Key Messages
How To Achieve Big Goals By Planning Strategically And Creating A Focus For Your Company
It’s easy to come up with an incredible, ambitious goal for your business — but turning it into a reality is a whole other story.
If you put in the hard work and still aren’t seeing results, you might not be using the right tools to achieve your goals.
In RESULTS: Business Execution for Results by Cathy Bessant, Brian Tracy and Stephen Meyer, you’ll get the guidance and resources necessary for finding the right tools for success.
They’ll help you plan short-term, intermediate and long-term goals to reach success, as well as show you how to stay motivated and focused on achieving big audacious dreams.
You’ll also learn how to spot good opportunities in your business environment, create a clear focus that will ensure success, and develop smart strategies that will help bring your dreams closer to fruition!
Get ready to build a successful business with RESULTS: Business Execution for Results!
The Power Of Big Hairy Audacious Goals: The Story Of Walt Disney And Sam Walton
When it comes to achieving success in business, one of the most important things you can do is define ambitious goals for yourself that will lead you towards success.
Jerry I.
Porras and Jim Collins coined the term Big Hairy Audacious Goals, or BHAGs for short; these are goals that are very big, may take several years to achieve, involve some degree of uncertainty in terms of the best way to achieve them, and which have an easily identifiable sign when accomplished.
Sam Walton used this principle perfectly when he set out to make his tiny variety store in Newport, Arkansas into the most profitable one in the entire state—by 1948 he had achieved exactly that!
Walt Disney also put this concept into practice with his goal of creating the first ever feature length animation film; Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was released in 1938, a remarkable achievement and one which endures as a classic today.
Whether your goal is related to your company’s growth as a whole or focused on a specific product or project within that company like Walt’s was, setting audacious goals can be highly rewarding.
This approach will help you stay motivated and energized as you pursue your objectives with persistence and dedication.
Define ambitious goals that will show you how to succeed and watch as they bring you closer to success day by day.
Having A Clear Core Purpose And Core Values Are Necessary For Achieving Successful Business Goals
Achieving amazing results with your business requires having a team of people who are committed to your mission and can stay on track.
This is where core ideas such as a core purpose and core values come in.
A core purpose gives meaning and motivation to your work, while at the same time bringing together team members to form that lasting commitment you need.
The research firm ISR reported that companies with an engaged workforce have higher productivity and profitability overall — so it’s important to build a strong commitment among team members by having an inspiring core purpose.
Your core values will be like a moral compass for your business; they provide consistent decision making guidelines, whether it’s hiring or firing employees.
For instance, if your taxi company had the value of ‘the right route is the right route’, not only would you keep everyone on track morally but also this could help you determine if someone is truly committed to what you do.
So to wrap up: Build commitment and keep your team on track by having clear, unifying ideas such as a compelling core purpose-and an unwavering set of core values.
Utilize Pest Analysis To Determine Which Products Will Sell And Successfully Grow Your Business
When it comes to making decisions, it’s important to scan your environment and take the relevant factors into account.
This involves performing a PEST analysis, or Political, Economic, Social and Technological Analysis.
By considering all of these elements, you’ll be able to create a comprehensive picture of how the external environment can impact your business decision-making.
For instance, when Sam Walton was opening Wal-Mart in the 1960s, he took such factors into account such as government investments like new infrastructure (which increased road access) plus a rising economy and population growth from the post-World War II ‘baby boom.
Even technological advancements could affect his business strategies – something that’s even more relevant today.
We can use this same approach for understanding our own market and customers today.
If we consider all of these aspects – political circumstances, economic considerations such as recessions or expansions, social dynamics (such as population changes), and natural advancements – then we’ll have more data points to make better informed decisions about where our products fit in.
Standing Out In Business Takes More Than Showmanship: Identifying Your Value Discipline
Having a thriving business means standing out from the competition and remaining focused on reaching your goals.
To achieve this, entrepreneurs need to identify their value disciplines – the thing that makes them different from everyone else.
There are three different value disciplines which fall into the categories of operational excellence, product leadership and customer intimacy.
Each of these will have its own implications on how businesses need to focus their time and resources in order to stay ahead of the game.
For example, Sam Walton decided that Wal-Mart should be a low-cost store, so he devoted part of his own savings to decrease the retail price of goods he sold.
After establishing a value discipline, entrepreneurs must then identify their core activities which involve taking strategic actions for achieving success.
This helps them ensure that they are putting more effort into what really matters for their companies instead of getting sidetracked with other non-essential tasks.
Ultimately, having a thriving business requires standing out amongst competitors and keeping one’s goals in focus.
With the proper value discipline and core activities identified, entrepreneurs can confidently move forward towards success!
Track Your Progress And Set Clear Kpis To Increase Your Business’S Success
In order to track progress and ensure that your business is moving in the right direction, it’s important to set clear targets and key performance indicators (KPIs).
Having an idea of what you want to achieve can help you focus on reaching those goals, while KPIs can provide concrete data that show you how close you are to achieving it.
With numerical targets, numbers make progress more tangible and make it easier for your team to monitor them.
For example, if two of your targets are to build two branch offices and acquire ten resellers, then you have something specific to aim for.
By tracking the numbers put up against these goals, it’ll be much easier for you and your team to see where you’re at and how close you are to achieving them.
KPIs are also crucial for predicting financial success.
For example, in the construction industry, a KPI might be tracking the number of building proposals submitted due to its correlation with increased income.
Or in pharmaceutical sales, tracking the number of weekly physician visits that your sales representatives make as this has been a key indicator of success in the past.
Maintaining Focus And Avoiding Time-Wasting Tactics For Business Success
If you’re serious about reaching your BHAGs and succeeding in business, part of the fight is to stay focused and make sure you don’t waste time.
That’s where meetings come in – they set a rhythm and concept of deadlines, giving everyone involved a chance to pause and reflect on how things are going.
One very important meeting you should have every three months is a quarterly strategic review.
This is an opportunity for your team to look back on the projects you’ve completed in the last quarter, review up-coming projects, and update any surprises that arose unexpectedly.
The goal of this meeting is to assess if everything happening within your business is still working for you towards achieving those big goals.
Additionally, it gives you the chance to do something called a SWOT Analysis – which maps out your current strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats – so that from there you can effectively plan for the next quarter.
Wrap Up
The Business Execution for RESULTS book can be summarized as follows: If you want to establish a successful and thriving business, it’s essential to pick the winning strategy.
To do this, careful thinking and analysis is needed, followed by precise monitoring of progress.
To ensure that you pick the right strategy, involve your entire team in the process of doing research.
Ask everyone’s opinion on the topic, including utilizing PEST analysis strategies.
This will make it easier to identify which aspects of your business are important and thus form your winning strategy.
So don’t go it alone – having more minds involved in the process can lead to much better results.
