Business Strategy (The Brian Tracy Success Library)

Create the Right Environment

A good strategic planning exercise requires two to four days of committed, unbroken time. It is best done in a “place apart,” where there are no interruptions and where people can completely change their mental space.

There is a simple rule in human interaction: There is a direct relationship between the amount of time that people spend discussing and asking questions about a course of action and their degree of commitment to carrying out whatever decisions are made. The more you talk about a course of action, encourage input, ask and answer questions, and stimulate discussion, the more dedicated each person will be to making the strategy a success.

The Key Players in Setting Strategy

One of the first questions I’m asked whenever I’m organizing a strategic planning session for a company is, “Who should attend?”

The simplest answer is that everyone who will be responsible for implementing the strategy should be involved in the process of setting the strategy in the first place.

Brilliant on the Basics

When Vince Lombardi became the head coach of the Green Bay Packers in 1959, he was asked what he was going to change or do differently. He replied that he was not going to change the players, the plays, or the training schedule. Instead, they were going to become “brilliant on the basics.”

To be successful in strategic planning and in business, you must become brilliant on the basics of strategic planning, and you do that by continuing to ask and answer the right questions.

One of the most powerful tools that you can use is the simple checklist. Begin to make a list of all the things that you would have to do and all the steps you would have to take to get from where you are today to where you want to be at some time in the future.

year from now, and in two, three, five, or even ten years? Where do you want to be personally, and where do you want to be as a corporation? Clearly defining your ideal future on the basis of where you are today and how you got here is critical.

PREPARE THE NEXT STEPS TO TAKE

Question number four is: How are you going to get there? How are you going to get from where you are today to where you want to be in the future, with the people you have, the resources you have, and the market you are working in?

My favorite exercises to answer this question are either brainstorming or mindstorming. In brainstorming, you go around the table and challenge each other to come up with at least twenty answers to the question, “What can we do to create a perfect future for this company?”

In mindstorming, you write your question at the top of a sheet of paper and then challenge yourself to generate twenty answers to that question. This is an amazing exercise for developing ideas and answers you can use to achieve any goal.

MAKE A CHECKLIST

Question number five is: What do you need? What additional skills, resources, or money will you require to achieve your strategic objectives sometime in the future?

accurate analysis of your current situation is the starting point of all strategy.

REEXAMINE YOUR PAST

Question number two is about your past. Look at your history. How did you get to where you are today? What were the critical steps that you took, going back a few years or even to the beginning of your business? What did you do right? What did you do wrong? What lessons did you learn? What has changed since you began in this business (recognizing that everything changes)? What were the events that got you where you are now, for better or worse?

CREATE YOUR PERFECT FUTURE

Question number three in setting strategy is to define your ideal future. Where do you want to be in the future? Where do you want to be one

CREATE YOUR PERFECT FUTURE

Question number three in setting strategy is to define your ideal future. Where do you want to be in the future? Where do you want to be one

REEXAMINE YOUR PAST

Question number two is about your past. Look at your history. How did you get to where you are today? What were the critical steps that you took, going back a few years or even to the beginning of your business? What did you do right? What did you do wrong? What lessons did you learn? What has changed since you began in this business (recognizing that everything changes)? What were the events that got you where you are now, for better or worse?

An accurate analysis of your current situation is the starting point of all strategy.