Question: How, exactly, do I create my company’s strategy?
Answer: This is a question that drives right to the heart of a successful business or an unsuccessful business.
In my experience very few executives or business owners can honestly answer the question, “Can you summarise your company’s strategy in 45 words or less?” Those of my clients that can answer honestly are usually highly successful. To be effective the strategy has to be clear, simple and easily communicated.
A strategy statement has three basic elements – the objective, the scope and the advantage. It is vital to recognize the true essence of these three components. For example a strategic objective is NOT ‘To maximize shareholder wealth by exceeding customer expectations…’ This is no more than a platitude. It must be the single precise and specific objective that will drive the business over the next 5 years or so. A strategic objective is, for example, ‘To generate at least 15% growth per year in the value of the company for the next 3 years’ – specific, measurable and time-framed.
The second element – the scope – should not only describe exactly what should be done within defined boundaries, it should also specify where the firm or business should not go. For example it is clear that The Body Shop will never stock and sell cosmetics which have been developed through the laboratory testing of products on animals. Ryanair is another example – basically ‘no frills’ air travel. This approach shows how a self-imposed restriction can be of real strategic and competitive value.
Third – the advantage – is the most critical aspect of the strategy statement. This is expressed by stating the compelling reason why the customer should buy from you – essentially your customer value proposition. It also describes the unique activities that allow your company alone to deliver on that value proposition.
Clarity in all three elements is what most helps your team members understand how they can contribute to successful execution of your strategy. As a discipline you should restrict your strategy statement to 35 words
To show that I practice what I preach, this is my strategy statement:
To establish ten new mentoring engagements a year by offering trusted advice and guidance to Thames Valley-based business leaders and executives. They wish to realise their own potential, rather than depend on conventional consultants.
You will see that this contains the three key elements: 1) the objective; ‘ten new …. engagements a year…’, 2) the scope; ‘…Thames Valley-based business leaders …’ and 3) the advantage; ‘… They wish to realise their own potential, rather than…’
I have had many questions on the topic of company identity and strategy, and I will be dealing with them in the coming months.
Peter Robinson
Business Mentor
01491 641103
Securing your data
Craig Atkins - 1-Fix Ltd
In these days of hackers, malware and identity theft, how should you best secure yourself and your important data?
Craig Atkins, from 1-Fix Limited, will be presenting at our Hub meeting in Wokingham on Tuesday 20th March and will explain the best ways to safeguard your information, plus he’ll have lots of hints and tips on useful software packages for your PC and iPhone/iPad.
If you use a PC for your business, you won’t want to miss this!
Come along as our visitors – just let Richard Barker, hub manager for Wokingham, know by Monday that you plan to attend.
Contact him here: http://www.refer-on.com/contact/
Presenters and their presentations
Presenter, Presentation, Hubs which have seen
Matthew Williams, Refer-On mini series -Your business and Social media,Wokingham
Matthew Williams, Refer-On mini series -Your business and Social media, Windsor
Guy Outram, Refer-On mini series -Your business and Social media, Henley
Refer-On Reading: Your Business and Social Media
On February 23 the Refer-On Reading hub will be hosting an ‘open to all‘ visitors meeting with a workshop and presentation from Guy Outram of Go Consultancy: Your Business and Social Media
This will be an introduction to the mini-series that Guy will be running over the coming weeks and months.
The Refer-On Reading hub meets at The Mill House Restaurant & Hotel in Swallowfield, just a few miles south of Reading near junction 11 of teh M4.
A full English or continental breakfast will be provided, the cost of breakfast including the meeting in £12 (incl VAT).
For more information or to book your place please contact hub chairman Keith Wootton
How to market yourself on Television
- The One, Six and Ten o’Clock News on BBC1
- The Today Programme on Radio 4
- All the daily papers including the Times, FT etc
- Sky News
- A host of overseas outlets such as Fox News in the US
- Many specialist journals
An alliance between Refer-On and Effective Business Group.
On the 7th February 2012 it was agreed that the two companies would work together to bring SME businesses together at meetings starting with events in Slough and London in the early Spring.
Effective Business Group, (EBG), is an online network for businesses and business people, www.effectivebusinessbook.com. EBG can also help MD/Owners with specialist expertise when required and has a mature Corporate Partner program, (over three years), through which the Partner’s products and services are marketed to the SME sector within the UK.
Refer-On www.refer-on.com brings it’s expertise for organizing meetings that build relationships and business knowledge.
Further announcements will appear shortly.
When the snow closes your office who will answer your phone?
Like it or not when it snows here in the UK it does seem to have a paralysing effect and businesses can struggle to function as workers stay home and the forecast always seems bleak.
Indeed if the Daily Mail is to be believed we are only ever a few minutes away from the worst snow storms since time began! However, here at Verbatim, The Phone Answering Service, we have yet to be troubled by snow – although during that last bad spell we did have someone trek in on skis!
We have always had a can do and get it done attitude and that means we know how to help businesses blighted by a white out. If your calls are diverted to us we can connect them to the relevant member of staff wherever they are stranded courtesy of the British weather.
We have kept the home phones ringing with work calls for clients who cannot get into the office through to simply answering overflow calls when a business is short staffed due to the weather.
Some of the best feedback we have had comes from businesses who have told us their clients had no idea the snow had closed their physical office as they never had a problem getting through on the telephone.
Here’s what Gary Perkins, MD of MAS in Worcestershire said
“This service has been of tremendous benefit to us, particularly a few years ago when we experienced a lightning strike in 2009 and all calls to MAS were quickly diverted by BT to Verbatim, The Phone Answering Service, whilst we had to source and install a new telephone system.
Then again in the severe winter of 2010/2011, this service proved enormously beneficial as even getting into the office sometimes took longer than normal. I am sure that having the team at Verbatim, whom we know well, helped to ensure that our ability to service our customers and giving them the knowledge we were operating (almost) normally created confidence to our overall level of service.”
The same approach that allows businesses to use The Phone Answering Service to cover holiday absences or other pinch points that can be anticipated and planned for, so can it be used when snow, or indeed any severe weather, frustrates running a business.
So, before your business struggles, why not explore how using the professional phone answering approach of Verbatim can stop you being frozen out of the marketplace when the snow does eventually fall on Berkshire and beyond.
Please contact Graham Hill at Verbatim Call Centres on 0800 656 9590 or learn more about its Business Continuity services
Raising your game
This year’s Atlantic rowing race has been very exciting. This week saw the arrival of the heroic soldiers in Barbados, which was an amazing achievement considering how hard I found it to complete the race with all my limbs! Indeed given the extremely bad weather during this year’s race, in which six crews were forced to retire and be rescued, this is even more incredible.
The most common question that people ask me is “why did you do it?”. The soldiers have raised an amazing £700,000 for charity which is an achievement in itself, but there are many benefits in both setting out on and completing such a vast challenge. There is an immense level of detail that you have to cope with before even taking the first stroke whether it be raising sponsorship, building or loading the boat. In the days before the race you find yourself measuring out jelly babies and packets of crisps, which will be your crucial midnight snack to get you through the dark watches of the night row.
Once you start the race you are quickly faced with the grim realities of rowing for twelve hours a day with no sight of land or any other living creature for most of the trip. Even the dolphins abandon you very soon after the start, when they realise you are not willing to give up any of your meagre rations!
I attended a recent seminar at Leander about raising your game given by eminent surgeons and Olympic champions. They talked about how you deal with extreme pressures when you are in a crisis situation and referred to the technique of “putting the monkey back in the box”. The theory being that the monkey will whisper in your ear at the height of any pain suffered mid race, to ease it off. In my case the monkey was a black cat, which would appear on the stern cabin between 2 and 4 am at night, reproaching me with glaring eyes as to why I was undertaking such a stupid challenge! The only answer was to focus on the GPS monitor to ensure that the metres were slowly ticking over and I had done my share of the work to tick off the 3,000 miles towards Barbados.
New Year Gift Offer from Living Streams to all Refer-On Members
Filed under: Business Networking, Member Offers, Members News
When corporates want to test the layout of their webpages, they set up labs with volunteers and measure eye movement – called ‘eye tracking’. But for smaller companies, this is far too expensive. A good more cost effective alternative are heatmaps synthesised from a mass of eye-tracking lab results and one of the best of these is Feng Gui. To see what heatmaps are please visit this example (opens new window / tab).
I have bought 20 credits with Feng Gui and offer Refer-On members a set of reports for any page on their website: The home page or main landing page (maybe the same thing) would be a good choice. This offer is strictly on a first come first served basis and closes at 23 March if the credits are not all used before then. Two Refer-On members who have already taken advantage of my offer are Graham Penson and Helen Isacke – please contact them if you are in any doubt of the usefulness of these heatmaps.
This offer is going to be opened up to the 2,000 companies on my eNewsletter mailing list very shortly, so a quick response is recommended.
Why am I being so magnanimous? There must be a catch! You won’t find one because there isn’t one.
I’m making the offer to celebrate the fact that Google.co.uk now considers Living Streams to be a top 10 UK ‘internet consultancy’ and one of the top 20 UK ‘internet marketing companies’ – Google search either phrase and you’ll see. In addition, it now considers Targeted WSI Web Solutions (aka WSI Thames) to be in the top 3 WSI consultancies in the UK – just Google ‘WSI’ and see.
A Story with a Strong Lesson – real life LinkedIn Case Studies
Thanks to LinkedIn, a few months ago I renewed contact with an old school friend – someone with a common interest in field hockey – Derek Arden. We hadn’t been in contact for nearly 30 years.
To my surprise he had transformed in that time from a middle manager in banking to a top business coach / mentor with a USA based mentor himself. In the last few months, he has been elected to be President of the Professional Speaking Association of the United Kingdom. I find his eNewsletter worth reading and thought you might like to see one.
More than that, I would like to use this to demonstrate how important it is to build your network of old contacts in LinkedIn – who knows how their ’usefulness’ for your company may have escalated since you last contacted them!!
Even more interestingly when I sent this story to a few of my contacts, one replied that their husband had been made redundant just before Christmas. But his subsequent LinkedIn activity had led to contact by two companies and he starts his new job on Monday
I encourage you to dig out your notes from when I spoke about LinkedIn at a Refer-On Showcase and implement the ideas – they work!!
To keep in touch with developments that impact how businesses can make better use of the web, please follow my company’s internet marketing blog and our digital marketing newsroom
To find us online just Google – ‘Living Streams’, ‘WSI Thames’, ‘WSI’, ‘Tony Thornby’, ‘internet consultancy’, ‘internet marketing companies’, ‘internet marketing services’ or ‘payment by results SEO’
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