Posts Tagged ‘small business’

Are you preparing for your annual executive retreat? Will you get the necessary return on investment from the multiple days that you and your executive team spend huddled in a conference room?

One way to get the meeting off to a quick start is to have each participant create his or her own SWOT analysis.  This will provide a starting point for discussion and collaboration. You can download a SWOT template at http://www.executive-velocity.com/free-tools/ .

Once each team member has presented their SWOTs, you can identify duplicates and combine the lists during your strategy session.  Have a facilitator work with the group to build consensus around the combined list. Once you have your finished SWOT analysis you can begin the business planning process.

Another resource for planning that I have used comes from the book,  Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish.  Verne provides a great one page strategic planning format which you can use once you have developed your SWOT analysis. Just go to www.gazelles.com and you’ll be able to download the form for free.

The ultimate goal of the planning session is to have each participant be able to clearly articulate what they are accountable and responsible for the next year AND how their initiatives will impact the overall success of the organization.

Yes, it is a huge disaster and they have yet to find a solution but why has it taken so long? I believe it is lack of leadership. BP is a huge company with billions of dollars of resources and I am sure a huge risk management department and yet they seem to be making up solutions day to day.

As a leader what learnings can you take from their disaster which will make your company stronger and more resilient? How are decisions made in your organization? Can improvements be made to the decision making process that would eliminate the risk of potential disasters to your organization?

Somewhere along the way BP’s decision making and risk management processes failed. If you and your leadership team haven’t already analyzed these areas within your company now is the time.  Don’t wait for a disaster, plan for one, put contingency and multiple back up plans in place and be accountable for both the successes and disasters.

Here are some resources to kick start the process:

http://www.ready.gov/business/_downloads/sampleplan.pdf

http://www.sba.gov/idc/groups/public/documents/sba_homepage/serv_disprep_planningguide.pdf