EDITORIAL FEATURE
Business Strategy
Points Compiled From Past 36 Articles
By Hank Moore, Corporate Strategist™
L
ast month, we celebrated the third
anniversary of this magazine. My
article was about the significance
of anniversaries as important milestones. This is the second part of the
anniversary celebration. It seems fitting
to reprise key points from the last three
years, as a digest to apply to ultimate
business success.
The biggest problem with business
is, “People exhibit misplaced priorities
and impatience while seeking profit and
power. Oftentimes, they possess unrealistic views of purpose and are not fully willing to do the things necessary to
sustain orderly growth and long-term
success.
What organizations and individuals
started out to become and what they’ve
evolved into being are decidedly different. The path toward progress takes
many turns, expected and unexpected.
How we evolve reflects the teachings, experiences, and instincts that are not part
of formal education.
Take ownership of program-planning
rather than abdicating them to human
resources or accounting people. If you
try to predict the biggest crises that can
beset your company, 85 percent of the
time you’ll prevent them from occurring.
Challenge yourself to succeed by taking
a big picture look while others are still
thinking and acting small-time. Your
biggest resource is daring to visualize
success.
Try an institutional review of the activities that contribute to your organization’s success and well-being. This
transcends a traditional audit and iden-
tifies factors that already contribute well
to the organization, rather than simply
looking for ways to cut, curtail, or penalize. It is more than just trimming the
fat and criticizing incorrect activities in
the organizational structure, this review
is the basis for most elements that will
appear in a strategic plan and include
the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, actions, challenges, teamwork, change management,
commitment, future trends, and external
forces.
Finely develop skills in every aspect
of the organization beyond the scope
of professional training. Amplify upon
philosophies of others. Mentoring, creating, and leading have become the primary emphasis for your career. Never
stop paying dues, learning, and growing
professionally. Develop and share your
philosophies.
Niche consultants place emphasis in
the areas where they have training, expertise, and staff support for implementation and will market their services
accordingly. An accounting firm may
suggest that an economic forecast is a
full-scope business plan which it is not.
A trainer may recommend courses for
human behavior, believing that these
constitute a visioning process of which
they are a small part. Marketers might
contend that the latest advertising campaign is equivalent to re-engineering the
client company though the two concepts are light-years apart. Niche consultants believe these things to be true
within their frames of reference. They
sell what they need to sell rather than
what the client really needs. Let the
buyer beware.
16 SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE [ MAY 2015 ]
No entity can operate without affecting or being affected by its communities.
Business must behave like a guest in its
community, never failing to give potlatch
or return courtesies. Community acceptance for one project does not mean
that the job of community relations has
been completed. It is not insurance that
can be bought overnight. It is tied to the
bottom line and must be treated accordingly with the resources and expertise to
do it effectively. It is a bond of trust that,
if violated, will haunt the business. If
steadily built, the trust can be exponentially parlayed into successful long-term
business relationships.
The hot new idea is to focus on depthand-substance not on flash-and-sizzle.
Those who proclaim that hot ideas make
good coaches are vendors selling flavors
of the month not seasoned business advisors. If coaching is based only on hot
ideas, it is nothing more than hucksterism. Coaching must be a thorough process of guiding the client through the levels of accomplishment.
Customer focused management is a
concept that goes far beyond just smiling,
answering queries, and communicating
with buyers. It transcends customer service training. In today’s highly competitive business environment, every dynamic of a successful organization must be
toward ultimate customers. Companies
must change their focus from products
and processes toward the values wh