The Business Strategy Cycle

As with anything else in life, business has its good and its not-so-good times. The major questions becomes how well does your company plan to exploit the good times and ride out the downturns.

During the recent downcycle, thousands upon thousands of companies realized that they were in severe trouble well beyond the time that they could mount an effective response. Instead, these companies were forced to react to adverse trends and attempt to restabilize through aggressive cost cutting.

Our approach, as graphically depicted below, is to identify potential opportunities and threats to your business as a part of the strategic planning process. As a part of that process, identify the measurement criteria that will determine when the business is exposed to the downside or has the potential to break out to the upside. Set a trigger point that will raise a flag for the executive leadership team and have contingency plans prepared that will allow for a rapid response to changes in the business.

Changes in business are inevitable. Customer demands change. The economy changes. Competitors find new ways to gain market share at your expense. And technology always seems to have a disruptor up its sleeve. Are you prepared?