Spend a bit of time, ask a few people for suggestions, try asking your Basic Strategic Planning
Discover your competition
Talk to your customers and suppliers ask them
Use your Existing Knowledge
The best strategic thinkers I know are small business owners with no tertiary eduction. Put your thoughts on paper identifying your
Take Action for Results!
Courageous leadership is about taking action, you have identified the issues now identify the actions that will help you achieve your goals!
Upgrade your Future!
Things you may like to consider in your SWOT include
Who should use basic strategic planning?
Junior and middle managers in large organisations and small business operators who cannot justify producing a lengthy strategic planning document, these are typically people with a penchant for action.
- If interest rates go up, interest expense on borrowings will increase reducing the availability of cash for other activities!
Now get an A4 piece of paper, divide it into 4 quadrants, and write one heading at the top of each quadrant, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Example SWOT
The How to of Basic Strategic Planning -All of the benefits in half of the time!
Basic strategic planning eliminates unnecessary paperwork and the duplicated analysis that traditionally occurs in strategic planning. Use your planning time wisely, only do the things that add value.
List your actions and post them somewhere prominent in your business, where you will be reminded of them.
Basic Strategic Planning
Traditionally Strategic Planning results in the publication of a lengthy document. The document will contain graphs, charts and a bewildering explanation of the state of the economy. The documents will also include the effect an interest rate increase may have on your business and a detailed analysis of your competitors.
The key is you!
What goes in a SWOT analysis? The answer is your knowledge, your knowledge about your business, your industry and the world in general.
A basic strategic plan is completed by identifying the things that matter most to your business, us MBA’s call this a SWOT analysis, the SWOT analysis is a list of your businesses strengths and weaknesses and the external opportunities and threats to your business.
Anyone running their own business or in a management position knows this so do most kids. Why state the obvious in your plan?
- are your customers/suppliers moving, staying put of increasing in your area?
- is the government looking to make changes that affect your industry? (Regulation or deregulation)
- what is the economic outlook for your country and the country where you sell your products?
- are your products acceptable by future environmental standards?
Achieve the results you want in a fraction of the time!
If you are a corporate strategist, product or portfolio manager or a general manager then you will need the complexity of a traditional strategic plan, otherwise you can use the simplified strategic planning process.
- Internal (in your business)
- Strengths (what are you good at?)
- Weaknesses (What do your competitors do better than you do?)
Once you have completed a SWOT you will prioritise and develop actions. Take a moment to read on and discover how
- External
- Opportunities, (where can you grow your business?)
- Threats (What will stop you growing?)
Now you have a list, highlight the most important items on the list, only pick a few, not too many not too few. Say five to eight.
- Internal customers and suppliers
- External customers and suppliers
- Peers, staff and manager
Examples: Carpenters have less work when new home building approvals is in decline, more work when new housing is busy. If you have a retail shop, you will know if sales have been increasing or decreasing. If you are a division of a large company, you will still know if you are competing with local businesses or imported products. You have extensive knowledge! This process will help you use it.
For example, why state?
These documents are compelling, yet rarely do they inspire action from the business, more often than not, we bind and place our lengthy strategic plan on a shelf where it sits gathering dust until our next strategic planning session.Basic Strategic Planning
Valuable Information! More Basic Strategic Planning help is one click away; take one moment to brows the author’s site “what makes a good leader”. Ian Pratt has worked with both small businesses and large organisations to improve business performance, learn the secrets of leadership success and get free access to the tools that help leaders become great. Hot topics include “Management by Walking Around” and “Strategic Planning”.
Article Source : Basic Strategic Planning
