The world has the habit of making way for the man whose words and actions show that he knows where he is going.
—NAPOLEON HILL
Turbostrategy begins with deciding exactly what you want to accomplish in the key areas of your business life. Once you know your goals in each area, you can decide on the best steps to get there.
You can use the GOSPA Model as a guide for strategic planning. These five key thinking tools form the basis for successful business operations.
The first letter, “G,” stands for Goals. These are the ultimate results that you want to achieve. Your goals are the end targets that you aim at throughout your business year or planning period. Your goals are your sales, profits, growth rate, market share, or percentage of return on assets, equity, investment, or sales. Goals are always measurable. What are yours?
The second letter, “O,” stands for Objectives. These are the subgoals, or steps, you will have to take to achieve your goals. They are like the rungs on the ladder to get to the top.
Your business objectives can be specific rates of return from advertising, levels of sales of certain products and services, number of items shipped and billed, monies collected, and cost levels for certain activities. A lower defect rate or a higher sale amount per customer can be objectives on the path to achieving the main corporate goals. What are your interim objectives?
The letter “S” stands for Strategies. These are the different approaches you can take to achieve your objectives and reach your goals. For example, achieving a specific level of profitability will require producing and selling specific quantities of products or services to a specific market in a specific way. There are many different ways to go about accomplishing these objectives. The way you choose is your strategy and may determine the success or failure of your enterprise.
Do you produce, market, sell, and deliver yourself, or do you outsource some part of the process? Do you sell direct, via retail, direct mail, catalog, or the Internet? Do you charge more, charge less, up-sell, cross-sell, or discount? Do you enter certain markets and abandon others? What is your strategy? Is it working?
The letter “P” stands for Plans. These are your blueprints for achieving your goals. Your plans are composed of step-by-step lists of exactly what you will do, day by day, to get from wherever you are to wherever you want to go. Plans are always broken down by sequence and priority.
Some things have to be done before others can be done. Some things are more important than others in achieving the goal or objective. When your plan is organized by sequence and priority, you can accomplish much more in less time.
Business life consists almost entirely of projects, one after the other. A project can be defined as a multitask job, a job made up of many small jobs, each of which has to be done properly to complete the larger task. Your ability to plan, organize, and complete ever larger and more complex multitask jobs is the single most important element of your success in any field.
The last letter in the GOSPA process, “A,” stands for Actions. These are the specific tasks that you are going to complete to carry out the plans to implement the strategies to accomplish the objectives to achieve your goals.
Every important task must be clear, measurable, and time-bounded. It must be assigned to a specific person who is qualified to perform the task correctly, on time, and on budget. What gets measured gets done.
The central purpose of Turbostrategy is to boost your cash flow and profits and increase your return on the money invested in your business. The aim of the strategy is to generate a higher level of cash flow and profitability than you would realize without the strategy or with your previous strategy. In short, it is to make more money than you are making right now from the way that you are doing business today.
The essential resources of people, money, and talent that you need to succeed in your business are always limited. They must be focused and concentrated for maximum results. This is what a good strategy enables you to do.
Setting strategy requires making hard decisions in four areas: First, you must decide what you are going to do more of. What’s working? What is selling well? What products, services, and activities are the most profitable?
Second, you must decide what you are going to do less of. What’s not working? What contributes very little to growth and profitability? What should you discontinue or eliminate based on the realities of today’s market and today’s customers? What can you do to reduce costs in areas where they contribute very little to results?
Third, what are you going to start doing that you’re not doing today? What new products, services, or activities should you introduce if you want to increase your sales and profitability or improve and streamline your activities?
Finally, what are you going to stop doing altogether? Remember, the critical resources of time and money are always scarce. The only way you can improve results is by discontinuing certain activities altogether. You can then channel those resources into areas where they yield higher levels of business results.
Clarity is the key to strategic success. The more time you take to be absolutely clear about who you are and what you want to accomplish, the more successful and profitable you will be.