StrategyDriven Strategic Planning Best Practice Article

Strategic Planning Best Practice 8 – Results First, Actions Second

StrategyDriven Strategic Planning Best PracticeToo often, organizations biased to action move forward with projects and initiatives before defining the results to be achieved. This shotgun approach resembles the marksman who shoots, shoots some more, and then aims. And like the marksman who doesn’t first aim, the organization may or may not achieve its desired goals. Even if the goals are met, it is likely that many of the activities pursued contributed little or not at all to the organization’s goals; ultimately, wasting precious time and resources.


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About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

Resource Projection Best Practice 2 – Begin with the Work

The business planning process of balancing what the organization will do with its limited resources is an iterative one. However, resource owners too often focus on the amount of resources they have and alter work estimates so the activity portfolio they are responsible for fits within the resource pool under their immediate control. This practice frequently leads to under-estimating resource needs as managers continually strive to expand their activity portfolios; resulting in reduced quality, late deliveries, and a diminished bottom line.


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New Service Announcement – The Advisor’s Corner

To further expand on our ongoing strategic planning and tactical business execution conversation, StrategyDriven Contributors are proud to announce the launch of a new service, The Advisor’s Corner. This service provides all guests to the StrategyDriven website an opportunity to ask direct questions of our experienced business professionals. Questions and answers will then be posted in The Advisor’s Corner category for all site visitors to view. Additionally, StrategyDriven members will have the opportunity to share their insights and experience by way of comments and feedback to these postings.

Questions can be submitted to The Advisor’s Corner by email at [email protected] or by using the ‘Email The Advisor’s Corner’ link located on the right sidebar on the StrategyDriven website. If desired, questions may be submitted anonymously to maintain confidentiality.

StrategyDriven contributors greatly appreciate the continued patronage of our website and hope this new offering is of benefit to all our site’s visitors.

Recommended Resource – Managing the Nonprofit Organization

Managing the Nonprofit Organization
by Peter F. Drucker

About the Reference

Managing the Nonprofit Organization by Peter F. Drucker addresses the unique management challenges associated with nonprofit organizations. In this book, Dr. Drucker explains the differences between managing for-profit and nonprofit organizations in the areas of mission, leadership, resources, marketing, and goals.

Benefits of Using this Reference

Nonprofit organization management can be truly challenging in the areas of strategic planning and tactical business execution because of the lack of a profit driver. In our experience, nonprofits that don’t effectively replace the profit driver with another equally strong motivator risk diminished performance and organizational value.

StrategyDriven contributors like Managing the Nonprofit Organization because it illustrates a method for creating a compelling mission, setting goals to that mission, and gaining and maintaining employee/volunteer commitment to the achievement of the mission goals. We believe that while essential to the management of nonprofit organizations, many of the principles Dr. Drucker describes in Managing the Nonprofit Organization would greatly benefit for-profit companies as well.

Many of the best practice recommendations found on the StrategyDriven website compliment the principles described in Managing the Nonprofit Organization; making this book a StrategyDriven recommended read.

StrategyDriven Decision-Making Best Practice Article

Decision-Making Best Practice 1 – There Can Be Only One

StrategyDriven Decision Making Best Practice | decision makerEffective decision-making provides the organization with a unified direction aimed at achieving a primary objective and possibly one or more secondary objectives. Regardless of the decision’s complexity or its immediacy, the probability of achieving a successful outcome is directly related to the organization’s ability to execute the decision in a deliberate and focused manner. It is for this reason that decisions and direction for their execution should come from one individual.


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About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.