Future Readiness Strategies
June 25, 2009
Welcome Back. We've got lots of in depth business strategy to share with you today.No one really knows when or if we’ll return to normalcy. I say, normalcy for the future will not be defined until after we have reached it.
However, there are several elements we should consider –
We must survive in the short term, be agile and be ready for the future.
We must identify the external trends that will potentially have a positive and negative impact on our business outcomes.
Management must take the time to define not only the element, but also define the potential impact on the business.
We know that we are entering a time of significantly less financial leverages. Our business model changes will rely on productivity improvements; the government – globally – will have an expanded role, and monetary policies may have both a positive and negative impact.
So, what do you do?
Tip #1: Categories
Using internal and external resources, determine the categories of trend s occurring in your external environment:
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Distributors
- Customers
- End Users
- Technology
- Policy Makers
- Competitors
- Suppliers
- The Media
Tip #2: Data Base
Using internal and external experts, conduct a workshop to list all those industry trends. This data base should be segmented by the categories you defined in Step 1. You should create a data base that includes 250-350 trends. If market research is needed, go get the data and integrate into the lists.
Tip #3: Convergence
Now, that you have 12-15 categories with 250-350 Industry Trends in total, your goal is to converge this list into 6-8 mega trends. Studying trends in each category, start to list the trends together by integrating the outcomes of multiple trends occurring.
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Excellent Bob. In my New Business Development roles, I have essentially used this process to succeed with my clients, but frankly have never seen it expressed so clearly before.
Thank you,
Mike Lacy