Simplified Strategic Planning ^{2nd Ed.}

Simplified Strategic Planning is more than a philosophy, more than a fad or a flavor of the month. This book brings a refreshing break from the pop up solutions and management fads — it offers a roadmap to successs and answers essential questions of business:

• What are you going to sell?
• Who are your customers?
• How can you beat or avoid the competition?

Strategy does not have to be complicated. With a time proven method for putting together a strategic plan, Simplified Strategic Planning takes you on a step-by-step journey. You'll learn to map out an appropriate course for your company and be guided by vivid examples of how companies have followed the process — enabling you to dramatically improve your results. The process is detailed, not complicated.

• Foreword by Noel Tichy
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Part One: Embrace the Top Priority of Management
1. Strategic Planning: See a Future
• Why Bother to Plan?
• Yesterday's Gone
• Today Is Yesterday's Future
• Complexity Lives
• Getting People on Board
• Document or Tool?
• Decide to Decide
2. Create a Great Strategic Team
• More than One
• Who Should Be on the Team?
• Who Should Not Be on the Team?
• The Power of Perspective
• Getting Your Team to Believe in the Process
• Who Should Lead the Team?
• Insider or Outsider?
3. Learn the Simplified Process
• The Three Key Questions
• Culture Counts
• Structure
• The Process of Simplified Strategic Planning — How It Works
• Take Time Deciding — Strategy Is the Big Stuff
• Part Two: Start by Studying the Way It Is Now
4. Figure Out Your Markets
• Define Your Market
• Domination is Good
• Big Fish, Small Pond
• Commodity or Specialty?
• Segmentation
• Market Segment Analysis
5. Figure Out the Competition and the Environment
• You Against Whom?
• The Competition Is Your Friend and Your Friend and Your Enemy
• Market and Competitive Research
• Your People Know Things
• You Live in the Business Environment
• Technology Assessment
• Supplier Market Assessment
• Current Economic Situation
• Significant Regulations
6. Look Inside Your Company
• Typical Measurements
• Other Measurements That Drive Strategy
• Your Are What You Do — Be Honest
• Focus on Strengths, Not on Weaknesses
• Finding Your Strengths and Weaknesses
7. Do It Better and Different — Strategic Competencies
• The Mix Is Important
• But Value, Uniqueness, and Sustainability Are Key
• Why Find It?
• Four Questions
• Finding Your Strategic Competency
• Competencies of Different Sizes
• No Competencies? Don't Fret
• Part Three: Figure Out the Way You Expect Things to Be
8. Make Assumptions About the World
• Why Assume?
• How to Assume
• Avoid Wishful Thinking
• Don't Put Too Much Stock in Assumptions
• Avoid Naive Projections
• Beware of Nasty Surprises
• Minimize Assumption Errors
• Serendipity Happens to the Prepared Company
9. Make Assumptions About the Business Environment
• Assumptions for Market Segments
• Four Critical Market Segment Assumptions
• Assumptions About Competition
• Assumptions About the Business Environment
10. Make Assumptions About Threats and Opportunities
• First, Let's Avoid Extinction
• Brainstorming as an Art Form
• Evaluating the Ideas
• Make Assumptions About What Might Go Wrong
11. Look Further into the Future
• The Big Picture — What's Going to Happen in the World?
• Imagine Now from 10 Years Ago
• Winner's Profile in the New World
• Part Four: Design Your Future
12. Declare a Strategic Focus
• Who Are You?
• Can There Be Too Much Focus?
• Your Choices Are Here
• Choose Here
• Strategic Issues
• Here's the Pot of Gold — Align Focus with Competencies
13. Take It All into Account
• Strategic Assessment — Charting It Out
• Strategic Assessment Matrix
• What It Means — Strategy
• Competitive Strategy
• Select a Competitive Strategy
14. Complete Your Vision
• Targeting Strategic Opportunities
• Choosing and Enhancing Strategic Competencies
• Choosing and Enhancing Capabilities
• Pay Attention to Corporate Culture
• Use Your Brainpower
• Align Your Money with Your Strategy
• How Big Do You Want to Be?
• How Many Ways Can You Shoot Yourself in the Foot?
• Put It Down on Paper
15. Support Strategy with Commitments
• The Mission Statement as Foundation
• Goals as a Guide to the Future
• Objectives — Measurable and Specific Projects
• Name Your Results
• Go for an Easy Win First
• Part Five: Create a Way to Get Things Done
16. Write an Action Plan
• Why Bother with Action Plans?
• Who Writes It?
• Filling Out the Form
• Choose Your Words Carefully
• Picking the People to Do the Work
• Estimating the Time Required
• The Price of a Step
• When?
• A Good Example
• Thinking It Through
17. Plan Your Use of Resources: Money and Time
• Plan Your Use of Money
• Prioritize Action Plans
• Five-Year Operating Statement
• Budget Your Time — It's the Smartest Kind of Budgeting
• Two Types of Activity
• Routine Time
• Keep Doing What You've Always Done and You'll Keep Getting What You've Always Gotten
• Determine the Time Required by Action Plans
• Options for Those Who Need More Time
• Schedule
18. Use the Plan
• Spread the Word
• Monthly Check-In
• Quarterly Tune-Up
• Planning the Plan: Going Full Circle
• Course Corrections
• Simplified Strategic Planning
• Epilogue
• Appendix
• About the Authors

Examples that are simplified to stupidity, a clear lack of experience of the authors that shine through clearly, and add to that extremely poor printing quality and nearly no substance, this may be marginally useful for my butcher's planning, but I doubt it would see any use outside of that area.