Business Strategy

Business Planning 

Rather than something that looks nice up on the shelf, a business plan should be a living and breathing element of your business that guides everything you do. It takes time and research to do properly, but provides clarity and structure on where your focus should be. 

Our approach is to work with you in a structured way to map out: 

• where you are – current performance, profitability, strengths and weaknesses 

• where you want to be – future goals and targets 

• what the business environment is like in your industry – trends, opportunities and threats 

• what has to be done – capital investment, systems, training and performance measurement 

The plan should then be re-visited over time to evaluate progress and update anything that needs to change. 

Board Meetings 

The day-to-day running of a business is demanding on your time and it is difficult to lift your head and take a higher level view. Things change over time and many successful businesses are well positioned to adapt to these changes because they make the time to meet regularly and discuss broader business issues, review performance and plan future actions. 

Employing the discipline of periodic, strategic-focused meetings (of the directors, ownership group or senior management) is an effective way to stay in control of your business.

We can guide you through the preparation, planning and templates for conducting these meetings, or attend as an external advisor to give an independent view on different matters.  

Performance Indicators 

Understanding the critical success factors for your business and measuring your performance in these areas will give you the best chance of success.  

Setting these measures and communicating them clearly to your team will make sure everyone is paddling down the same stream and understands what is required of them. 

We can help you to identify your critical success factors, create your performance metrics and implement the systems to capture and report the results.

Balanced Scorecards 

A balanced scorecard is a tool for measuring the performance of team members in key areas of their role. Linking these areas to performance indicators of the business will help focus employees' attention on the most important tasks which will help improve your business.  

Incorporating this into periodic performance and salary reviews promotes a constructive discussion and provides the recognition and feedback needed to promote improvement and results. 

For assistance with setting up and structuring this system, we can walk you through the steps and assist with creating your performance areas and templates.  

Employee Incentives 

Incentives for employees can be a double-edged sword. They are an effective way to promote greater employee performance, but if not properly designed they can promote behavior which is inconsistent with your objectives. 

Properly linking incentives to business objectives and performance indicators is important to get right to ensure they are giving the desired results. There are various ways to structure incentive schemes depending on the motivations of the employee and what their role is. 

We can provide the assistance required to set up or improve your employee incentive schemes.