A Strategic Plan For All Businesses. Part 1.

The first step in developing a strategic plan, for any company, is to determining what the individuals involved with the company want to receive from the company. Throughout my years as a speaker I often asked my audiences: when you get up in the morning to go to your place of business what is it you want? Often times I need to clarify the question to what is it you personally want from the business.

After some prodding I get the following answers:
Money.
Of course. Everybody wants money.

Enjoyment.
When I asked people what they mean by enjoyment I usually get a get good feeling type of responses. Such as a nice environment to work in, camaraderie with the other workers, team work etc. The most universal response is, they like to feel good about the job they are doing and that the work is meaningful.

Security.
The last item people have indicated is security. Most people realize security is very difficult in this economic environment but those involved with the business would like to have upward mobility and job security of some kind.

In summary, people get up every morning to go to work would like to accomplish the same things whether they be owners or employees. Everyone is looking for money, enjoyment and security. And the quest for these three items seems to be universal.

Bear in mind that these three items take different precedents based on the age and other factors of the individual. For example younger people may be more interested in enjoyment and money whereas older people may be more interested in security. So even though the goals are universal the weight of each one of these items is different and depends on the individual.

So if all of the individuals, who are associated with a company (owners and employees) all have the same personal goals of money, enjoyment and security then the business must be built in such a fashion as to be able to provide these things.

What happens if the business fails to provide money? People leave.
What happens if people do not enjoy the environment they're working in? People leave.
What happens if there is no long term security for the individuals associated with the business? People leave.

So we can conclude that the primary purpose of all businesses large and small is to provide the owners and employees what they personally want to achieve their individual goals of money, enjoyment and security. Furthermore if the business fails to provide the owners and the employees these three things then the business has no basis for existence and it will not survive.

The next step in developing a strategic plan is to design and set up the company's goals. Now I'm not talking about the goal of say $5 million in sales this year or reduce overhead or any of those types of goals that management thinks are company goals. In essence they are strategies to achieve the real goals of the company. The real goals that often times are never discussed. The real goals that are never laid out in a plan. Interesting that it is not unusual that management will achieve the real goals by accident and not by any specific plan.

The goals that I am going to discuss in the next blog will be the real goals of the business that will never change, that will last forever and be the guidelines that management should follow in creating annual strategies.