Business leaders: 2019 is around the corner. How’s your strategic goal planning coming along?
Setting goals for the growth of a company is easy. It’s determining what the goals are that is the tough part. It takes critical thinking to identify strategic goals and objectives for any business. So what are some things you can do to get started?
Here’s 7 tips for business leaders to plan strategic goals:
- Analyze the marketspace
- Data mine and identify trends in various industries
- Determine how variables out of your control are affecting your industry
- Adjust business goals based on your research
- Keep a pulse on the workforce
- Perform problem solving activities and exercises
- Solicit feedback from the team to ensure visionary alignment
Analyze the marketspace
Dive in and examine the sector of the marketspace that directly impacts your industry. Pay close attention to how competitors are positioning themselves within the industry. What do the trends look like? Perform a “gut check” of the marketspace and evaluate if your company’s product or service is still in need. Is the need for your product or service still strong? If yes, the foundation is set for following the next 6 steps.
Data mine and identify trends in various industries
In today’s marketspace, it is imperative to utilize the data that is available and pertinent to your business. Mining data is critical to making sound business decisions. Data provides key information to understand the overall health of the business.
Develop a cadence to review data to ensure alignment with organizational goals and objectives. This enables you to determine timeliness of scheduled milestones in your business initiatives. Data analytics is growing exponentially in businesses across all industries. Every electronic tool used in today’s marketspace has the capability of collecting data. However, collecting the data is just the first step. The second step is analyzing the data to identify trends and determine the direction of your business.
Determine how variables out of your control are affecting your industry
Be a reader. Read about other businesses in your industry that provides similar products or service. It’s important to quickly identify trends and new directions of markets that directly impact your business. Often, these changes are out of your control. As a result, find ways to quickly improvise, adapt and overcome obstacles that may negatively impact your business. Stay abreast of industry-related news and trends. This knowledge ensures that you can see ahead of the bend in the road and prepare accordingly for the best interests of your business.
Adjust business goals based on your research
Keep up to date and knowledgeable about what’s happening in your industry? Now is the time to adjust and pivot if necessary. It is imperative to modify your business approach in relation to the variables that are both in, and out, of your control. There are several opportunities to refine the direction of your business based on what you see in the marketspace.
First, there are financial decisions that will impact your operating costs and revenue generation. Second, review your marketing infrastructure to elevate brand awareness and your sales model and approach. Third, with laser focus, review operations management. Approach the results while driving variability and reduction of waste in every process. Fourth, innovate. Ensure that innovation is foundational in your business. Scale models and ensure organizational sustainability and success.
Keep a pulse on the workforce
The workforce is in constant flux as it bends to the needs of economy. Therefore, it’s important to keep your pulse on what’s happening in the workforce to attract and retain the highest level of talent to enable your business to grow.
It’s equally important to grow and develop your internal workforce. People are the foundation to every organization. The growth of your business depends on the strength of your people. Keep a pulse on internal development strategies and the culture that embraces employee development at every level of the organization. If you don’t have solid learning and development practices in place, start now.
Perform problem solving activities and exercises
Commit to solving problems. Every business leader must have either a person or team focused on solving problems for the organization. If a dedicated person or team is not feasible, a partnership with a problem-solving organization is a viable option. RTG Solutions Group provides a cost-effective approach to solving problems for businesses. Organizations that utilize outside help find an increase in adoption of change that yields successful business process improvement.
There are many tools used to solve business improvement opportunities. Some of these tools include Affinity Diagrams, Value Stream Maps, SOP’s, and SIPOC Diagrams, among others. Each lean tool serves a role in business process improvement.
Solicit feedback from the team to ensure visionary alignment
For business leaders, it is critical to listen and solicit improvement ideas from the teams in the organization. Often leaders rely on input exclusively from their executive leadership team. It is important to gather critical information and insight from across the organization. Big problems do not always equate to big revenue generation or cost savings. Small problems from multiple levels of your organization can have significant impact to the bottom-line. Solving 10 small problems can often yield a bigger impact than solving one large problem. And during the process of solving for the 10 problems, you can potentially engage 10 times as many people across the organization. The more people you engage in a collaborative effort of Continuous Improvement and Change Management, the sooner you will reach the ultimate goal of Organizational Development.
Final Steps
After identifying your goals, devise an executable project plan that includes several key elements. Resource planning determines what talent is needed to achieve the set goals. The schedule includes predecessors to major milestones that support revenue goals. And management of estimated and actual costs are outlined over the projects’ period of performance.
Setting goals for the business is not a once-a-year effort. Create a vision that is clear and concise for teammates to execute against. This effort requires a lot of strategic thought. However, the year-round diligence will be evident in the organization’s success.
The outlined approach to planning business goals and objectives is part of RTG Solutions Group’s core beliefs. In addition to teaching and facilitating this information, we practice these principles ourselves. If you or your team can benefit from a strategic consultation, give a us call! We’ll start with a Needs Analysis and discuss the best approach to setting your business on the path to success!
Contact us at RTG Solutions Group, (813) 943-5727 or ContactUs@RTGsolutionsGroup.com.