by Robert Bradford | Aug 16, 2019 | Strategic Thinking
Strategic awareness is critical to strategic thinking. This includes not just awareness of the immediate situation, but awareness of a wide range of internal and external factors that you can use to guide the future direction of your organization. Three key...
by Robert Bradford | Aug 9, 2019 | Strategic Thinking
The fourth critical skill for strategic thinking is the ability to create adaptive strategies. This includes the ability to design flexibility into your plans by creating an ability to review and adjust your progress on your strategies. Adaptive strategies are...
by Dana Baldwin | Aug 2, 2019 | Strategic Planning
Its important to follow a few basic strategic planning steps to build team commitment. When your team gets together to initiate/update your strategic plan, what is everyone looking to get out of the process? Naturally, nearly everyone has their own personal interests...
by Robert Bradford | Jul 26, 2019 | Strategic Thinking
SMART objectives plus the ability to develop a strategic action plan is the third critical skill for strategic thinking. Set SMART objectives and know how you will implement them. Break down each objective into tasks and make a list of needed resources and a...
by Robert Bradford | Jul 19, 2019 | Strategic Thinking
A clear, focused vision is a critical skill for strategic thinking. There are three key benefits to having a clearly defined and focused vision. 1. A good vision will draw you forward, and define the larger undertaking that drives your activities. Think about the...
by Robert Bradford | Jul 12, 2019 | Strategic Thinking
The ability to analyze issues using both “left brained” and “right brained” thinking is critical to really great strategic thinking. In business, many of us have a tendency to lean on one or the other type of thinking. Truly strategic thinking, however, involves a...
by Robert Bradford | Jul 3, 2019 | Strategic Planning
Every so often, I encounter questions about whether an objective is a good one. Over the past 30 years, I’ve watched many hundreds of objectives set, and most of them completed. I’ve seen some have great positive effects on companies and a few that turned into...
by Robert Bradford | Jun 28, 2019 | Competitive Strategy
An assumption I sometimes encounter is that strategic planning only yields predictable, middle of the road actions for a company. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Strategic planning sets an appropriate course for your business that maximizes growth-ability,...
by Robert Bradford | Jun 21, 2019 | Strategic Planning
I ask this question, partly, because all too often I hear people say their companies aren’t ready for strategic planning. Let’s take a look at what you need to be truly ready for strategic planning. 1. An operating business This seems like an easy one, but quite often...
by Robert Bradford | Jun 16, 2019 | Strategic Planning
Help! We don’t have time for strategic planning! I’ve heard variations of this plea dozens of times in the past few years. Clearly, some companies get into situations where the management team needs to focus on specific issues that come up – either by design...
by Denise Harrison | Jun 7, 2019 | Strategic Planning
CEOs often find their strategic plan is not strategic and not well thought out. How can you prevent that from happening? How do you uncover the real issues facing your company? For successful strategic planning, don’t start cold and be sure you have a robust...
by Robert Bradford | May 31, 2019 | Strategic Planning
We have, over the past 35 years, run thousands of strategic planning meetings and reviewed hundreds of strategic plans created by others. In that time, we’ve run into many of the challenges of strategic planning common to all companies and seen a few that you can...
