My class at AU2010 on Strategic Planning started off with what some consider the last slide. The first slide I showed had just two words and a punctuation mark on it. They were… “Any Questions?”. That is becuase I believe that building a strategic plan is just an attempt to answer a series of questions. […]
Without a Strategic Plan… What would you see as the impact of operating without a Strategic Plan? If there is not much impact, then why bother with the whole effort? Let’s look at what your processes and progress will look like with9out a Plan in place. Your budgets will be difficult to get approved because […]
Continue reading about Strategic Planning – Why You Need One
I always like to start out defining what will be discussed and framing the posts in a series. It helps to outline what will be included and what will not. What I won’t try to do… I will not try to define the perfect planning method. There are so many out there that this would […]
Here is what we will be looking at over the next several posts. I am not sure how many posts it will take to cover what I want to discuss. It might take some time to get all of my ideas down. The overall process of discussing this will take into account the five steps […]
I always like visual aids. Here is one for the five steps I will outline.
I mentioned that Strategic Planning in its essence is just asking a bunch of questions and seeking to define the answers. Step One is looking at the Past. A quick or long look back will help frame the whole process. By getting a proper perspective on what has happened before we may be able to […]
Step Two involves Looking at Now. What is happening at your firm right now? You need to review the following areas at a minimum. Team and Talent – The makeup of the group you are working with will impact your ability to reach a goal. Do they have the training needed? Teams need to be […]
Where are you now? Maybe a SWOT analysis would help get your thinking organized.I have used this method before and it can be helpful. While I am not going to try and provide all of the methods of organizing your thoughts,I will provide some that I have used as we move forward. Performing a SWOT […]
Here is an example SWOT that I put together (very simple) to show you what yours might look like. Each area gets information and there may be complimenting of contradicting statements between the two. You do not fill each one out looking for corresponding issues in the other areas. Just fill out each block with […]
Continue reading about Strategic Planning – Step Two – Example SWOT