October 25, 2006
"Don't book a $1,000 meeting to solve a $100 problem."

Maurice Mascarenhas,
Speaker
 

How to Guide: Strategic Planning For Dummies
(Just published!)

Need help setting a vision for your business or planning for an uncertain future? Don’t worry! Strategic Planning For Dummies shows you how to:

  • Establish a step-by-step planning process
  • Select a planning team
  • Prioritize future opportunities
  • Develop solid strategies
  • Execute your plan with MyStrategicPlan’s online system
    •

With this friendly guide to business planning, you won’t fly blind into your company’s future.

Note to Readers: We are the proud authors of Strategic Planning For Dummies. Thanks to everyone who has helped make this book a reality


 
Talking Points: What Makes Great Companies Great

Becoming the best at something is often achieved by modeling the behaviors of winners and putting those behaviors into practice. Here are the characteristics of a high-performance company:

  • Has a purpose that focuses the energy of all its members (typically, that purpose is to be the best there is or ever was)
  • Simultaneously and continuously maximizes the self-interests of all its stakeholders
  • Outperforms all others (by any measure) not because of what propels it, but in spite of any and all obstacles that impede it
  • Makes it possible for ordinary people to perform in an extraordinary fashion
  • Transforms its people into "owners" of the organization's destiny
  • Is a healthy organization committed to being great, no matter what it takes
  • Knows that the execution is more important than the strategy

While a strategic plan is the means, growth and high-performance are the end to those means.

Need more talking points to convince you board or your boss about the need to do strategic planning? Check out the growing list here.



Case Study: Aveda's Powerful Mission

Whenever I see a great mission statement, I have to share it.

Aveda's Mission Statement
Our mission at Aveda is to care for the world we live in, from the products we make to the ways in which we give back to society. At Aveda, we strive to set an example for environmental leadership and responsibility, not just in the word of beauty, but around the world. http://aveda.com/customerservice/ourmission.tmpl

What is Aveda?
From their website: Aveda The Art and Science of Pure Flower and Plant Essences develops, manufactures and markets an extensive collection of plant-based hair care, skin care, makeup, Pure-Fume™ and lifestyle products which are sold in more than 8,000 salons, spas and Experience Centers around the world. Entrepreneur and environmentalist, Horst Rechelbacher, founded Aveda in 1978. The company is headquartered in Minneapolis and New York City.

Want more examples of mission statements? We are collecting them here:
http://www.mystrategicplan.com/strategic-planning-topics/mission-statements.shtml#Examples

Want to share your mission? We'll add it to our growing list!

 
 
Use Our Strategy Tools: One-Page Strategic Plan
Organize and implement your strategic plan quickly and easily with the help of a strategic plan template. This plan is designed for smaller organizations who need an simple, quick system to complete and manage their plans. With the One-Day Plan you can easily build and execute your company's strategy without a large time commitment. It is recommended for new and established companies with less than 5 employees.
See how our One-Page Strategic Planning Software works.


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