You’re In Business War Whether You Know It or Not (Part 3)

Strategic thinking is the process of thinking logically, breaking everything down to its most basic components and building from a base, adding to it, double-checking it and then rechecking it for proper fit of the overall strategy.  Strategic thinking is “thinking like a general,” for many of the techniques used in strategic planning are identical to those used by the military for thousands of years.

Many confuse the entire strategic planning process with some of its components.  Strategic planning is not just about creating excellence in an organization.  Neither is it just about setting goals and then devising ways to attain them.  Nor is it operational planning…, the day to day activities you do to keep your business running.

These few things above are only a few of the components of the entire strategic planning process…; they are by no means the entire process.

For strategic planning to be effective in this day and age is must be coupled with strategic computerization.  This is no longer an option; it’s a necessity if you plan to be part of the business community at the start of the 21^st century.  Gone are the days of running a business by the seat of your pants and not having a definite plan for the future.

The rules for the way you must run your business if you want to stay competitive are being re-written every day and at a faster pace than at any other time in history. The reason for this is because of the most revolutionary piece of office equipment ever invented…, the computer.

The computer allows us to have at our fingertips vast amounts of information about our business that we’ve never had easy access to and allows us to do things we’ve never been able to do before.  Think about this, a properly computerized business has at its disposal all the sales information, purchasing habits and basic demographics of all of its customers.  It also has readily available all of its company’s purchases and inventory statistics (sales by volume, by profit, by customer type, etc.).

This information can be analyzed and modeled to give you very accurate demographic profiles of exactly who your ideal customers and markets are or should be as well as those of your competitors.  This information can also be used to do predictive forecasting of sales projections and trends, the success or failure of new products or services, and how to spend your advertising and marketing dollars more wisely by doing selective target marketing of ideal customers and markets.

Computers have allowed marketers to analyze and dissect sales, customers and their purchasing habits to the finest degree.  It also gives businesses the tool it needs to enable it to run more efficiently, profitably, and to keep it ahead of its competition.

This is powerful information and is exactly the type of information which is being used to change the business landscape.  That old axiom, “knowledge is power” has never been truer because it is exactly this knowledge which is separating the men from the boys in business now and in the future.

Part 4 continued

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1. You have to protect your company from your competitors