What to do when strategic planning, Hoshin kanri and TQM just aren’t a fit with your small business.You’re in a tough business and doing fairly well. You’re making a living and you’ve always considered yourself to be relatively intelligent, right?So why do such innocuous phrases as “six hat thinking” or “strategic planning model” or worse, “Hoshin Kanri,” cause your throat to constrict and set your fight-or-flight instincts into high
gear?Relax! You can demystify and defang the dreaded business planning process — and save yourself thousands of dollars in consultants’ fees — by understanding the common-sense principles and processes that underpin solid, old-fashioned marketing planning.Once you’ve examined your own business, customer base and planning needs in that light — and who better than you to do that? — you’ll be in a position to decide whether to proceed with internal planning on your own, or whether outside help is actually warranted.Begin at the BeginningSituation. Objectives. Strategies. SOS, for short, and it need not always spell trouble. But all business and marketing planning begins there.Hockey great Wayne Gretzky, when asked to explain his phenomenal scoring ability, said simply, “I skate to where I think the puck will be.”In short, that describes Gretzky’s personal strategic plan. No one could argue the strength of its success.Situation: He knows where he is on the ice at the moment and where his target (the puck) is at all times.Objective: His singular, focused objective is to plot a course across the ice, through an adrenaline-pumped mob of large men with big sticks, to reach his destination.Strategy: Gretzky’s self-described strategy is ultimately to employ his experience, instincts and knowledge of the players and the game … to place himself, and the puck, in the same place at the same time, moving unstoppably together at high speed in the direction of the goal.
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