No strategy will equal no business

Only 3 out of every 10 managers are strategic (Harris Interactive Survey of 154 companies, 2009).
-The #1 cause of bankruptcy is bad strategy (Paul Carroll and Chunka Mui, “7 Ways to Fail Big,” Harvard Business Review (September 2008).

-70% of a company’s poor performance is due to decisions about strategy (Matthew Olson, “When Growth Stalls,” Harvard Business Review (March 2008).

-85% of executive leadership teams spend less than one hour per month discussing their strategy, with 50% spending no time at all (Robert Kaplan and David Norton, “The Office of Strategy Management,” Harvard Business Review (October 2005).

-80% of top management’s time is devoted to issues that account for less than 20% of a company’s long-term value (Michael Mankins, “Stop Wasting Valuable Time,” Harvard Business Review (September 2004)

-Companies with clearly defined strategies on average beat their competition by 304% in profit margin and 332% in sales over a ten-year period (William Joyce, Nitin Nohria, Bruce Roberson, What Really Works [book] (New York: HarperBusiness:2003).

I found these great points on Strategy Espresso http://www.strategyskills.com/blog/ run by Rich Horwath.

They really resonate with me when I think about my SME owner clients.  Few of them spend any time at all thinking about strategy - and many of those that do don't really have the tools or knowledge to make it work.

If you'd like some help with setting a strategy for your business contact me at my website or book up for this great seminar.