happen to really love the strategic planning process—when it’s done well.
Here are some reasons that I think many strategic planning efforts fail to capture the interest of employees (even senior leaders!), or lead to meaningful results.
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Tags: Strategic Planning, strategic planning assistance, strategic planning best practices, strategic planning consultants, success in strategic planning, why strategic planning doesn't work, why strategic planning fails
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Thursday, September 8th, 2022
In interviewing for a job several years ago, I went through a round of interviews with various members of the organization. When meeting with the Chief Administrative Office (CAO), he handed me a brochure and said: “What do you think about this brochure?” My immediate thought was: “In what regard?,” but I resisted the urge to say that and, instead, said:
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Tags: audience analysis, competitive analysis, marketing goals and objectives, marketing research, marketing strategy, Strategic Planning
Posted in Strategic Communications | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 16th, 2022
Many of you have probably been at goal-setting seminars or workshops where the leader will pose a question like: “Would you like to make more money?,” and, of course, everybody nods or raises their hand. Then the leader will approach a workshop participant and (more…)
Tags: forecasting, market analysis, marketing budget, marketing planning, marketing plans, projecting sales, sales projections, strategic marketing, Strategic Planning
Posted in Marketing and Branding, Promotions | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2019
It’s hard to believe another year is winding down. It’s the old “toilet paper roll theory” (a not-so-scientific way of explaining relativity). Time may pass more quickly (at least perceptually) for me, than for the university students I teach, for instance. For them a year represents about 1/20th of their lifetime. For me, well, you get the point!
At any rate, as another year is almost behind us, it’s time for two annual traditions: making predictions for what the new year may hold and making resolutions.
Here’s a look at our top predictions for 2019.
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Tags: 2019 predictions, analytics, content marketing, goals, marketing analytics, planning for 2019, resolutions, Strategic Planning, the year ahead
Posted in Content Marketing | No Comments »
Friday, May 18th, 2018
by Justin Grensing, Esq., MBA
Every small business owner knows that the path to success is fraught with many challenges. From managing staff, to financing, to marketing efforts, small business owners often feel overwhelmed with the ancillary yet critical activities they need to succeed at in order to pursue their love of event planning, or flower arrangement, or owning their own medical practice, etc. In a recent article for Entrepreneur, Pamela Slim discussed “How to Overcome Common Challenges and Help Your Small Business Grow,” and one of the topics Slim focused on was the concept of “reacting versus looking ahead.” (more…)
Tags: being proactive, business plan, business success, daily plan, monthly plan, Strategic Planning, weekly plan
Posted in Small Business Strategy | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 21st, 2017
Michael Porter revolutionized the world of business strategy when he developed his Five Forces framework, which evaluates the competitiveness — and resulting attractiveness — of an industry based on five competitive forces. We’ve discussed the framework previously, but now we’re taking a more in-depth look at each individual force. Today, we’re looking at the threat of substitutes. (more…)
Tags: competition, Porter's Five Forces, Strategic Planning, Strategy, switching costs, threat of substitutes
Posted in Business Development | No Comments »
Tuesday, October 4th, 2016
What’s more important: a great idea or great execution? There’s certainly an argument to be made for the importance of ideas for entrepreneurs, and it’s easy to point to famous examples of huge fortunes and successful businesses that sprung from a great idea — Facebook, the automobile, the PC, etc.; but the idea is just the beginning. (more…)
Tags: achieving business results, executing your plan, execution, Innovation, putting plans into action, Strategic Planning, Strategy
Posted in Business Development | No Comments »
Monday, December 28th, 2015
With the new year approaching, the thoughts of many turn to New Year’s resolutions. It’s an annual tradition of setting goals for the coming year that dates back millennia, according to Oklahoma State University’s “Newsline.” However, while a 2013 article from Forbes estimates that roughly forty percent of American’s make a New Year’s resolution, only eight percent end up keeping that resolution! We think we can beat that number. (more…)
Tags: commitment to goals, New Year's resolutions, planning for the New Year, Strategic Planning, Strategy
Posted in Business Development, Marketing and Branding | No Comments »
Thursday, August 6th, 2015
Strategic planning is one of those activities that is often looked upon with either fear or disdain. Why? Because all too often business professionals who have been engaged in what can be a very long and arduous process are disheartened when the plan never really seems to reach fruition. It becomes a document based on an exercise that can take an inordinate amount of time (but doesn’t have to…).
In our experience working with a number of different organizations on strategic planning efforts, and conducting research on strategic planning when writing “
The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Strategic Planning,” there are a number of reasons that even the most carefully created plans fail to be implemented as planned, let alone serve to achieve the desired results.
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Tags: achieving business results, goals and objectives, implementation, strategic plan, Strategic Planning, Strategy
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
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