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D. Where do you stand against your competitors in size (i.e., sales, budgets, R&D expenditure, people, number of products, customer base, etc.)? |
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E. What is the internal and external image/perception of your company held by your employees, customers, and competitors? |
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Answering these questions will provide you with a basis to begin looking at the next step in the internal assessment process, which is focusing on the second question mentioned above, What is your long-term strategy? A strategy can only follow from a clear vision and mission. Defining a strategy to fulfill a poorly thought through or too broad a vision will lead to disenchantment and demotivation of even your most dedicated employees and will, eventually, lead to failure. Unfortunately, rather than admit failure, many organizations abandon their strategy only to define another that is just as ambiguous and/or unobtainable rather than addressing the more fundamental issue of developing a clear and realistic mission and vision and, then, generating a realistic strategy from there. |
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Overall, there are five basic steps to developing a realistic strategy, assuming that the starting point is sound. |
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A. Assess where and what you are now. |
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B. Diagnose the reasons why you are what you are and where you are now. What are the factors, issues, restraints, capabilities, strengths, weaknesses, and actions that have created your organization of today? |
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what can reasonably be expected from your organization over the time frame of your strategy (i.e., current product sales, new product launches/sales, R&D output, etc.) |
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the gap between where you want to be and what your organization can deliver |
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realistic possible alternatives that can be put in place to fill the gap, and then, evaluate each of them, thoroughly, listing the risks and benefits of each, the probability of success of each, and the impact of closing the gap. In many cases, a multifaceted strategy will be developed because any one approach may not completely fill the gap between what you can reasonably achieve yourself and your goal. |
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C. Develop an action plan to implement the strategy. |
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D. Actually implement the strategy. |
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E. Reassess the outcomes/progress periodically to see if the strategy you have chosen is still the right one to pursue, if modifications are necessary, or if things are moving better than expected. |
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