Here we go again – the debate over which group should be the most important focus for a for-profit business is on us again. Should it be shareholders (or owners for the private for-profit firm), customers or employees? Which group should take priority in setting the major goals for the for-profit firm? Due to space limitations and given the importance of these topics, this article will come in two parts.
This is the first and perhaps only article I will write about something we have developed and are now offering as our comprehensive consulting service. So dear reader please indulge me. I normally write about topics that I think are important for the strategic management of for-profit firms and while I give my opinions, I try to write objectively. I cite other works I think are authoritative on each topic, but not this time. This is an all out marketing piece that I also hope will inform and excite you. But please stop reading if I offend you. If you do read further however and find this interesting, there are two Working Papers in this website for further detail. And by the way Bill Bigler Associates offers a variety of bread-and-butter, tried and true services. The Business Performance Engine is a near complete approach to strategic management of your firm and we realize most firms will not engage us for such a comprehensive offering. But each firm can take away something from it in our writings.
Good strategic planning can be very useful for your firm if done appropriately. But as we all know the current business world has opportunities and threats popping up almost weekly for most firms. This suggests to some people that strategic planning as we have known it must change or is irrelevant altogether. So how can you then strategically think about, plan for and take action in your business with all this change happening?
We know that asking grown adults to change is typically very difficult. We get used to our routines. This is true in our daily lives and at work as well. Take the golf swing for example. It is estimated it takes twenty-one days at three hours a day to change even something simple in a golf swing – say a change in the way the golfer grips the club. Most of us give up and go back to the way we did it before.
You might be thinking how in the world Bigler (your writer) is going to pull this one off. This is a weighty title and you the reader probably just said “Riiiight”.
This article is a follow on to the one I wrote two months ago on your firm’s Vision, Mission, Values, and Purpose.
Some analysts are asking if Apple has seen better days. The Apple stock price looks down 33% since 7-20-2015. I do not want to seem insensitive, as the world lost a tremendous business mind and talent and person in Steven Jobs with his passing in 2011, but the question of this article: “Are celebrity CEOs to be brought in among your people or does this create a slippery slope to be avoided?
Let’s revisit a topic I covered only a bit in this series four years ago. CEOs are told their firms need a Vision, Mission and Values set of statements. I think they can be useful but they must be carefully crafted and done at the right time. If not carefully crafted or timed incorrectly, their articulation can be a huge waste of time and cause cynicism in your firm’s people.
Scenario: your firm has just finished a strategic planning retreat and your team has listed fifteen projects they feel should be done. You sense you can only do six of them. How do you prioritize the fifteen projects?
Over the last several years we have discussed what a competitive strategy is and what a typical strategic planning process looks like for for-profit firms. But there is very good work now going on at the Boston Consulting Group that discusses the best way among five approaches to formulate and articulate your firm’s strategy. Now one size does not fit all.
Last month we discussed the use of private equity disciplines to radically grow the valuation of your firm. However, we know that are forces sometimes out of the control of senior management to affect that growth, or at least slow it down.
It’s January 2016 as we think about this scenario for your firm: by January 2019 you have grown your firm’s valuation three and one half times its current valuation. How could you do this is just three years? One possibility is to use Private Equity disciplines.