The Importance of Strategic Planning

If you own or manage a business, you need to develop a way of analysing the areas that will most affect your ability to gain an advantage in the marketplace.
Identifying the strengths and weaknesses of your business, along with environmental factors and the opportunities that exist is essential in creating a strategic plan.

Having this information at your fingertips will help you make better, more informed, educated decisions which will ultimately help your business become more successful.

A strategic plan provides a vision and sets a clear direction for your team and in most cases, a set of goals that will help measure the overall success of the business.

The first step in developing a strategic plan is identifying the mission or purpose of the organisation, along with the goals and objectives. Defining the purpose of a business forces the management team to look at the products and services on offer and how they will be used. This is where you ask your management team one basic question - what business should we be in?

In developing a strategic plan, it is essential to analyse the environment. The environment will define what options are available for management to take advantage of. For example, in today’s climate conscious society, producing a cost effective hybrid car would provide competitive advantage to a car company e.g. the Toyota Prius.

Conducting a SWOT analysis is the next phase. Looking internally enables management to identify the strengths and weaknesses within the business. What is it that the business does really well – and not so well? It is in this phase that management should ensure they take into account the culture and impact this has on their chosen strategy.

Externally, it is important to consider the opportunities that can be exploited and the threats that will be faced by the business.

Once this is done, a review of the organisation’s current resources is imperative. Does the business have the right skills and experience to achieve the goals and objectives of the company? Are new products or services required? What is the financial state of the business? Is there cash flow and money that can be spent on developing new ideas or marketing? Is there core business that needs to be consolidated?

Only after this process has been undertaken, can management effectively formulate real strategies using the information that has been gathered. Strategies need to be established at all levels of the business both at the highest corporate level – down to functional levels where business units need to align their performance with the overall business.

The final two steps are implementing and evaluating the strategies based on the performance. It is at this stage, that adjustments can be made if necessary to ensure continued success.

Retain HR run workshops with management teams on developing Strategic Plan and assisting with SWOT analysis. Contact us to find out more.

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North West Metro/Heavy Rail not dead yet?!

Earlier this week the SMH ran a story which indicated that the NSW Government has been sitting on plans to link the rail services of Sydney's North West with Ryde and city services.

Here is the story in full:

"As the Government reaffirmed its commitment to the $5.3 billion metro project in the CBD - criticised by inner-west residents, transport planners and rail unions - the Herald has learnt that Rail Corp has been sitting on plans for at least six years that would extend the heavy rail network to Sydney's north-west.

Sources familiar with the plans - drafted in 2003 for the 2005 Metropolitan Rail Expansion Program - say the north-west link could provide a minimum of six trains an hour in each direction, without the need to upgrade any of City Rail's major infrastructure. It would require only the construction of an extension between Rouse Hill and Epping stations, and a new junction north of Epping.

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PUBLIC INQUIRY MEETING TIMES AND DATES
Tonight: North-west Sydney Castle Grand, Cnr Pennant & Castle streets, Castle Hill. 6.30-8.30pm. Host: Hills Shire Council.
Thursday: North-east Sydney Dee Why RSL 6.30-8.30pm. Host: Warringah Council.
Sept 21: South-east Sydney UNSW, Leighton Hall, Scientia Building, Kensington. 6.30-8.30pm.
Sept 22: South-west Sydney, Casula Powerhouse 6.30-8.30pm. Host: Liverpool Council.
For full list of meetings go to transportpublicinquiry.com.au

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The Government has consistently argued that a north-west link would cause congestion on the North Shore Line and the Harbour Bridge, and has insisted that a second harbour crossing was an expensive prerequisite for the link.

But the plans show that, using the new Epping-to-Chatswood link, four trains an hour could run from the Hills district into the city via the Harbour Bridge, without the need for any additional upgrade to the system. The plan says these new services could be introduced with only minor changes to the timetable. In fact, the four new services would provide increased frequency for existing users between Epping and Chatswood.

Another two trains an hour from the Hills could run via Strathfield, which could easily be integrated with the new timetable. Under the timetable, due to be introduced next month, there will be space for an additional four trains an hour.

The new timetable also creates surplus capacity on the main northern line, which would accommodate these two extra north-west services.

The Minister for Transport, David Campbell, has labelled critics of the project peddlers of ''petty, populist nonsense''.

Mr Campbell claimed yesterday that objections to the project, which involves just seven kilometres of underground, European-style, metro rail between Central and Rozelle, were undermining confidence in the state's economy.

Last month Mr Campbell wrote that a heavy rail link to the north-west would cost between $12 billion and $15 billion.

But the Herald understands this includes the cost of a new underwater tunnel, which would not be necessary unless RailCorp needed to introduce eight trains an hour.

The Metropolitan Rail Expansion Plan estimated the cost at $3 billion, but it has now increased to $3.4 billion.

A source said the Government had insisted on including the cost of an underwater crossing ''only to make the cost of the CBD Metro look reasonable''."

Effective Listening at Work

I was asked by a client recently to conduct a training session on Effective Communication in the Workplace.

Key to this topic is the ability to listen, and we spent considerable time working on how we do this and how we can improve. In fact, within the group, there were a number of participants that had an “a-ha” moment.

So, why is listening so important?

As human beings, we often focus on our ability to talk and speak, believing that what we say equals good communication. Listening is much more than just hearing. Listening includes transmitting or processing what you have heard.

Listening takes work and when it comes to improving our communication there is no getting around that.

So, what are some steps to improving our listening skills?
1. Remain Neutral
2. Give your complete attention
3. Restate main points
4. Don’t jump to conclusions
5. Remember that you can think faster than someone can talk
6. Keep your mind open
7. Restrain your emotions.

For more information, contact us!

A Case Study – Management Assessment Centre

Company X is a not-for-profit organisation that is going through significant growth and change which is expected to continue over the next 12- 18 months.

For some managers, this will be a challenge as they will be managing staff for the very first time, and in some cases, the teams may grow and have as many as 15 staff.

Recently we were approached by Company X, who wanted to identify a way to review their management team, their core skills and behaviours, and identify any development needs.

We were asked to deliver a process, which is cost effective, able to meet their time constraints and provide the organisation with a sound appraisal of its team. This is to be followed up with a training plan to address the gaps.

Retain HR came up with the idea of an Assessment Centre where the core management competencies could be reviewed across a series of exercises.

Each team member was asked to give up one day, in which they underwent a psychometric profile, a behavioural interview, a series of in-basket exercises and a role play. Each exercise was aimed at addressing each competency more than once to enable each participant to have the best opportunity to demonstrate their competency.

The exercise was an overwhelming success and if you are interested in finding out more, contact us at Retain HR.

Making your membership grow your business

If you've joined RBF, I expect it's because you want to grow your business, either through learning at our workshops, meeting other members or using the membership list to contact other members.

In many cases, new members simply rely on the last option to grow their business through RBF, and are often surprised and disappointed when it doesn't happen as quickly as they'd like or not at all.

Seriously, you don't pay your membership fee just to get a mailing list. Or at least we hope you don't. Chambers of Commerce like ours encourage people to attend regular networking meetings for a reason - that being that people get to know you and like you, and refer you to their friends if they don't personally need your products and services.

It can take months to see the system working. Joining a Chamber doesn't guarantee you instant wealth like winning Lotto does. This is common across all Chambers of Commerce, not just RBF. If you met a car salesman at a party would you buy a car from him that very night? No, you'd arrange to meet again and discuss it. At the very least you'd exchange business cards. It might take you a few months to decide that you really do want that new car. But at least you know someone you can buy it from, whom you met initially in a no-pressure situation. Imagine that party is one of our events. You'll meet lots of people at it, and get to know them and their business, as they'll get to know yours. That's a much greater positive impact on your business than simply emailing everyone on the membership list and not attending any events.

It's easy to sit back and email people. Putting in the time to go to events and chat to other members takes an effort sometimes, particularly when you're in the middle of a project or rushing from a late meeting, but it's an effort that's worthwhile.

Your business will grow, but it needs the old-fashioned face to face contact to kick-start it. If you haven't been to a Business After Hours in a while, come to our next one. We've also got a couple of keynote breakfasts and luncheons coming up this spring to offer you extra networking opportunities.

See you soon!