Strategic Thinking

When I asked most owners, what is your strategy? They answer:

My excellent customer service
My company’s prices are unbeatable
My on-time delivery is faster than anyone else’s
My quality is unbeatable

Are any of these really a strategy?

According to Michael Porter, arguably the best strategic expert alive today, most private businesses confuse operational effectiveness for strategy. Operational effectiveness is just what it means. Your business in terms of how it produces, delivers, and fulfills its product or service […]

For decades, private businesses have been encouraged to conduct strategic planning, just like the big companies do. After all, how can a business owner expect to generate predictable results if there’s not a plan in place? All this makes total sense on the surface. So why don’t more private businesses have strategic planning processes and strategic plans which are the logical outcomes of such an undertaking?

According to Wikipedia (the poor man’s market research source), strategic […]

The recession was tough on all of us.

Sure, your business survived. But are you still suffering from the hell it put you through?

Did you have to lay off your people? Find a new bank? Or even lend more money to your company?

Signs Past Stinkin’ Thinking Affects Your Business

If you did, it’s not surprising that these painful memories still impact your business thinking.

Given the new environment of slow, apparent economic growth, it’s highly unlikely the past […]

Remember when you started your career and parents, advisors or mentors provided the advice ‘pay yourself first’. They were telling you not be distracted by shiny objects and to look forward.

Did you listen? Probably not!

Strategic thinking is a business owners ‘pay yourself first’. Putting out fires, handling that long-time customer that always asks for you helps you feel in control. But, isn’t that why you hired a staff?

A recent article by John Campanelli of Crain’s […]