Perspectives

Organizations that balance long term activities with the needs of the present are best placed to outperform their rivals. This is one of the driving forces behind the private equity movement currently taking large publicly traded companies private: To give them breathing space to plan ahead. Nevertheless, irrespective of whether a company is public or private, balancing these two extremes is critical to success and requires a very careful assessment of strategic alternatives. It doesn’t stop there: Since no plan is perfect it is always necessary to monitor its original premises in the face of new developments.

A strategic analysis may lead to unexpected conclusions about the future of the market, the entire industry, or simply some course corrections in the sales effort. Even if it validates everything a company is currently doing, all efforts can proceed with renewed confidence knowing that the path already chosen is correct. Does this mean sales can relax or that marketing can take a few days off? Not at all. In fact, sales and marketing can work harder freed of any doubts about the chosen course, to better return.

However a strategic analysis can also lead to significant changes in a company. These are often feared by staff, with the spectre of job losses. How a change in strategy is communicated within a company is critical to the success of its implementation, which in turn is critical to the new strategy achieving success.

Irrespective of the conclusions, a company is stronger for knowing what it is facing in the near and long term: Forewarned is forearmed.


- PRCI Management