World Famous Comics: Strategic Planning For Dummies (For Dummies (Business & Personal Finance))
Strategic Planning For Dummies (For Dummies (Business & Personal Finance))
By: Erica Olsen Publisher: For Dummies Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: For Dummies Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 384 Publication Date: October 30, 2006
Product Description: If you’re starting a new business or planning your business’s future, there are plenty of things you should take into account. Strategic Planning For Dummies covers everything you need to know to develop a plan for building and maintaining a competitive advantage — no matter what business you’re in.
Written by Erica Olsen, founder and President of a business development firm that helps entrepreneurial-minded businesses plan for a successful future, this handy guide covers all the basics, including:
How a strategic plan is different than a business plan
Establishing a step-based planning process
Planning for and encouraging growth
Taking a long-view of your organization
Evaluating past performance
Defining and refining your mission, values, and vision
Sizing up your current situation
Examining your industry landscape
Setting your strategic priorities
Planning for unknown contingencies
If you’re in business, you have to plan for everything — especially if you intend your business to grow. Whether you’re planning for a small business, large conglomerate, nonprofit, or even a government agency, this book has the planning specifics you need for your organization. Step-by-step, you’ll learn how to lay the foundations for a plan, understand how your plan will affect your business, form planning teams, discover what your strengths are, see where you are, and, finally, plan where you’re going. And there’s much more:
Learn to analyze business trends that will determine your business’s future
Set measurable, realistic goals that you can plan for and achieve
Make strategic planning a habitual part of the organization
Prioritize multiple strategies that you can implement simultaneously
Set a defining vision for the organization that guides all your planning and strategy
This friendly, simple guide puts the power of strategic planning in the palm of your hand. For small businesses that can’t afford to hire strategic planning consultants, it’s even more imperative. Careful, constant planning is the only way to handle an uncertain business future. With this book, you’ll have all the step-by-step guidance you need to ensure you’re ready for anything that comes.
Hmmm...a very suspicious Nevada Connection I am interested in learning the nuts and bolts of strategic planning to better apply my company's strategy management software for our customers. This book appears to have received 8 glowing reviews. Funny thing, though: those reviewers who state their location are from Reno NV or other NV locations. The others do not give their location. Looking at the author's profile, she is located in Reno NV. Is that a coincidence or are these "seeded" reviews meant to pump up the book? To be fair, I have not read the book, nor will I give it a bad rating for having clearly suspicious reviews. If I buy it and like it, I will adjust my rating accordingly.
Get it, Read It, Read it again in a few months This is one of those book that you need to re-read every year or two. The lack of strategic planning is what really kills companies.
For instance: anyone could have seen for the past twenty years or so that the price of oil was going to go up dramatically. The American automobile companies, instead of working on fuel efficiency worked to convince people to buy big SUVs and pickup trucks, upon which they make more money. So gasoline goes to $3 a gallon, and the American companies lose more market share to the foreign manufactures. Thousands of automobile workers are laid off, and the Big 3 just may not survive.
Some of the points brought out in the book make such perfect sense - 'Increase Your Prices.' I work with a local civic chorus. They were charging $3 to attend a performance. I raised the price to $5, lots of doom forecasting. Just as many people came. I raised the price to $10 and spent a couple of hundred on posters put up around town. More people came than when the prices were $3.
Get the book. It's simple and fast to read. If you get only one good idea out of it you're way over the few bucks it cost and the few hours it took to read. In a few months, read it again. You'll get at least one more good idea.
Smart and actionable I like practical, actionable advice and this book delivers. You could use it to quickly develop a plan (it gives you shortcuts) or you can use the tools and business examples to go deep into your internal and external analyses. Even though I have done strategic planning before, this book covered several new topics that I will refer to and use as I update our plans. Every time I need a quick refresher, I'll be able to reach for my book and find it. It even helps you with the planning process, like how to hold a strategic planning retreat. No excuses!
A great read! This book is a quick reference that is easy to understand.
A fast reference Strategic Planning for Dummies has helped my business of 12 years to develop tactics that are customized to my businesses needs. This book is a fast reference for business people like myself who don't have time.
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