by Daria Steigman on November 16, 2008
There seems to be an evolving debate in the association world around the value of strategic planning. An August Associations Now article quite correctly pointed out that most strategic plans don’t work; but then the author went on to argue that strategic planning is not an essential business function. Scott Briscoe continued the discussion in a post on ASAE’s Acroynm blog, expressing surprise at the vehemence of the debate and saying that “I thought the idea of strategic planning having lost its vitality and usefulness in favor of a more nimble, open planning process was pretty well set.”
Here’s my opinion: Businesses that don’t plan end up operating in reactive mode. And if we’re going to plan, shouldn’t that process be strategic?
I suggest we dispense with the notion that strategic planning is no longer relevant, and focus instead on what makes for an effective process and what the outcomes should be. Businesses need to have short, medium, and long-range goals and develop strategies and tactics within and across divisions to achieve these. They also need to periodically evaluate their activities and initiatives against their goals and objectives and make adjustments as needed. Businesses also need to periodically assess whether how they view themselves correlates to how others view them–whether their employees, customers, investors, or other stakeholders.
Strategic planning fails when people think the plan is the outcome. It’s not; it’s an iterative tool to help your business stay focused and moving forward. What do you think?
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Tagged as:
Business,
Strategy
by Daria Steigman on November 10, 2008
My latest Independent Thinking column is out. And, yes, the topic is how to get started in social media. Because if you’re a consultant, especially in the communications field, you really ought to dip at least one toe in the social media fishbowl. After all:
Being both knowledgeable and intellectually curious matters–especially when you’re running a business. Would you hire the plumber who gives you a blank look when asked how to repair a broken pipe or a cardiologist who says he doesn’t have time to read the latest information on the link between Fosamax and atrial fibrillation? Of course not. So why do so many communications consultants look like deer caught in the headlights when asked about social media?
Read the complete column here to find out how to listen, learn, and leverage social media for your business. With thanks to Jill Foster and Amber Naslund for sharing their wisdom.
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Tagged as:
Independent Thinking,
Social Media
by Daria Steigman on November 7, 2008
Flipping channels last night, I saw that rapper 50 Cent has a new Apprentice-lite show about entrepreneurship. Watched for a couple of minutes, and his first lesson to his acolytes was to “choose your crew wisely.”
Barrack Obama did this, and his team outmaneuvered and outsmarted the competition. In Obama’s Seven Lessons for Radical Innovators, Umair Haque contends that the president-elect was successful because he created new rules for a new, 21st century institution. This “new DNA,” says Haque, involves self-organization, an elasticity of resilience, minimizing strategy and maximizing purpose, broadening unity, thickening power, and having ideals. Read Haque’s post — it’s fascinating.
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Tagged as:
Business,
Entrepreneurship
by Daria Steigman on November 4, 2008
It’s election day in America. Vote. Please.
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Tagged as:
Election Day,
voting
by Daria Steigman on November 3, 2008
Terrific post on Mashable about different ways that people have used Twitter to reach a reporter, save money, conduct research, and more. Check out Sixteen Great Twitter Moments here.
And, yes, I learned about this blog post on … Twitter.
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Tagged as:
Social Media,
Twitter
