Category Archives: Strategic Planning

When you are looking for new strategic opportunities..think Blue Oceans

Most organisations are looking for growth, innovation, a way to reduce their costs or expand their markets. Many are trapped by their history in relation to the markets and products/services they offer and need a process to think beyond their … Continue reading

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What I like about the Balanced Scorecard for business

When Kaplan and Norton developed the Balanced Scorecard they were seeking to develop a broader perspective of what needs to be measured and managed to achieve success in business and also how to communicate and integrate the measures and targets … Continue reading

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Part 2 – Growth Initiatives – traps and inhibitors

In my last post I talked about the elements that would be beneficial to growth initiatives and now I want to touch on those things that can hold back growth initiatives. A belief that the market you want to enter … Continue reading

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Growth initiatives – how do we grow?

We need to grow the business faster than “system” growth (i.e. faster than the overall industry growth rate). The Board is challenging the lack of top-line or profit growth and senior executives are scrambling to find the next big thing. … Continue reading

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Stress testing your Strategy

A recent HBR article by Robert Simons discusses seven questions to stress test your strategy. There are two aspects of this that I like. The first is the use of questions as an approach to facilitate broader consideration of issues. … Continue reading

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Seven Deadly Sins of Setting demands (or goal setting)

During my development as a leader I was urged to set BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) and whilst this can be useful in generating new thinking (e.g. a 40% increase in revenue is not going to be achieved with a … Continue reading

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