Million Dollar Considerations (6)
Approaching yet another weekÆs end, my team of management students and I
gathered together in two vibrant sessions and brainstormed on the issues of
planning and strategizing. Yes, in that order. For one cannot start
developing a strategy without first having a plan. You need to first know
what you want in order to formulate how you will get there. And, before all,
you need to know where you are now.
"The simplest way to think of planning and strategizing," I told my
students, "is to think that you are at point A, and want to go to point B:
ThatÆs your plan. And once you have decided that you want to go from A to B,
you will have to decide how you will go about that. That æhowÆ is your
strategy."
Among a number of interesting statements, my students selected the following
3 as the most crucial for success in planning and strategizing:
* Consider your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) in
order to determine what your current position is. However, you should not
develop your SWOT analysis just once, or sporadically. Rather, you should do
it regularly. The philosophy behind the above assertion is simple: A SWOT
analysis is a snapshot of your company or yourself at one moment in time.
But we all know how fast things change: in the business world more than
anywhere else. What applies now may be entirely inappropriate tomorrow. That
Æs why it demonstrates responsibility if you take that snapshot at least a
few times per year.
* Formulate your mission and vision with the purpose of determining your
focus and developing your strategy. In order to plan and subsequently
strategize, you have to know the current as well as the desired future
picture. Your mission statement reflects what you stand for at the moment,
what can be expected from you, and how you execute it. It is your point A.
Your vision statement explains your long-term goal: what you want to become;
where you want to go. That is your point B. You should keep your mission
and vision statements short and sweet. And understandable. Without
formulating these two concepts you will be on a road to nowhere.
* Be proactive and not reactive: planning and strategy development are good
activities, but while formulating and executing them you should also try to
"be the change you want to see in the world" as Gandhi once stated, and you
should try to "put your fingerprints on your own [and everyone elseÆs]
future" as Gary Hammel once asserted.
Just consider this: Developing a strategy is usually done through
forecasting. You paint a picture of the future and then you can either
engage in trend analysis or contingency planning, as many authors on the
topic of management recommend. But trend analysis is nothing more then
building future plans by elaborating on past events. This is a linear
approach and can become an obsolete concept as soon as a change manifests
itself. Contingency planning, although more flexible, also indicates a
reactive approach: it pertains to scenario planning, which is nothing else
than waiting for circumstances to appear and determining your actions upon
them. Something like: "If this happens, weÆll do that, and if that happens,
weÆll do this." Victimized thinking lies at the foundation of this approach.
Not that it is bad, but it is not very revolutionary. Recommended tactic:
Engage in forecasting, but keep doing everything in your power to become the
new trend in the market: the unforeseen surprise that leaves all others
behind.
All of the above mentioned activities are not necessarily organizational
undertakings, but can very well be executed by you as a person. You are an
organization of your own. It is important to know where you stand, what you
can, what you should work on, what you can use and what you should be
mindful about, where you want to be, and how you want to get there. And once
you have determined that it becomes imperative to continue finding ways to
be different, for only then will you make a lasting impression.
Joan Marques, Burbank, February 5, 2004
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About the Author:
Joan Marques, holds an MBA, is a doctoral candidate in Organizational
Leadership, and a university instructor in Business and Management in
Burbank, California. You may visit her web site at www.joanmarques.com
Joan's manual "Feel Good About Yourself," a six part series to get you over
the bumps in life and onto success, can be purchased and downloaded at:
http://www.non-books.com/FeelGoodSeries.html-----------------------------------------------------
It is better to live in serene poverty than in hectic abundance. Everything
has a price. The price for nurturing your soul is turning away from
excessive stress, destruction of self-respect, and the constant strive in
lifestyle with the Joneses. But itÆs worth it.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
