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MEISENHEIMER ON STRATEGY
WHAT is Strategy?
Any eight-year old can use the word “strategy” with reasonable proficiency, but I've yet to meet a businessperson who could define the word, and then describe how a strategy is causing their business to reach their goals:
1. In the least amount of time
2. With the least amount of risk
3. While exhausting the fewest resources
Doesn't this sound like what a good strategy should do?
Businesspeople love the idea of being brilliant strategists; seeing something no one else sees; building something better, different, and more successful than anyone has before. This is not just a nice fantasy to have when taking the leap into a new business; it's a practical imperative throughout the life of your business.
Do you want to know what you end up with if you don’t have an effective strategy? No, not failure. Oh no! You probably won't get off that easy. Without an effective strategy, you'll end up in a mediocre, forever struggling, cash-poor business where you take all the risk, you put up all the cash, and then you make less than your employees! And all the while, you should have (and could have) been accumulating a growing cash balance, offering more service to your customers, more opportunity to your employees, and making a far superior living for yourself.
So what happens? Why hasn’t a single business owner that I've talked to in the last seven years been able to tell me what their strategy was? It’s not because the concepts are too difficult, or because they're too lazy. It’s simply because it requires the exact opposite that every single businessman or businesswoman want to do, (and feel the need to do). It is to:
“Give up being all things to all people.”
There is magnificent pressure, I call it a “gravitational pull”, to try to do it all, and be it all. One customer wants it cheap – so then, we’ll be the cheapest. Another customer wants top quality – so, we’ll be the best quality. Another customer wants it fast – Then, by gosh, we’ll gear up and get it there faster than anyone else. Then, if that weren’t bad enough, we want to compete in every facet of our industry. And so the story goes.
Regardless how we start out, this is where everyone ends up. And guess what? Being all things to all people is the exact opposite of strategy.
So what's the answer? I encourage you to read the articles on this site. You will see principles discussed here that you won't find elsewhere. If you like what you see, and want even more, or want the specific steps to see these principles working in your business, then visit my site www.TheEffectiveLeader.com. There you will find a program that, at an unbelievable price, will take you by the hand, and walk you through the most exciting (and profitable) process you have gone through since starting your business.
And everyone that is affected by your business decisions, (and their families) will be forever grateful.
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