Critical Elements of Strategy Part 3

To begin thinking about critical strategic questions and become clearer about what you know and don't know about your organization strategy, ask yourself the following questions:

1. How does our strategy give us competitive advantage for the future?
2. What is the core ideology that describes who we are and what we are about?
3. What are our 3 top business objectives for this year?

Here are the steps of the strategic design sequence that we will discuss in the future:

• Analyze the business environment
• Forecast the future
• Create a core ideology
• Define strategic direction
• Define competitive advantage
• Set goals
• Create a master plan

 Until next time...






Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
http://tools2succeed.com/

Strategic Planning: Defining the Business Environment Part 2

THE LEGACY OF OUR ORGANIZATION

Think about the following questions regarding your organization within a larger social context.

• Why does the organization exist?
• What contribution do we make to our community (society)?
• What are our most important nonfinancial objectives?
• How would you describe our current core ideology?
• What is the reputation of our organization within our industry?
• What is our reputation among our employees?
• What is our reputation within the community?

BEYOND PROFITS

We often think the purpose of most companies is to make money.

• In American society today, financial profitability is the most important measuring stick of success.
• A short-term focus on profits drives most downsizing, reengineering, cost cutting, and mergers and acquisitions.
• While these steps can make businesses more efficient in the short run, a narrow focus on profitability measures can kill the "spirit" of an organization, driving away its best people.
• Money is like food, oxygen, and water; these are not the reasons for our existence and yet, without them, we cannot exist.
• The best companies don't define their identity or legacy around making money but rather making a contribution to the good of the community or larger society of which they are a part.

  Until next time...






Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
http://tools2succeed.com/

Strategic Planning: Defining the Business Environment Part 1

Awareness of the organization's environment is becoming increasingly more critical for businesses since the demands of the environment are growing and changing more rapidly all the time. Many organizations only discover the importance of their surrounding environment when their existence is being threatened. Because most markets have become world markets with worldwide competition and because market conditions are currently changing so rapidly, it is becoming increasingly important for organizations to understand and adjust quickly to the environment that surrounds them.

FACTORS TO CONSIDER IN THE EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT

• Key Customers
• Key Stakeholders
• Key Suppliers
• External Influencing Factors
• Current Market Conditions
• Key Competitors  

CORE IDEOLOGY

• Core ideology defines the company's reason for being.
• It expresses the reason for being that is more than making money or even delivering a particular product to a particular customer.
• It can be considered the "heart and soul" of the organization and result in a shared vision which gives meaning and purpose to the work people do.
• A good core ideology transforms an organization from a  normal place of work to one which inspires people and brings out their best.

Until next time...






Sheryl Tuchman, SPHR, SHRM-SCP
http://tools2succeed.com/