"Strategic Planning" Posts
The Risk Of Being Satisfied With The Status Quo
By Tom Ryan
After Prohibition ended, there were two prominent family breweries in St. Louis, the Busch family (that controlled Anheuser-Busch) and the Griesedieck family. The Griesediecks, at that time, operated two different breweries, Griesedieck Bros. Brewing Company and Falstaff Brewing Company. The two entities would later become one company under the Falstaff name. While unknown today, in the 1960’s, Falstaff outsold Budweiser by a 50% margin in St. Louis in a battle of the local beer brands and, at the height of its popularity, it was the third largest selling beer in the United States—a fact, that, most likely, surprises many of …
How To Avoid Bad Management Decisions: The AT&T Case Study
By Tom Ryan
We say that every business owner needs, from time-to-time, a third-party objective analysis to avoid serious mistakes, keep his business on track, and take advantage of an opportunity that he otherwise could miss.
While there are many examples of business executives failing to heed this wise advice, one of the more striking examples involved the executives from the original AT&T. It’s important to keep in mind that when referring to AT&T in this article, I am referring not to the AT&T that we know today, but the executives of the nation-wide monopoly that provided all U.S. local telephone service. This …
Wake Up & Smell The Coffee!
By Tom Ryan
Sometimes the difference between success or failure is simply having the wisdom to seek an outside opinion. The one thing that you can’t provide, yourself, is an objective point of view. No matter how smart you are, your viewpoint will always be subjective.
In business, not having this impartial, third-party perspective, on occasion, can lead to failure. Failure doesn’t have to mean closing your doors; failure could be missing an important business opportunity, or, perhaps, the opportunity of a lifetime.
Thirty years ago, if you asked a person what brand came to mind when you said the word ‘coffee,’ he …
What Is A Benefit Or ‘B’ Corporation?
By 
Previously, when a new business was formed, there were only two legal entity structures to pursue, either your organization was for profit or it was a nonprofit. That is no longer the case with the development of the Benefit or ‘B’ Corporation. In the simplest terms, a Benefit Corporation exists in the nebulous middle. This allows a corporation to be for profit as well as for the benefit of some worthy social or environmental commitment.
Per ‘The For-Benefit Enterprise’ article by Heerad Sabeti, Harvard Business Review (November 2011):
In the past several decades a steadily growing number …
Women In The Workplace: One Small Step For Man, One Giant Leap For Mankind
By Zach Miller
Recent legislature, like ‘The Women’s Small Business Ownership Act of 2014,’ which addresses critical issues facing women entrepreneurs, highlights the fact that women have yet to acquire full equality with men in the professional world. While legislature addressing these problems will help the situation in many ways, it is only one step. In order to reach workplace equality for women, business owners, managers and executives must take the next steps themselves.
It’s Not Easy
The lack of women in managerial, or ownership positions, is due to the residual effects from societal norms of the past. Historically, women were barred …
The Value Of Planning
By The business plan is your statement of purpose for your business. You can’t forget the reason to be in business.
Every football coach tries to devise a winning game plan. Even the best athletes will fail if they don’t have a game plan that is designed to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. Concurrently, that game plan must take full advantage of an opponent’s weaknesses and make every effort to negate their strengths. In the business world, the best game plan (business plan) coupled with superior execution will deliver a winning effort—a profitable and growing enterprise.
A business plan …
Are you in control?
By Unfortunately, strategic planning ranks low on many business owners ‘to do’ list.
There are several issues that virtually all small and medium-size businesses have in common when struggling to achieve their predetermined profit. Although each business is unique in its cost structure, employees, management profile and market, they all must follow the principles of sound business management in order to reach their goals.
Unfortunately, strategic planning ranks low on many business owners to do list. Those same owners tend to react to each circumstance without the advantage of a well thought out plan to benchmark their decisions. They fail to …
