Simplified Strategic Planning Blog

Three Action Plan Mistakes Strategic Planning Teams Make and How to Avoid Them

deniseharrison — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:14:34 +0000

by Denise Harrison, Executive Vice President & COO Action plans are the detailed road maps that turn your strategic plan into results. Action plans support the key strategic objectives that your team selected as the most important projects to work on for the next 12 to 18 months. If your action plans achieve the objectives, [...]

Monitoring Your Strategic Plan–Quarterly Reviews and Annual Updates

danabaldwin — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 19:10:49 +0000

By M. Dana Baldwin, Senior Consultant Once you have completed your strategic planning for the upcoming year, how often should you go back and look at it to determine that the plan is still valid; heading you in the right direction and staying on the course you have chosen? We suggest you revisit your plan [...]

Lead your Industry in the BIG Things

RobertBradford — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 19:21:08 +0000

by Robert W. Bradford, President & CEO Leadership is a double-edged sword. On the plus side, leadership in your industry means that every possible competitor will have to play catch-up with any strategic choices you make – you will be defining the game of strategic competition, and this can lead to extremely strong profitability. On [...]

Do You Really Know Your Strategic Competency? Reassessing Your Strategic Competency May Lead to Significant Growth

deniseharrison — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:29:12 +0000

by Denise Harrison, Executive Vice President & COO Early in the PC era Apple was clearly a leader in innovation. But in 1996 Apple lost over $800 million dollars. Apple was originally known for breakthrough ideas for personal computers, but others were more profitable and had significantly more market share. What was wrong? What was [...]

Sustainable Strategic Advantage

danabaldwin — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 17:20:00 +0000

by M. Dana Baldwin What does it take to be today’s winning competitor? The winner must have a competitive advantage—right? Real winners aren’t satisfied with a competitive advantage that may be just a flash in the pan, they want a sustainable, strategic advantage that will last. We call a sustainable strategic advantage a strategic competency. [...]

Watching Trends: Ebbs and Flows

RobertBradford — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:57:31 +0000

By Robert W. Bradford, President & CEO Strategic Planning Expert Watching companies respond to massive changes in the current strategic environment, I am struck by how much we tend to overemphasize the present when planning for the future. In strategic planning, it is vital that you do the best job you can to anticipate future [...]

Xerox Positions Itself to Succeed in the 21st Century – What You Need to Do to Ensure Your Company Does Not Become Obsolete

deniseharrison — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:48:44 +0000

by Denise Harrison, Executive Vice President and COO Strategic Planning Expert In 2000, people were ready to sound the final bell for Xerox Corporation. Financially troubled, mired in shrinking market segments, the future of Xerox was bleak. Xerox had to reposition itself in order to succeed in the 21st century. To do this it had [...]

Is Your Company a Good Supplier?

danabaldwin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:57:34 +0000

by M. Dana Baldwin, Senior Consultant In your strategic analysis of your customers’ buying behavior, have you noticed that most of the time there are three major areas that come into play? First: Brand. The elements of your brand that impact your customers’ buying decisions include: Quality: Do the products we make and/or the services [...]

Be the Threat

RobertBradford — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:12:27 +0000

by Robert W. Bradford, President/CEO Do you feel your company is threatened by changes that are happening in your industry right now or could be in the near future? This can be a bad thing – but you might be able to turn the threat into an opportunity, as well. To begin, threats can exist [...]

Lessons Learned: Japan’s Earthquake and Tsunami Teach Important Lessons

deniseharrison — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 19:15:24 +0000

By Denise Harrison, Executive Vice President and COO The location and severity of any specific natural disaster are difficult to predict – so you need to prepare for a disruption in your supply chain, given that a natural disaster could impact your business at some point in time. Even Toyota, known for its superior management [...]