Turn Your Threats into Opportunities

by Denise Harrison Reprinted from October 2006 During the course of strategic planning your company will look at threats — outside forces that can severely impact your company’s success. Often the analysis of threats includes looking at how you mitigate...

What is Focus?

By M Dana Baldwin, Senior Consultant What is focus?  Why is focusing on your business so important it should be a key element of your strategic planning?  Why is it a key to your ongoing success?  What happens when you lose focus? To illustrate what focus is, let’s...

Is Your Marketing Working for You?

By M. Dana Baldwin, Senior Consultant Reprinted from Course and Direction June 2008 Marketing, done well, is a vital cog in many companies’ strategies. Marketing performs many functions which are some of the keys to success over time. Good marketing helps pave...

Ready, Aim, Fire?

By Robert W. Bradford, President & CEO In over 1,600 strategic planning meetings, I have noticed that people have a tendency to approach their planning process from many different angles.  One of the most interesting sets of angles revolves around the very common...

Kodak’s Big Bet: “To Be or Not To Be”

By Thomas E. Ambler, Senior Consultant Reprinted from Course & Direction May 2007 Since the millennium Eastman Kodak Co. has been under attack by a Killer App known as Digital Imaging. In the last several years it has suffered the loss of much of its historical...

Playing to Win

Review by Denise Harrison, Executive Vice President & COO Playing to Win is A.G. Lafley’s book on how he determined strategy when he was at the helm of P&G from 2000 to 2009 – and interestingly enough, he is back at the helm of P&G. While there is little...

Coming In Out of the Rain

By Denise Harrison, Executive Vice President and COO Note: The following article was first published in 2007 but is still relevant today. What? How could a low cost company in India have trouble with low cost competition from China? Welcome to global competition. Over...