Strategic thinking is part science, part artform. To be up there with the best you need to use the left and right sides of your brain, a skill which takes practice as well as confidence.

Here are some skills that the very best strategic thinkers have, and use, every day.

They Have a Vision

They are great at both thinking with a strategic purpose as well as creating a Visioning process. They have both tools in their kit and they use both to complement each other. This form of supportive thinking and seeing the future, creates a way of thinking and evolving strategy that is focused and yet broad.

Make Time

In a busy businesses and organisations, be they small or large, making the time is vital. At the top of their game key strategic thinkers take time out. Maybe a retreat (maximum points!); maybe a day in a hotel foyer; maybe an afternoon somewhere/anywhere, with a blank sheet and a thinking hat on. Whatever works for them - but they do it.

Are Not Hasty

The clue is in the description, Strategic Thinking is not about today, tomorrow or next week. In close partnership with holding a clear vision for the business future, these two create the tomorrows of the future. But not tomorrow! This is shaping, coaxing, tuning for a quality business performance in the years to come. Great exponents take time to fine tune, revise and engineer quality futures!

Absorb and Notice

They are truly aware. In any business, there are clues, often subtle, both internal and external, to help guide future direction and realize opportunities. Great Strategic Thinkers take all of this in, so that as they set aside time to think, they have a full deck of information to guide them. Sometimes, it’s an ‘aha’ moment on vacation, when they observe something that resonates; it might be on a morning walk out in the country; it might be what someone says as they serve them coffee. Making links, however tenuous, is what makes this work so well.

Review Often

The best Strategic Thinkers check that their thinking has been validated. Is it going to work, against a world of regular, consistent and yet sometimes volatile change? This activity is a moving target, so to build a better understanding, snapshots; benchmarks and regular stocktaking are all very useful to confirm the quality of the thinking - and absorbed into the skillset for their and their organizations future.

Learn from Experience

Over time, these folk use their experiences, small and large, to think better on strategic issues. This makes their use of this time really efficient and particularly effective. There are learned short-cuts to the perhaps more formalized strategic planning process and experience is a huge, valuable added bonus.

Use a Team

By utilising more than just their own brain (though this is vital for some of the process!), those great at Strategic Thinking bounce ideas off others in the workplace and encourage their input above and beyond their delivery of the day job. The old adage that 1+1=3 in the input of thinking is hugely valid. And 5 people make a much more significant contribution than 2 - and so on!

Realism Rules (A Little!)

Although they create ideas very openly, key strategic thinkers have a sense of realism and honesty about what is achievable in the longer term. This is not to hold them back; more it is to deliver success. They underpromise and overdeliver, whilst also ensuring that the day to day business of the organization - the ‘now’ - is served adequately too. That’s what gets the business paid today, whilst building the future of tomorrow.

Have Clear Milestones

By creating checks in their thinking, to review progress, they have the opportunity to tweak. They have an innate ability to spot the twists and turns necessary. A 5,000 mile journey by a jet plane reaches the destination only by regular and consistent course checks and adjustments.

Are Non-Judgemental

Because the route to a successful future is not bounded by judging their, or others, thinking as they get creative - that is for elsewhere - better ideas flow. Open minds are encouraged and the detail tested later. Open minded thinking needs real checks and balances - but AFTER the openness has stimulated the breadth of imaginative ideas only such freedom can provide.

In a cut-throat today world of this year’s bonus and dividend, big business has a tendency to look short-term and manage that efficiently and well.

In the most successful organizations over the years and decades, where the test of time has shown them the excellent businesses they are, the Sony’s, Coca Colas, Nokias and Toyotas of this world think ahead and encourage great Strategic Thinking at least somewhere in their busness plans.

© 2007 Martin Haworth is a Business and Management Coach. He works worldwide, mainly by phone, with small business owners, managers and corporate leaders. He has hundreds of hints, tips and ideas at his website, http://www.coaching-businesses-to-success.com.

A Requirements Matrix is an essential step in any proposal you write. A lot of people tend to skip it, but if you want to correctly begin the proposal writing process, you should be careful not to be one of those that do. I will explain to you what a Requirements Matrix is, what it’s used for, and how to create one yourself.

1. What is a Requirements Matrix? A Requirements Matrix is a formatted list of all a proposal’s requirements, their location in the guidelines (e.g., Request for Proposal (RFP), Statement of Work, etc.), the individual or team tasked to complete the requirement, and when it is due.

2. What is a Requirements Matrix used for? It is useful to

* Keep a snapshot of all the requirements.

* A good reference after writing the proposal so you can check that you have addressed all of the requirements.

3. How do I create a Requirements Matrix? It is best to separate the requirements by categories. You can add your own categories, but the usual ones are Administrative, Objective, and Technical. After separating them by categories, you should have the following headers:

o Requirement

o Section #

o Response

o Response pg #

o Assigned to

o Due Date

Here is a sample of a Requirements Matrix: Note: Scroll down if unable to view.

Requirements

Section # Response Response pg # Assigned To Due Date
Administrative Requirements
Due Date 6 Team xx/xx/xxxx
Submit By 6 Individual xx/xx/xxxx
Place of Perf 7 Team xx/xx/xxxx
Period of Perf 8 Individual xx/xx/xxxx
Renewable 8 Team xx/xx/xxxx
Packaging & Shipping Info 12

Objective Requirements
Computer Support & Planning 15
Compliance with Policies 15
Training 15

Technical Requirements
Provide Backup Assistance
Provide Off Hours Coverage
Propose Timely Solutions

A good Requirements Matrix takes practice, but when you get it right, it could save you losing a proposal. If you miss a requirements, even a miniscule ones, your proposal could be labeled “non-compliant.”

Therefore, take an hour to create yourself using a spreadsheet program. One hour can save you tons.

Shevonne Polastre
CEO/Founder
Enallage

How often have you pondered over why some businesses excel while others seem to struggle to hard. They are in similar markets, have similar products or services and the owners work hard at being successful, yet some just make it and others don’t.

It is not that the business owner is any less deserving. Have you ever this about yourself or maybe someone you know feels this frustration sometimes?

In my experience as a business coach I have met people at both ends of the spectrum and have read widely on the subject. As we all know, there is no shortage of good material available to define how to become successful in business.

The answer I’m afraid is not simple but I would suggest that it is not as complicated as some people would have us believe. SUCCESS comes from PEOPLE and SYSTEMS.

Nothing profound there! So what do you need to do? Being successful and setting your business ahead of your competition relies on you being highly effective in your performance.

You must believe in your ability to be a success, you must enable such success and finally develop an attitude of positive action to do your best.

Attitude is critical to your success. If you have the wrong attitude, if you aren’t happy with your circumstances than you have only two choices. Change your attitude or change your circumstances or situation.

It is important that you and your staff share a common positive attitude and as the business owner, it is your responsibility to lead them towards an environment of positive enthusiasm and belief to be your best.

If the people don’t have the right business systems in place to support them then all will be in vein. I have found that there are certain aspects common to any business at which you can direct your attention in order to bring success to your business. These “12 Pillars of Success” are central to any business if it wishes to be successful and grow.

Performing effectively in each of the ‘Pillars of Success’ will deliver true improvement to your business. It is important in business to focus on those activities which deliver to your overall objectives and business strategies.

Too often we can find ourselves focussing on activities which at the end of the day have little impact on our business performance. In some situations I have seen situations where people have been actively pursing activities that in fact distracted from their true purpose and goals. In my experience truly successful people have found the balance between PEOPLE and SYSTEMS. They have identified those areas of the business that deliver the greatest impact through performance improvement. Business growth is a careful mix of growth and platform strategies. These strategies provide increased revenue, market share and profit and ensure your business has the capacity to enable such growth and to sustain it into the future.

To deliver true success you need to have the belief in your success, live with the attitude of always doing your best and implement systems to support your belief.

I hope that this has fostered some thoughts within yourself and how you might go about setting yourself on a new path. The Essence of Success lies within YOU. It is your responsibility to adopt these principals.

If you would like to know more about the Management Performance and the ‘12 Pillars of Success’ visit our website or follow the link below.

We provide a Management Performance Review diagnostic for sole trader and medium sized businesses that enables you to identify the core issues within your business holding you back from greater success. Why not contact the author of this article to discuss how we can assist you.

Greg Tomkins is a qualified Business Architect & Coach and has spent 30 years working with some of Australia’s largest corporate organisations in management and senior consultancy roles. He has worked extensively with family based SMB’s defining their business systems requirements.

Superb Coaching is a coaching practice that primarily services small to medium family business (SMB) owners. Superb Coaching focuses on preparing SMB owners for “finding their way through the business jungle”. Working with our clients we develop strategies and assist them in implementation of the plans to deliver business success. A key area of focus is working with clients in developing Business Transition Plans.

Further details are available at http://www.superbcoaching.com.au

The business has been operating from its Gold Coast base since 2004 servicing clients on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane as well as the SE Queensland region

When I was 11 years old, my favorite game at school was similar to piggybacking. I don’t remember what we called the game. Small guys like me would ride on the backs of big, strong guys and we would try to pull our opponents over. The best part of Joint Ventures, as well as the easiest and most lucrative, is “Piggybacking”. They key to winning was strong arms and a strong “Horse”. I had strong arms and I always chose a strong horse, so I usually won. In business, the book, “Horse Sense” by Al Ries and Jack Trout applies the same concept. This book was personally recommended to me by a multimillionaire client of mine, many years ago. I read the book three times.

I recently talked with a man who has 1,200 people in his database. I suggested he offer them Membership in my DollarMakers Joint Venture Forum at a great discount. By sending out two e mails and one voice broadcast and adding value, for which I would pay, and by mentioning the opportunity in his ezine, we estimated that he would have at least 120 join (10%). That would earn him significant money, at no cost or risk to him. That’s piggybacking – and it’s that simple. The same can be done with shared advertising, mailings, e mails, ezines, direct mail, seminars and business opportunities. Riding on the back of existing distribution, reputation, reach, access and exposure is very effective.

Don’t buy a 747 to fly to LA – simply rent a seat. Don’t own the overhead or create a competency; borrow it. Consider the power of partnering: everyone wins by sharing underutilized resources and Hidden Assets. And here’s the Good News – you don’t need to own the resource, be it a database, distribution route or relationship – you simply make the connection – it’s called “Triangulation”. No risk or cost, no downside, lots of fun and lots of money. You don’t need a business to set this up. Link me up with someone else and take a piece of the action. Link Bob up with Sally and get paid on all ensuing business over the next two years, why not?

The key to successful piggybacking is a strong horse and a strong rider – both parties should be ethical, generous, smart, professional and proactive. That’s the hard part. I know people whose databases I wouldn’t touch with a 20 foot pole. Be selective; be VERY selective. Talk with Members of the DollarMakers Joint Venture Forum and if you want to make a lot of money easily, remember that all it takes is a bit of thought. It’s not hard work and there’s no risk if you’re dealing with the right people. Bundle a product or service with one that is already selling well or add a product or service to an existing database or distribution route – that’s piggybacking, and it can create increasing, multiple streams of passive income for you.

About Robin J. Elliott

For more than 19 years, Robin J. Elliott has worked with thousands of businesses in over 49 industries across the United States, Canada, and Africa. He specializes in helping small business entrepreneurs build wealth and gain access to new markets and profit centers through Joint Ventures. Through his Joint venture Seminars across North America he has thought thousands how to create increasing, multiple streams of income without cost or risk and very little time.

Get Robin J. Elliott’s FREE: “How To Grow Serious Wealth Using Joint Ventures” Mini-Course, and The Prophet of Profit e-Zine along with video blogs, world class articles, free video, and access to top Joint Venture Partners at http://www.jvwisdom.com

The FBI suggest that prevention and/or management of work place violence begins with having a plan of prepared policies, practices and structures in place to spot and defuse potential dangers before violence develops.

Important principles in forming an effective work place violence strategy include:

· There must be support from the top. If a company’s senior executives are not truly committed to a prevention program, it is unlikely to be effectively implemented.

· There is no one-size-fits-all strategy. Effective plans share a number of features, but a good plan must be tailored to the needs, resources, and circumstances of a particular work force.

· A plan should be proactive, not reactive.

· A plan should take into account the workplace culture; work atmosphere, relationships, traditional management styles, etc.

The following workplace elements may foster a toxic climate and should be called to the attention of top executives for remedial action: intolerance, bullying or intimidation, lack of trust among workers, high levels of stress, frustration and anger; poor communication, inconsistent discipline and erratic enforcement of company policies.

· Planning for and responding to workplace violence calls for expertise from a number of perspectives. A workplace prevention plan will be most effective if it is based on multidisciplinary team approach.

· Managers should take an active role in communicating the workplace violence policy to employees. They must be alert to warning signs, the violence prevention plan and response and must seek advice and assistance when there are indications of a problem.

· Practice your plan! No matter how thorough or well-conceived, preparation won’t do any good if an emergency happens and no one remembers or carries out what was planned. Training exercises must include senior executives who will be making decisions in a real incident. Exercises must be followed by careful, clear-eyed evaluation and changes to fix whatever weaknesses have been revealed.

· Re-evaluate, rethink, and revise. Policies and practices should not be set in concrete. Personnel, work environments, business conditions and society all change and evolve and prevention must change and evolve with them.

Components of Workplace Violence Prevention can include the following:

· A statement of the employer’s no threats and violence policy and complementary policies such as those regulating harassment and drug and alcohol abuse.

· A physical security survey and assessment of premises

· Procedures for addressing threats and threatening behavior

· Designation and training of an incident response team.

· Access to outside resources, such as threat assessment professionals.

· Training of different management and employee groups.

· Crisis responses measures.

· Consistently monitor behavioral standards and applicable disciplinary procedures.

Betty Jo Sheley, http://www.showlinehomesecurity.com Owner Security Products website for Home and Personal Protection. Author participated in Mayoral Conflict Resolution Institute, Community Think Tank Studies. Advise Author of article reprint including my link.

The FBI’s Threat Assessment for work place suggests asking the following questions of individuals who are aware of a workforce offenders habits in order to determine the level of risk for violence from that individual. As a result of the answers to these questions the potential risk factor can be assessed and an intervention plan can be created.

· What has happened in the offender’s life that may have prompted what is perceived as threatening? What comments has the offender made to family or coworkers?

· What does the offender think of their self in relationship to all others?

· Does the offender feel offended by someone else?

· Is the offender an individual who takes responsibility for their actions?

· How does the offender handle disappointment, loss or failures in their life?

· What is the interface of the offender with their co-workers?

· Does the offender feel the company is fair in their treatment of them?

· Are the offender experiencing difficulties with supervisors or management?

· Is the offender demonstrating concern with job responsibilities and practices?

· Has the offender been written up for unfavorable job performance or corrected by management?

· Are there personal traumas in the offender’s life as a death or problems effecting family, health, romance, finances, debts, and bankruptcy?

· Does evidence point to offender’s substance abuse, depression or mental illness?

· Is the offender demonstrating an interest in violence through movies, games, books, or magazines?

· Is the offender preoccupied with violence or showing interest in publicized violent events; or fascination with and/or recently acquired weapons?

· Has the offender stated to others that they have selected a particular target for their violence?
· Does the offender have an obsession with someone or are stalking and surveillance involved?
· Has the offender spoken of personal injury to themselves or others?

· Does the offender have a criminal record or demonstrated violence in the past?

· Has the offender expressed a plan or method of how they will enact violence?

· Does the plan sound reasonable and specific?

· Is the offender capable of carrying out their plan?

Betty Jo Sheley, http://www.showlinehomesecurity.com Owner Security Products website for Home and Personal Protection. Author participated in Mayoral Conflict Resolution Institute, Community Think Tank Studies. Advise Author of article reprint including my link.

Are you considering opening a dollar store? If so, one of the areas of focus for you as you work to keep costs under control will be the cost of the goods sold. Merchandise costs are often the single largest expense for a dollar store. Knowing what dollar cost averaging is, and how to best use it can be a powerful tool for the entrepreneur whose goal is to reduce those costs.

So exactly what is dollar cost averaging? Dollar cost averaging is simply taking the average total cost of all items purchased in a specific interval. It might be for one order, for one week, one month or one year. The total cost is divided by the total number of items that the store received for that amount of money.

For example, let’s assume that you paid $100.00 for an order of toys. There were 200 items in the order and the freight was prepaid by the distributor. In this example divide $100.00 by the 200 items for an average cost of good sold of $0.50 for that order. While items within the order may have ranged from $0.35 to $0.80, the average was $0.50. If you are opening a dollar store this is important information to have as a part of the decision making process.

By knowing the average across your chosen metric, the entrepreneur who is opening a dollar store can then instantly see whether the average of all purchases is going up, down, or remaining the same. Buying decisions can then be made based on that average. In our example above, removing 12 each of the $0.80 items and replacing them with 24 each of $0.40 items can have a strong impact on the average for that one order. In this case, the impact would be to lower the overall average.

Give dollar cost averaging a try!

To Your Dollar Store Success!

Do you want to own your own Dollar Store?
Visit http://www.openingadollarstore.com for more information.
http://www.onlineauctionsmadesimple.net

Are you considering opening a dollar store? If you are planning to purchase an existing store, there are some suggestions to consider. Every potential business buyer is strongly encouraged to start by identifying and utilizing a team of experts.

Your team of experts should include both an attorney and an accountant or CPA. The attorney should be an expert in business law, and franchise law if franchises are being examined. The accountant or CPA should be an expert on business accounting, preferably in the discount retail trade area. Other experts could include trusted advisors, bankers, consultants and industry experts with appropriate credentials to add value in examining the specific business that is of interest to you. All of them come together to provide you the right support as you are opening a dollar store.

Use your expert team to complete the development of your investigative due diligence process and questions. Plan beforehand; identifying exactly which team members will be doing which tasks to support the process. This is especially important at key decision-making points during the process. Opening a dollar store doesn’t need to be too overwhelming. That is especially true if you have the right team on your side.

Remember: It’s better to have spent $5,000.00 on investigative due diligence and not started a business that would have failed than to have spent $1.00 and lost everything on a business that should not have been started. Be frugal in your investigative due diligence spending, but don’t stop short of spending the right amount to enable you to have the data and to make smart decisions.

Opening a dollar store does have an element of risk. Reduce that risk a little by assembling a solid team of experts and conducting thorough investigative due diligence.

To Your Dollar Store Success!

Do you want to own your own Dollar Store?
Visit http://www.openingadollarstore.com for more information.
http://www.onlineauctionsmadesimple.net

OK, so you have a great idea and you can’t wait to sell it. This baby sells itself, doesn’t it? You may be wrong there and if you are, it will cost you dearly. Converting concepts to successful money making businesses is not easy and requires the following steps.

Viability:–

To put an idea into execution, you need to check on its viability. It may sound really good in theory but not work when put into action. There have been great ideas that have not planned out, simply due to a lack of utility or the lack of a market for the product or service. Make sure that you ask your mentor, or other industry experts for advice. This can be a bit tricky if you don’t want to give your idea away. Alternatively, try to find some small way of testing it out. Another separate and equally important aspect is to decide whether your product or service has an online market. Ask yourself whether people go online looking for your offering and whether these people would buy this offering online. This will help to establish the online viability of your concept.

USP:–

Remember that people are looking for value in your product or service and if you can differentiate yourself by coming up with a unique selling proposition for your business, you will be more successful. Your idea must have merit, essentially and offer something unique that sets it apart in making it attractive to customers. Keep in mind that you are up against a lot of competition on the internet before deciding to go ahead with your plan. Remember also that if your idea is not unique, some other aspect of your approach should be.

Marketing:–

This may be one of the pillars of your online business if you can get it right. Your great concept will only get you so far – to get people to find and buy your product you need the help of a great marketing effort. If you can hire a good search engine optimization team, do that. If not, try to research and read up on the subject to the best of your abilities. Definitely get a good web developer who will follow World Wide Web Consortium standards and will also optimize the structure of your site to make the job of search engines that much easier. Further, get good content that is informative and intelligent to attract customers. Most importantly, look for affiliate programs, email marketing opportunities, start newsletters, blog marketing, banner ads, pay per click and so on. These are the various techniques that help a site get attention from its customers. It is important to get relevant visitors who are looking for your offering or something similar.

Planning/ strategy:–

Have a plan. Create a business model, do projections, make a marketing plan, be ready for difficulties, identify problems and work on problem solving. Educate yourself about your business, the internet and about the product or service you are selling. Once you master this, you will know more about how to plan and structure your start up phase and be ready for future growth. As in any business, an online business needs to have a strategy in place to make money and convert ideas to money making businesses.

William King is the director of Wholesale UK Wholesalers & Dropshipping Suppliers, Trade Wholesale Suppliers & Dropshipping Products Directory, and Australia Wholesale Suppliers & Australian Dropshipping Directory. He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.

Searching for the right business strategy, many organizations fall in love with big concepts. But for many, it stops there, as “doing” can be an elusive concept.
In my advisory work, I suggest a systematic approach to tackling change comprised of an 8-week period of intensive focus, followed by a repeat of the process in 8-week increments throughout the year. Here are the eight big questions to explore during this process:

Week One:

What are the next 5 things we must do to get closer to our vision?

This is the hardest part for many organizations. We often have too many objectives. It is important to have a crisp vision, but even more important is developing a crisp daily focus. This focus should consist of a handful of clear objectives.

Week Two:

If we keep doing what we’re doing will we achieve our vision within our timeframe?

During the first week of our program, you’ve defined your focus and you’ve begun to take action. But once you begin, you are bound to see adjustments that must be made. You must now take inventory of where you are.

Week Three:

“Who are the people and partners best suited to help us reach our vision?”

Creating change in an organization requires the participation of many people with different talents, backgrounds and perspectives. Vendors, advisors, partners, mentors, and customers are all needed and we need multi-generational team members to shape our approach.

Week Four:

What are our potential and current customers saying to us indirectly?

Develop an attentive ear. Your audience is often telling you things indirectly about their likes, dislikes, tastes, and preferences. We may think we’re listening, but instead we are really thinking of our customers as a group, rather than individually.

Week Five:

How do we create a new, distinctive relationship with our audience?

Our objective is to reach a level of interaction with our audience that reduces and ultimately eliminates boundaries. We want to penetrate and understand the customer “psyche” and discover what’s beneath the surface.

Week Six:

How do I move into the view of new customers and partners?

New audiences want to feel like they’ve discovered you. Your role is to help them do this, by moving into their view. By partnering with other organizations, you will expose your business to new audiences.

Week Seven:

How are we managing the natural conflicts and complexities that arise?

Dynamic organizations are comprised of people with differing views, experiences, and competencies. We need a composite of organizational talents to advance our mission. We must also change the perception that disagreement is bad, or that there should be a penalty or stigma associated with failure.

Week Eight:

How do we follow through in the most efficient way?

Today’s environment requires highly focused periods of evaluation, ad hoc teams, a rapid assessment of the situation, and quick decisions. We must also trust individuals with an uncommon understanding of the situation who can “run” with their creative vision.

© Copyright 2007 – André Taylor – Taylor Insight Group, LLC. Go to http://www.andretaylor.com and get Andre’s free newsletter.

André Taylor is an award-winning entrepreneur, author, and advisor to growing companies and one of today’s dynamic voices on business and personal success. He’s the author of a collection of audio and video programs reflecting more than 25 years in enterprise management and the discipline of personal and organizational development. He provides an uncommon understanding of the lessons of business and personal resilience, and extraordinary insight and commentary on the subjects of entrepreneurship, leadership, sales, marketing, innovation, and growth.