Jan 17 2009
Questions to ask when determining effective strategy for growth.
You should ask the following questions to determine effective strategy for growth:
? Where are the most profitable sections of the business?
? What are the short, medium and long term prospects for those other potentially profitable parts?
? How bad is the business? For example, does it dependent on too few products, customers, suppliers, personnel or distribution channels?
? How clearly focused is the business? Is it overwhelmed with too many products, markets and initiatives, or is it running on empty with too few opportunities on which to capitalise?
? What is likely to be the best method of expansion, and is it affordable in terms of money, other resources and time?
? What are the advantages and disadvantages of expansion, and what must be done to achieve the benefits and avoid the pitfalls?
? What do people in the organisation see as the best options? What are their views of potential opportunities, threats and difficulties?
? Is there the commitment to act decisively and consistently? Once set, the course needs to be rigorously followed. One of the greatest obstacles to growth is inertia.
? How the changes will affect people? If employees feel threatened, disregarded or insecure, then no matter how good the decision and implementation it is likely to fail as people will not be sufficiently committed to it.
? What are the key success criteria and performance measures? How will these be monitored and enforced?
