Business Strategy and Planning: What's at risk?

Businesses that operate solely on near term customer perspectives versus a forward looking, market based strategy, carry considerable risk to future growth, particularly due to the shifting economy, and changes in your market's value perceptions. Unlike in the past, current market instability requires more than relying on your sales rep "bagging" the next project, in effect, to save the day...or the next couple of months.

What amazes me is how often business owners and CEOs admit to not having a long or even a short term business plan. And of the business plans that do exist, many do not consider future growth scenarios and projections. They mostly emphasize the obvious, including near term sales projections and not much more.

A forward looking business plan and strategy is crucial to laying the foundation for perspectives and actions that lead to sustainability and future growth. Furthermore, a forward looking plan often results in near term incremental growth, mainly because of new actions taken to support your future plan. For example, product or service market repositioning and expansion, or something as innocuous as recharging your management and staff with a "believable vision" based on solid planning. Future growth planning also positively impacts near term profitability through a review of activity based costing, and the crafting of a new product or service commercialization plan, will typically generate "new" customer interest during market assessments that coincide with an appropriate process for the planning of your new products. Moreover, the surprise to many companies is that, this new customer interest develops around "existing products", as well as with your new impending products and services. In many ways, forward looking planning becomes a super food to the health of your business!

The bottom line is that now more than ever, business strategy, planning and of course execution are critical elements to your business' sustainability and future growth. End of story...Dropping the Microphone!

Dennis Paris