Strategy – Page 37 – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

How rigorous is your strategic planning process?

June 30, 2016/0 Comments/in Entrepreneur, Leadership, Poll, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Our poll today asks: How rigorous is your strategic planning process?

– Very — We do a great job of annual strategic planning: 25%
– Kind of — We usually update last year’s strategic plan: 42%
– Not very — We only do it if there’s been a major market change: 15%
– What’s strategic planning?:18%

You Can’t Get There from Here. How can you arrive at a destination if you don’t know where that destination is? A strategic plan is your roadmap that lays out the destination and the path to get there. It drives your priorities, what you do, and what you don’t do. The biggest reason strategic plans aren’t used is because people make them too complicated. Find a simplified strategic planning process and be rigorous about conducting that exercise every year. It’s well worth the time and energy and it’s never too late to pick up the good habit of doing so.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

How large of a threat do you face from substitute products/services?

June 2, 2016/1 Comment/in Entrepreneur, Innovation, Leadership, Poll, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Our poll today asks: How large of a threat do you face from substitute products/services?

– Huge: 23%
– Large: 19%
– Moderate: 27%
– Slight: 16%
– Negligible: 15%

There’s Always a Threat. When it comes to assessing the threat of substitutes for our products or services, we tend to think narrowly about how those threats manifest. We think “We make blue widgets and red widgets are the substitute.” True. But think broadly about what customers could purchase instead of your product/service. You might be surprised by where the competitive threats come from. When you look at your product through your customer’s eyes, you’ll likely see more threats than when you view it from your position. It’s a worthwhile exercise that can prevent you from being blindsided by the next competitive threat.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

How rigorous is your organization about business planning?

May 19, 2016/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Entrepreneur, Leadership, Poll, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Our poll today asks: How rigorous is your organization about business planning?

– Very — we write thorough business plans: 21%
– Somewhat — we’ll write OK business plans: 36%
– Not very — we rarely write business plans: 31%
– Not at all — what’s a business plan?: 13%

Business Plans Aren’t Only for Startups. Any time you’re investing in something new to grow your business, it helps to lay out a plan. The extra time spent up front thinking about how you’ll roll things out, the barriers and risks you face, and contingency plans you can put in place now will save you headaches down the road. There are many myths about business plans and how they’re only for entrepreneurs. If you can get past those and look at business planning as part of the normal course of doing business, you’ll find your new ideas fare better in the market with far fewer negative surprises.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

Where does the biggest threat to your organization come from?

February 4, 2016/1 Comment/in Leadership, Poll, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: Where does the biggest threat to your organization come from?

– From within — we’re our own worst enemies: 76.82%

– From the outside — the market is our biggest threat 23.18%

Why is this so hard? It’s surprising and discouraging how many of you feel like the biggest threat to your organization’s success comes from within. 77% is a staggering number. Remember – change can start with you. Spend some time identifying the biggest roadblocks (politics, personalities, decision making approaches, bureaucracy) and resolve to fix some part of that – even a small one – every week. Enlist others to do the same. Change is slow and painful but 77% of you being in your own way hurts even more.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

Magnetic: The Art of Attracting Business

February 1, 2016/0 Comments/in Books, Customer Service, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Sales, Social Media, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Growing your business is all about understanding how to attract and retain customers. There are several simple techniques you can apply immediately to make customers flock to your business.

Today’s post is by Joe Calloway, author of Magnetic (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

We’ve entered an entirely new marketplace for business with an entirely new set of rules. Businesses can no longer thrive following a strategy of going out and getting customers. Today we must become, in effect, magnets for customers and create a never-ending flow of new business that comes to us. It requires letting go of much of what we’re used to, what we’re comfortable with, and what used to work.

Let Cate represent a business. Cate can be in any arena of business – retail, business-to-business, consumer, industrial – it makes no difference. There are some new factors at work that can, if Cate gets them right, ensure steady and ongoing growth. Of course, the main rule is this: the rules always change.

The first factor that Cate must understand is that traditional advertising and marketing will play a much smaller role than ever before in creating business. They are still part of the mix, but the most powerful factor in buying decisions, whether business to business or consumer purchases of products and services, is word of mouth. Nothing else even comes close. It is the single most important element in the growth of any business. It is more powerful than any advertising and it should be at the core of Cate’s marketing strategy.

To be a magnet for business Cate must also change how she thinks about social media. It’s not what she says about herself on social media that influences prospective customers; it’s what her existing customers say about her. The Internet has changed the math on the power of Cate’s customers, be they satisfied or dissatisfied. They don’t tell a handful of people anymore. They tell dozens, or hundreds, or thousands. Today’s buyer of almost anything goes to the Internet to see what others think as they make their buying decisions. If the Internet, meaning everyone who posts their impressions of Cate, says “we love Cate’s business,” then her success is assured. She becomes a magnet for attracting business. If the Internet says “one star – stay away,” they stay away.

How important is a SWOT analysis in a strategic plan?

January 28, 2016/1 Comment/in Leadership, Poll, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: How important is a SWOT analysis in your strategic planning efforts?

– Critical — you can’t have a strategic plan without a SWOT: 22.76%
– Very — a SWOT is an important element of the plan: 34.14%
– Somewhat — a SWOT can help but it’s not required: 20.00%
– Not very — a SWOT has marginal value in planning: 5.86%
– Not at all — a SWOT is a waste of time: 1.38%
– What’s a SWOT analysis?: 15.86%

Understand the Market and Your Position. A SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) is clearly an important element of any strategic plan. For those who see it as less important, I suspect it’s because the SWOT is done and then disregarded. To use it effectively, think through the implications of the SWOT. The strategic themes you identify in the SWOT should point you in the direction of major initiatives to pursue. The better your SWOT is linked to your ultimate strategy, the more successful you can be. If you need a primer or a brush up on conducting a SWOT, here’s a quick perspective on the topic.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

3 Steps to Preparing Your Organization to be Future Strong

December 21, 2015/0 Comments/in Books, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership, Strategy, Training /by Mike Figliuolo

Learn how to best prepare yourself and your firm for the best possible future. Becoming future strong is not just an organizational strategy — it may ask personal changes of you.

Today’s post is by Bill Jensen, author of Future Strong, (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

My team and I just spent the past few years asking over 7,000 leaders across the globe, “What are the toughest choices you must make to create the best possible future for your firm?”

We wanted to uncover how to make the future of work work. After disruptive technologies blow up most everything we do today… After the Internet of Things creates a world driven by analytics… After Millennials hit a tipping point for being the majority of people at work — (depending on your industry, that happened this year and will through 2019)… And after all the other massive changes coming our way…

What will make the future work? What’s the one biggest thing leaders should be thinking about and doing to successfully lead our teams and our companies into the future?

The Future is Personal

If you were expecting some easy market-driven answer, an updated version of the The Graduate’s “Plastics” — sorry to disappoint.

What we uncovered is that what matters most is not the next big thing that’s coming at you from out there, but how you decide to embrace it, learn from it, and change your attitudes and habits. How you choose to disrupt yourself.

The future is personal in that it reveals itself to you only after you have made a deeply personal choice about how you will embrace it.

During our interviews, 86% said that the biggest challenge facing senior execs is how to free people to succeed. The issue isn’t more people-focus or better benefits. Most leaders get that and are working on this front. The issue is that our current 20^th century hierarchies are hanging on beyond their expiration point. We need to move toward more distributed models of structuring people, capital and work. More in the direction of social models like Airbnb and Uber.

Making that shift is going to require leaders to make leaps and bets on the future before best practices are fully established and before all risks have been mitigated.

Best of thoughtLEADERS 2015: Even Better than Last Year

December 16, 2015/0 Comments/in Balanced Lifestyle, Books, Business Toolkit, Career, Communications, Entrepreneur, Innovation, Leadership, Sales, Social Media, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

It’s time again for our annual year in review list of the BEST posts we’ve published over the last 12 months. Welcome to the 2015 edition of The Figgies (our SEVENTH YEAR of em! Wow!) which are the awards we give ourselves for writing awesome blog content (here are the 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 editions of those awards).

This is an annual event at the thoughtLEADERS Blog. This list is comprised of our most viewed, most forwarded, quirkiest, most provocative work. Enjoy. Share. We’ve loved writing them. We hope you’ve enjoyed reading them. I don’t ask a lot of you folks so I have two small requests as your holiday gift to me (you are getting me something, right?):

1. Invite all your coworkers, friends, and family to come check out the blog and become readers. The only way we all get better is by raising everyone’s game. I’m not asking a lot here. If you found this blog helpful at all this year, here’s your chance to return the favor for all our hard work. Just email folks and tell ’em to come take a look.

2. Pick up a copy of my books. They make great holiday gifts for the professionals in your life. The titles include:

One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful Personal Leadership. In the words of Roland Smith (former CEO of Wendy’s/Arby’s) “This book could change your life.” To get a sense for what the book is about, read this free ChangeThis Leadership Manifesto which is based on the book. If you like the manifesto, you’ll love the book.

Lead Inside the Box: How Smart Leaders Guide Their Teams to Exceptional Results. “Finally, a leadership book that cuts through all of the noise. This book needs to be on every leader’s desk!” – Andrea Procaccino, Chief Learning Officer, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

The Elegant Pitch: Create a Compelling Recommendation, Build Broad Support, and Get it Approved. If you’re looking to get to “yes” for your idea, this book will give you the method for doing so in an efficient and effective way.

Thanks for your incredible support in ’15 and best wishes for ’16! We hope to be a part of your future success! Now on to the best of list!

How the Three Box Branding Model Can Change Your World

December 14, 2015/0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Customer Service, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Leadership, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Managing a global brand and bringing it to life at the local level has been historically challenging. A new model for setting a brand strategy then activating it and executing it can help overcome the challenges global brands face.

Today’s post is by Larry Light, coauthor of New Brand Leadership (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

Three simultaneous forces affect how brands must be managed today: globalization, localization, and personalization. The collision of these three forces presents challenges and opportunities for marketers. This will require changes to the enterprise and mind-set structures as well as changes to the operational systems, policies, and processes used for brands. This means creating and implementing a more meaningful, relevant, systematic, disciplined set of strategies for effective brand building.

Globalization

Marketing globalization refers to the benefits of cross-geography standardization, reliability, and familiarity. But, to many customers it signifies homogeneity, loss of regional authenticity, and corporate domination. It is comforting to see known logos in shopping malls around the world, but people fear the loss of identity through excessive globalization.

Localization

Localization refers to a special sense of place designating local uniqueness, locally sourced, locally crafted, locally owned, regionally authentic, one-of-a-kind, and so on. Localization brings a sense of cultural, ethnic, economic, and social connection. But it can become too forced, cute, involuntary, obligatory, and kitschy. Just think Venice or New York City in Las Vegas.

Personalization

Leadership Culture Trumps Strategy as Game Changer

December 7, 2015/0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Customer Service, Entrepreneur, Guest Blogger, Innovation, Leadership, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Creating a great culture is a key responsibility of leadership. When you invest in building a strong culture, the business and financial results follow. Fail to do so and your business will end up in unpleasant situations.

Today’s post is by Diane K. Adams, author of It Takes More than Casual Fridays and Free Coffee (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

Great leaders drive excellence in their organizations. They lay the foundation, set the tone and prove the catalyst for long-term bottom line success no matter the size of a company, the industry, or external economics.

These leaders’ secret to success isn’t their strategies. It’s the pervasive cultures they create at their companies with positive values-based attitudes, real actions, and strong commitment. In turn, their teams are energized and so are their bottom lines in good economic times and bad.

This connection between leadership and success isn’t abstract. Concrete results of stellar leadership include better productivity, less staff turnover, greater achievement of potential, better customer satisfaction, and better bottom lines.

The proof is in the numbers. A SHRM Foundation report found that companies with outstanding leadership have:

50 percent less staff turnover
10 to 30 percent higher customer satisfaction ratings
40 percent higher employee commitment ratings
Double a company’s net profit

Studies from other reputable organizations—including The Hay Group, Ken Blanchard Companies, Aon Hewitt, and Corporate Executive Board—found similarly positive links between stellar leadership and company successes.

The proof, too, is in the stories of extraordinary leaders whose winning approaches have helped them build successful companies.

Get More from Negotiations through Proper Anchoring

October 28, 2015/0 Comments/in Entrepreneur, Leadership, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

Most negotiations have an opening bid. That bid becomes the anchor that the rest of the negotiation centers upon. If you’re good at setting anchors – and at avoiding being anchored to a number you won’t like – you’ll get more out of your negotiations.

There’s an interesting dynamic that can happen in negotiations. It’s called anchoring. Anchors are initial points from which you are going to negotiate. They can lock you into a position and unfair anchors can kill a deal. If you’re presented with an unfair anchor, consider walking away. Also understand if you give the other party an unfair anchor, they may walk away.

When you got to set an anchor, base it in reality with data or assumptions. If I tell you I want to sell you a car and it’s $75,000, that can come across as an unrealistic price. If instead I tell you “the Blue Book value of this car is $100,000 because it’s a one-of-a-kind limited edition but I’ll start the negotiation at $75,000” my initial anchor seems a lot more reasonable.

Many times the final offer in a deal will end up within a reasonable distance from that initial anchor. For example, if you anchor your deal at $100 upfront and that’s your first offer, more often than not, you’ll end up between $80 and $100. If instead, that first anchor was $500, you’ll end up between $400 and $500. That anchor can drive the final deal price a great deal.

Now understand that anchor also has to be based in reality. You can’t just throw a huge number out there without some basis in fact. If you receive an anchor from the other party and you don’t like it, change it! Go from one metric to another and that’s an easy way to switch the anchor. For example, I know a software company that was going to launch a platform. The customer wanted to pay them $10,000 for the software but they also wanted unlimited use of the software – forever.

Mitigating the Threat You Face from Substitute Products

September 16, 2015/0 Comments/in Entrepreneur, Leadership, Sales, Strategy /by Mike Figliuolo

One of the biggest threats your business faces is the threat of substitute products and services. There’s always somewhere else your customers can spend money. If you’re expansive in your thinking, you’ll identify the real threats you face and you can mitigate them accordingly.

A good business plan or strategic plan has to spell out what the threats are to your product. One of the biggest threats you’ll face is substitute products. What can replace your product? What can solve the customer’s problem just as easily and do it cheaper? What substitutes are competing for the same dollars that you are? Remember, it may not be a direct competitor to you. Be able to articulate what those substitutes are and why your customer is going to choose your product versus that substitute.

For example, I had a guy come to me with his awesome business idea. The problem he articulated was when he gets his socks out of the dryer they’re not matched and he takes him a lot of time to match his socks together. He shared his business idea was for RFID pairing of his socks. He wanted to put a small device in each sock, and then when he held them close together they would beep.

I looked at him and I said, “You know the substitute to your product, right?”

He said, “No, I’m not sure. We don’t have any competition.”

I said, “Well, I just tie my socks together.” His whole business plan fell apart in that moment.

There are Always Alternatives

There are always alternatives to your product. I worked at a consumer packaged goods company and that company sold lawn and garden products. Our CEO said, “You know who our biggest competitor is?” We were waiting for him to name our biggest competitor in lawn and garden consumer packaged goods. That’s when he surprised us with his answer.