Leaders must have a strategic plan
Today I was reading through book called “LEADERSHIP” by Brian Tracy.If have not read “LEADERSHIP” and yet interested in it please get and read one.
There are few points i would like to share, Leaders must have a strategic plan for their organizations.
There are six key questions you must answer to develop an effective plan.
- Where are you now? Any strategic plan begins with a complete assessment of the company’s situation. If you don’t know your current situation, you won’t know what steps your company needs to take to achieve its strategic goals. Be specific. For each business unit or product area, determine your sales, profitability, assets, trends, and competitive position.
2. How did you get where you are today? Honesty is the key here. What decisions have led to your current situation? What activities are you doing that are important to your current success? What activities are unnecessary to acquire and keep profitable customers? What activities could be outsourced but are still in-house?
3. Where do you want to go from here? Once you’ve determined where you are today and why (steps 1 and 2), you now must identify where you want to go. Be detailed. Identify, for example, the products you are selling, the customer base you are selling to, and the financial results you’ll be achieving in the ideal world five years from now.
4. How do you get from where you are today to where you want to go? Make a list of everything that you would have to do to achieve the ideal future you just described. Every time you think of a new task, add it to the list.
5. What obstacles will you have to overcome to achieve your strategic goals? There are constraints and limiting factors that are preventing you from being the ideal company described in your strategic plan. What are those constraints and factors, and what are you going to do about them?
6. What additional knowledge or resources will you need to achieve your strategic objectives? There are always new core competencies that a company needs to acquire or develop to stay relevant to customers and ahead of its competitors. For example, many companies now have social media experts on their staffs.
