Business Strategy days .... It starts here for me .............

     It starts here for me .............

http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_got_a_wicked_problem_first_tell_me_how_you_make_toast?language=en

In what I do from initial engagement, then through to 2 day Health check of business then leading to a two day strategy day below is successful way to lead a strategy day. I have had 7 companies across 25 years and supported many businesses and what is below has helped enormously as a foundation to growth or position of sale or growth for the business....

Step One - Be the best - Strive for Excellence - Modelling Excellence

The result of a well-developed and executed strategic plan is for us to develop a competitive advantage. Just what is a competitive advantage? Business lingo aside, it is simply the answer to: What can your company potentially do better than any other company? Have a think about that, do you believe for one you can be better than any other company, that's where it starts?

Understanding your competitive advantage is critical. It is the reason you are in business. It is what you do best that draws customers to buy your product/service instead of your competitor’s. Extremely successful companies deliberately make choices to be unique and different in activities that they are really, really good at and they focus all of their energy in these areas. You have to live your missions and values on your sleeve right through the business, its the culture you create and sustain through visionary Leadership.

Step Two – State your purpose - The leaders passion and energy must drive the Mission..

A mission statement is a statement of the company’s purpose. It is useful for putting the spotlight on what business a company is presently in and the customer needs it is presently endeavoring to serve. It also serves as a guide for day-to-day operations and as the foundation for future decision-making. To write a mission statement, answer the questions: What is our business? What are we trying to accomplish for our customers? What is our company’s reason for existing? Take my advice unless everyone lives by it, do not visit it................

Step Three – Visualize the future - Take Leaders to Future Past Mindset.

A strategic vision is the image of a company’s future and the direction it is headed, the customer focus it should have, the market position it should try to occupy, the business activities to be pursued, and the capabilities it plans to develop. Forming a strategic vision should delineate what kind of enterprise the company is trying to become and infuse the organization with a sense of purposeful action. Think big! To write a vision statement, answer this question: What will our business look like in 5 to ten years from now? In this area I take leaders to the future and come back, relating then to future past, a powerful strategic technique for Leaders as they then believe the end goal has been achieved.

Step Four – Take an inventory.

The SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis helps you look critically at your organization. It is a tool to help produce a good fit between a company’s strengths and its opportunities.

Assess your strengths and weaknesses by answering these questions: What do we do best? What do we not do best? What are our company resources – assets, intellectual property, and people? What are our company capabilities (functions)?

Assess your opportunities and threats by answering these questions: What is happening externally that will affect our company? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor? What are the driving forces behind sales trends? What are important and potentially important markets? What is happening in the world that might affect our company?

From Health check through to strategy day we get real eye opener for progress as we revisit SWOT report. Secret is speed of execution = speed of change..

Step Five – Profile your customers - How well do you know your customers - Do you know who they are now and the future customers, get visual..

If you want to move your company from being successful to wildly profitable, you need to meet your customers’ needs and wants better than your competitors do. Develop a customer profile by answering: What are our customer’s needs, motivations, and characteristics? How do we uniquely provide value to our customers? What should we improve to grow our customer base?

Step Six – Write your goals and objectives.

Goals and objectives are like stair steps to your mission and vision. Realistic goals and objectives are developed from the SWOT analysis and customer profile. Objectives set the agenda, are broad, and global in nature. Write two to six objectives that give action to your mission/vision and will take a few years to achieve. Then, develop goals to achieve each objective. Goals should be measurable, quantifiable, and support your objectives. Think about achieving them in a one-year time frame. Effective goals must state how much of what kind of performance by when is to be accomplished and by whom. Make sure both your goals and objectives build on your strengths; shore up your weaknesses; capitalize on your opportunities; and recognize your threats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPwrfa7oY-M

Step Seven – Assess your resources - 3 Big Chunky Goals.

Now that you have completed your goals and objectives, it is time to do a resource assessment. One of the biggest stumbling blocks to all well laid strategic plans is time and money. As with every business, budgets are never big enough to do everything you want to do. Prioritize key goals by asking: Do implementing the goals make financial sense? Do you have the human resources to achieve your plan?

Big Goals - Outline 3 chunky goals ....

Step Eight – Take action - Nail your communication strategy across your business with KPIs.

Tactics set specific actions/action plans that lead to implementing your goals and objectives. Basically write a to-do list for each goal.

Practical and effective support for organisational change management. A quick way to develop your tactics is to answer this question: What roadblocks exist to achieving my goals? Use the answer to develop action items for each goal. Assign responsibilities and deadlines to ensure implementation. A great method to get buy-in from your staff is to assign a goal to each employee. Ask him/her to write the action plan and be responsible for making sure each task is accomplished.

Step Nine – Keep score.

In step six, you wrote goals that were measurable. Put these measurements and targets on a scorecard (in Excel), which acts as an instrument panel guiding your company towards achieving your vision. With the scorecard, you can actively track your progress on a monthly basis.

Step Ten – Make strategy a habit.

A leader devoted to the successful implementation of the strategy and plan is key. The plan needs to be supported with people, money, time, systems, and above all communication. Communicate the plan to everyone in your organization. Hold a monthly or quarterly strategy meeting ( Board meetings)to report on the progress toward achieving the goal. Don’t forget to take corrective actions when needed and adapt as the environment changes.

Step 11 - Personal Vision

 Take a step back and invest in getting to really know your people. Get to know them through emotions and triggers, take the time as leaders to understand who they are as people.

Conclusion

My last word of advice is a plan is a living document. It does not have to be perfect or 100 percent complete to start using your strategic plan. A business without a plan is like a car without a steering wheel. A rough draft is better than no plan at all. 

stevie@steviekidd.co.uk

www.steviekidd.co.uk

Mobile 07780 333627

How Big Do You Think .....................

Stevie Kidd – David Lloyd Member for ten years – www.steviekidd.co.uk

My Journey to “The Starting Line of Great Wall of China Marathon”

How big do you think? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ej1uY1RMC70

Few months ago I committed to something that scared me, from a person who has never ran before, I committed to signing up to a marathon that is in the top 10 hardest marathons in the world, So settled on “ The Great wall of china Marathon”

I have a term I use for such “GOALS” and that is called “HUGGS”

HUGGS (What are the HUGGS that bring tears to your eyes when you think about them) some outcomes are more important than others. I like to call them HUGGS, (Huge, Unbelievably Great Goals). They are typically large scale Goals that will start as a seed and manifest to become more precisely defined as your progress the idea and seed in your mind. They will appear like a 360 IMAX in your mind, like a film you will feel your in the film in the future, you have main part in film,

 HUGGS have the following Qualities; - They are clear, compelling and easy to grasp. - They connect with your identity and core values -   You are completely passionate about them. They engage your emotions to the point you can have tears in your eyes when your thinking about achieving them – you feel amazing when you think about them. Sometimes become very emotional. -  With all your senses you create the show in your mind, you become completely associated and immersed in it. With myself innovation and creativity is always at centre of my "HUGGS" , only settling for "Challenging Reality" or " Opportunity to Turn metal to Gold" always where opportunity lies to create or implement a seed to create a better world, improve a life or a business. We all have this power within us all, I work with people and walk with them to find the HUGGS they want to create in life. While pushing yourself through such a challenge I create innovation within my mind.

My message is , “When you think of your goals if they do not make you emotional or even make you cry, They are not big enough"

David Lloyd Support

So reality for me was, my mind-set at the time was “you attempt this on your own you will have higher chance of failure”, to make this happen its always about finding someone who already gets the results you want, So I approached someone I admire and knew within David Lloyd club, John McMillan (manager), who I have known for nearly ten years. John kindly sat and listened to me through why I was doing this event but more important that I was partnered with someone who could understand me, someone I could build rapport with, but also someone who would go beyond just a personal training partnership, in other words support me more than just that hour or two hour training session.. I initially asked for John, but John made it clear, “Stevie I know the very man (“Simon Lim Chow Tom”), someone who recently ran marathon in Paris and “city to summit event”. So John agreed to be at end of a phone, text or email but also meet me once a month to assess where I was personally and with Simon.

I have now trained with Simon for a few months now and results are amazing, each session is never the same as one before, but all training is adapted to end goal. I remember really challenging Simon and putting a lot of passion into what I expected from him during this journey, I even stated that if I never got pushed to my limits I would leave the partnership. He took those words on board as training has been world class.

Finding your feet Charity

While training in David Lloyd over the years a lot my friends and colleagues train for Iron man events around the world. Over the 6 month period I kept hearing about money being raised for a charity called “Finding your feet”, it was like being drawn to the charity but more so the woman behind the charity who also is a member of David Lloyd, Corrie Hutton is just an inspiration to so many I asked to meet and ask permission to run the marathon for the charity.

Super-fit single mum of one, Corinne Hutton from Renfrewshire, Scotland became ill in June 2013 after a seemingly bad cough turned into double acute pneumonia. Despite pioneering treatment at Leicester’s ECMO unit, septicaemia had poisoned her blood and surgeons were forced to amputate both her hands and her legs below the knee. 

Corinne, her closest friends and family set up ‘Finding Your Feet’ from her hospital bed, a charity to help others who find themselves facing such life-changing physical trauma through illness or injury and who do not have the support network from which she feels she has benefited.

Finding Your Feet is about providing that support network to others who need it and aims to help individuals in similar situations to ‘find their feet’ again in life. By providing counselling, respite, financial assistance or anything else required, the charity aims to help people regain their lives and rebuild themselves following physical life-changing trauma. 

To find out more about Finding Your Feet, visit www.FindingYourFeet.net, follow us on twitter @FYF_Charity or find us on facebook.

Finding Your Feet is hugely grateful that Stevie has committed to such an enormous challenge and will be with him every step of the way. Please support Stevie so that he can help Finding Your Feet make a difference to those facing life-changing physical trauma.  You can support Stevie at https://www.justgiving.com/SteviesGreatWall/

Finding Your Feet is a Scottish registered Charity. Charity No. SC044572