Gap Analysis - Peeling Back The Layers

A gap analysis will enable you to identify, highlight, and understand the key differences between an organization's current state, and future state; essentially the gaps between where they are, and where they want to be.

The Risky Business of Project Management

Undertaking any project, whether in-house or in partnership with a professional services firm, entails risk. Project risk is defined as any area of concern that could prevent a project from achieving all of its benefits.

Mind Mapping Yourself Into Focus

Mind mapping can seem like such a disorderly process. You pull out a big sheet of paper, get the markers rounded up, and start writing, drawing circles and lines in all directions. How can this help with focus?

Benchmarking as a Way of Strategic Planning Approach to Business Success

This article is to share some of the experience gained during one of the Strategic Planning Review session where the CEO adopted a Benchmarking as an approach to Strategic Planning. This approach though is not new but uncommon among many companies I worked with. Traditional analytical tools such as PEST, 5-forces of competitions, SWOT etc. were not used. Does it worked?

Planning To Manage Time Or Managing Time To Plan?

Isn't the year flying by? Have you done all the things you were going to do? So where did it go wrong, already? Or is just that so far the year has been busy and you will implement the changes next month. (The great thing about that sort of planning is that you are usually dead right, you will implement it next month and it has been next month for the last X years!) Or is it simply that it will be ok when you can just find the time.

The Hare And The Tortoise

Sometimes it is appropriate to change strategy and try something different. And sometimes it is appropriate to do both.

Execution and Executability

Robert Bradford discusses the three basic steps to improving execution of your strategic plan.

Strategic Planning Must Connect Human Capital ROI to Time Management to Maximize Business Results

Strategic planning is about how you manage your human capital to maximize your business results or profits. Managing people must include time management to deliver those results. Do you know what unproductive time by your human capital is costing you? Probably not!

Effective Execution of Your Strategic Plan Requires Monitoring of All Goals and Your Dashboard

Do you monitor the results of your strategic plan? Is that monitoring constant and consistent? The failure to monitor the progress of the plan dooms many plans within the first few weeks.

Strategic Planning - Pitfalls in Implementation

In our strategic planning work, we often work with companies who have tried strategic planning before. Almost inevitably, the companies we meet were disappointed in the results they got before using Simplified Strategic Planning.

New Perspectives on Tough Strategic Decisions

When the stakes are high, and you are struggling with tough strategic decisions, it may be time to look at the situation from some new perspectives.

Time is Money - So Make More Money by Using Less Time!

Robert Bradford discusses how to improve profitability by paying attention to how you use time - both yours and your customers.

Business Intelligence - Better Merchandising, Better Sales

Operating within the ever-changing consumer electronics market, cellular retailers face unique merchandising challenges that extend beyond the typical lost sales due to out of stocks and markdowns from excess inventory – their business is susceptible to handset design trends, emerging technologies and of course, passing fads. When planning merchandise, however, retailers are not completely powerless. Business Intelligence (BI) software, with its predictive analytics, helps retailers improve their merchandising processes to identify hidden opportunities and eliminate lost sales and markdowns.