Ten Tune up Ideas to Accelerate Your Business

By John Maver
Maver Management Group

Strategic plans and business plan are living documents that are meant to provide guidance for company and personal activity. They should reflect the best thinking of the company’s leaders. It is important that the plan not be put on the shelf but used effectively.

It is also important to do a tune up on your plan from time to time. Not necessarily to start from scratch although sometimes that is also necessary if things just aren’t working or there is a dramatic change that affect your company. The tune up gives you a chance to revisit the basic elements upon which your strategic and business plans were build. A six month and no more than 12 month check up and tune up is required. It will keep your plans fresh and current and more importantly will get them actually used and understood.

Here are some tune up ideas.

Know your customers
· Who are they
· What are their needs
· What are their objectives and goals
· What is really important to them
· How can you help them beyond just your product

Know your company
· What are your core competencies
· What are your weaknesses
· What are your vulnerabilities
· How good are your people

Understand and articulate clearly your company's core purpose core values.
· This is what will attract your customers and employees.

Know your competitors
· Who are your key direct competitors
o What are their strengths and weaknesses as seen by your customers
o What are their strengths and weaknesses as seen by you and are able to exploit
· Who are your indirect competitors
o What are their strengths as seen by your customers

Have clear objectives –
· Reach and dream.
· Quantify them

Develop the right strategies
· Capitalize on the learning and conclusions from the above analysis

Prioritize
· Be choiceful
· Assign resources

Develop clear actionable metrics
· Use them to measure progress and make better decisions

Assign owners and timing
· Responsibility and accountability

Use it.
· Make the plan available and clear to everyone in your organization
· Cascade it down through the organization so that everyone's activities are aligned to the corporate plan.
· Provide the development programs so your people have the skills to execute the plan
· Upgrade the organization to focus on higher quality people.
· Tie the rewards and recognition directly to the plan objectives and metrics.

John Maver
(925) 648-7561
President
Maver Management Group Consulting
john.maver@mavermanagement.com
http://www.mavermanagement.com/