Why is Improvement Necessary?
A lot of issues, some of which are both internal and external, have rendered improvements
to become necessary in our current marketenvironment.
1. The level of performance of almost all processes tends to decrease over time, unless
some form of maintenance is applied.
2. If your firm is not improving and your competitors are, you certainly will not be
competitive.
3. Today's consumers are becoming more and more demanding and their expectations are
rising dramatically. This means, if you can't exceed expectations, then you must at least
be able to meet it. If this is not the case you will either lose the customer or unable
to attract potential customers.
In a nut - shell, what was satisfactory a year or two ago, today barely passes, and will
soon be below expectations. The important question is not if there must be improvements
but how much and how fast the improvements should be? There is no specific answer, but a
rather general one is that continuous improvement combined with new technologies is needed.
Strategic Management process is needed to take your firm to its ultimate level. For this
I do recommend a 9 step process to achieve this level:
- Formulate or revise your company's mission. Include statements about your purpose vision philosophy and goals
- Develop your profile and access you internal strengths and weaknesses and capabilities
- Evaluate your firms external environment. This includes the whole legal, political, economic, social, cultural and competitive factors
- Examine your options. This is done by matching your internal strengths and capabilities with the external factors
- Identify the most desirable options in keeping with your mission
- Now its time for your long range goals and grand strategies that will achieve the long term objectives
- Develop short term objectives and strategies that are in keeping or compatible with your long term goals and strategies
- Implement your strategic choices. Focus on your budget, resources, tasks, staffing, control, directing, technologies and your structure
- Evaluate or check the success of the process base on a measuring system that was instituted for monitoring purposes
Although the above is not entirely specific it does give a frame work of your basic plan. It will
how where and when and for what reason you will compete in the business world.
Email DerrickWRobinsn@comcast.net
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