Achieve Newsletter - 5th Issue - 2020 - 4

ABWA Perspec tives
gaining strategic clarity continued from page 1

You do have strategic objectives. These are the overarching
goals that you are trying to achieve. The time horizon most
organizations use for achieving strategic objectives is typically
three years. The reality is you are not actually engaging in
strategic planning. Rather, you are engaging in evaluating
your strategic execution which focuses on assessing the
effectiveness of your tactical implementation.
While the circumstances of the past year have required many
organizations to engage in a major reassessment, as your
situation has stabilized much of the activity going forward is on
reevaluating the tactics by which you will achieve your desired
or readjusted longer-term strategic objectives.
Just recognize that your planning horizon has shifted. We are
often more focused now on short-term tactical execution that
builds profitability and stability. By recognizing that you can
continually adjust your tactics to achieve your strategic goals,
some of the planning pressure can be removed.
Evaluating Your Tactical Effectiveness

Establish regular meetings, typically on a weekly basis, to
evaluate the data and information you are tracking. This allows
you to review and discuss which tactics are working and which
are not.
Engaging in micro adjustments to some tactics allows for more
rapid assessment of what works best to meet your customer
needs. This can help maintain team morale as new ideas are
brought forward. By engaging with your team and involving
them in discussing the evolving situation, you are building both
their strategic thinking and their critical thinking skills. Both
skill sets will be exceptionally valuable as you strengthen your
strategic effectiveness.

4

If remote working has been effective for your team and for your
enterprise, reconsider how much physical space you actually
need to run your organization. If you closed physical locations,
will not reopening them fundamentally alter the relationship
you have with your customers? If you shifted to virtual
customer support and interaction, you may gain significant cost
efficiencies that allow you to drop bigger profitability to your
bottom line, even if your revenues stay static.
Reconsider Your Strategic Investments

Your enterprise has many assets. These include your staff, your
financial reserves and your product inventory or intellectual
property. Review each of these assets to identify how you can
better leverage them for revenue or profitability in light of your
revised strategic assumptions. Can you use the knowledge you
have gained in the past year to redeploy your assets in a more
cost-effective or profitable manner?
Have new opportunities emerged that you have not acted on
yet? If you need additional resources to take advantage of these
opportunities, identify the strategic investments you need to
make. These can include investing in the education of your staff,
buying new equipment or diverting current expenses into new
opportunities that will provide you with a better return on your
investment.
If you need additional team members but are not ready to
invest in full-time positions, identify opportunities to expand
your relationships with vendors who can fill the gap. Or find
sub-contractors or contract staffing firms who can provide you
with the flexibility you need as you make a spending transition.
Get Back to The Basics

You can continually implement new ideas and identify pilot
projects that will enable you to test new opportunities without
making a major investment. This lets you tweak new ideas so
that you can find the best match for your enterprise and your
customers.

Focus on your customer and the activities that drive revenue.
Identify the key information you're going to track and the
data sets that will help you identify the micro trends that have
emerged in the last six months which may set a new course
for your future. By drilling down into who is buying from you
and why, you have a new foundation of insight to use going
forward.

Evaluate your streamlining efforts. What has worked well
and what has limited your ability to operate efficiently while
meeting your customer needs? Re-examine your budget and
spending patterns to identify any expenses you may have cut
too deeply.

Get close to your customer. Understand how much their
decision criteria may have shifted during the past year. Are you
prepared with your marketing messages, sales team, and social
media strategies to match these criteria and build (or rebuild)
relationships with your customers? Understanding exactly

achieve newsletter * 5th issue 2020

A publication of the American Business Women's Association, Â©2020 ABWA Management LLC
Achieve Newsletter - 5th Issue - 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Achieve Newsletter - 5th Issue - 2020
