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Strategic Business Planning and Development
Businesses are often so preoccupied with immediate issues that they lose sight of their ultimate goals and objectives. That is why regular and periodic business reviews or preparation of a reviewable strategic plan is a virtual necessity for any business organization. Without a strategic business plan more likely than not a business will fail. A sound plan should:
- Serve as a framework for decision-making or for securing support/approval
- Provide a basis for more detailed on-going planning and business review
- Explain the business to others in order to inform, motivate & involve
- Assist in benchmarking and performance monitoring
- Stimulate change and become the building blocks for next plan
- Act as a vehicle for inspiration and motivation
A strategic plan should not be confused with a business plan. The former is likely to be a shorter document whereas a business plan is usually a much more substantial and detailed document. A strategic plan can provide the foundation and frame work for a business plan. A strategic plan is not the same thing as an operational plan. The former should be visionary, conceptual and directional in contrast to an operational plan which is likely to be shorter term, tactical, focused, implementable and measurable. A satisfactory and effective strategic plan must be realistic and attainable so as to allow the management team and entrepreneurs to think strategically and act operationally. A strategic plan consists of a business planning hierarchy which includes a business organization’s vision, mission, objectives, strategies and tactics, and plans, and is based on core values that will enable the business to understand the potential future of the business organization.
Financial Strategies
Financial strategies refer to the development of specific plans and direction based on a detailed analysis of the operational and financial structure and condition of the business organization considering the mission and strategic goals of the business organization. It includes analysis of the current situation, identification of the tools and assets that the business may need to leverage, and the establishment of plans that would be tactical to the business goals and objectives. A financial strategy is integral to a business organization’s strategic plan. It sets out how the business organization plans to finance its overall operations to meet its objectives now and in the future. A financing strategy summarizes targets, and the actions to be taken over a three to five year period to achieve the targets. It also clearly states or revisits key policies which will guide those actions. More importantly, it sets the tone for moving the organization forward in the most effective financial manner.
Short- & Long-Term Business Plans
Business plans are formal statements of a set of business goals, the reasons they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also contain background information about the organization or team attempting to reach those goals. Business plans may also target changes in the perception and branding of the business organization. When the existing business is to assume a major change or when planning a new venture, a 3- to 5-year business plan is required, since investors will look for their annual return in that timeframe. An effective business plan answers the who, what, were, when, and how of the business organization in terms of defined periods of time, which are either short- or long-term in nature. This business plan takes the strategic planning direction of the business organization to a greater level of detail for effective decisions-making and action. Business plans have a certain structure and content to them which are accepted norms in the financial arenas. The best business plans are those that are clear, complete, and have buy-in by those who will be using the business plan for decision-making, as a tool to review the attainment of success, and as a vehicle to make calculated and tactical adjustments in the operation and financial structure of the business organization.
Personnel Development Strategies
Many business entrepreneurs fail to realize that the success of any business organization is based on the level of development of its personnel, including the business founder, the business management, and the employees of the business. Without a high level of personnel development and growth, the more technical skill-sets and experience of individuals will fail and there will be personal, inter-personal, cultural and institutional disconnection within the organization. Personnel development planning is the process of creating an action plan based on awareness, values, reflection, goal-setting and planning for personnel required for the business organization within their context of a career, education, relationships or for self-improvement.
The personnel development plan usually includes a statement of the aspirations, strengths or competencies, education and training of the business organizations personnel, and stages or steps to indicate how the plan is to be realized. Personnel development plans may also include a statement of the career and lifestyle priorities, career positioning, analysis of opportunities and risks, alternative plans, and a curriculum vitae of the personnel of the business organization.
When individuals understand their potential through personnel planning and development, they then can co-exist within a business organization and work more effectively to attaint the organization’s mission and goals with the clarity that each individual has a certain role and responsibility for the collaborative attainment of the success of the business organization.
Reorganization and Restructuring Strategies
Restructuring is the corporate management term for the act of reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of a business organization for the purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized for its present needs. Other reasons for restructuring include a change of ownership or ownership structure, demerger, or a response to a crisis or major change in the business organization such as bankruptcy, repositioning, or buyout. Restructuring may also include corporate restructuring, debt restructuring, or financial restructuring.
Executives involved in restructuring often hire financial, legal or strategic advisors to assist in the details and negotiation of the reorganization process. It may also be done by a current or new CEO hired by the business organization with the support of an independent advisor to specifically make the difficult and controversial decisions required to save or reposition the business organization. It generally involves some form of financing or refinancing debt, selling portions of the business organization to investors, or reorganizing or reducing operations and budgets of the business organization.
The process of restructuring is to ensure the business organization has enough liquidity to operate during implementation of a complete reorganization; produce accurate working capital forecasts; provide open and clear lines of communication with creditors who mostly control the business organization’s ability to raise financing; update detailed business plan and considerations; and put in place a strategy of operations, personnel, and budgeting that will move the business organization to a place of stability and growth.
Conflict Resolution Strategies and Facilitation
Conflict resolution is conceptualized as the methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of conflict. In a business organization this may show up in many ways among the management team and with support personnel. In may be focused on the personal, interpersonal, cultural or institutional levels of a business organization. And, it may be internal or external to the organization. Often, committed participants attempt to resolve group conflicts by actively communicating information about their conflicting motives or ideologies to the rest of the participants, and by engaging in some level of collective discussion, negotiation, and consensus building. A wide range of methods and procedures for addressing conflicts exist, including but not limited to, negotiation, mediation, diplomacy, and creative peace building, which all can be used based on the details of the conflict, the difference between the participants, and the desired outcome of the business organization.
The term conflict resolution may also be used interchangeably with dispute resolution, where arbitration and litigation processes are critically involved. Furthermore, the concept of conflict resolution can be thought to encompass the use of non-violent resistance measures by conflicted parties in an attempt to promote effective resolution. In the end, the most effect conflict resolution process are ones that are strategic in nature and are facilitated through an independent, unbiased, third party that has the skill-set to address the conflict in a professional and tactical manner to attain the outcome sought by the business organization.
Executive Personal Coaching
Executive Personal Coaching (when referring to getting coached by a professional coach) is a teaching, training or development process in which an individual gets support while learning to achieve specific personal or professional results or goals. Executive Personal Coaching is focused on the “individual”. It is a process of personal awareness, guidance, mentorship and learning focused on changing patterns that do not work and nurturing patterns that do work. It is most closely tied to the personal and interpersonal characteristics of individuals within a business organization.
The structures, models and methodologies of coaching are numerous, and may be designed to facilitate thinking or learning new behavior for personal growth or professional advancement. There are also forms of coaching that help the coachee improve a physical skill. Some coaches use a style in which they ask questions and offer opportunities that will challenge the coachee to find answers from within themselves. This facilitates the coachee to discover answers and new ways of being based on their values, preferences and unique perspective.
When coaching is aimed at facilitating psychological or emotional growth it should be differentiated from therapeutic and counseling disciplines, since clients of coaching, in most cases, are considered healthy (i.e. not sick). The purpose of these levels of coaching is to help them move forward in whatever way they want to move, not to “cure” them.
Executive coaching is designed to help facilitate professional and personal development to the point of individual growth and improved performance. Coaches need to have a strong understanding of individual differences in a work place as well as the ability to adapt their coaching style or strategies. It is suggested that those coaches who are unable to acknowledge these differences will do more harm than good. Regardless of specific area of focus, coaches still need to be aware of motivational needs and cultural differences in the business organization.
Executive coaches work their clients towards specific professional goals. These include career transition, interpersonal and professional communication, performance management, organizational effectiveness, managing career and personal changes, developing executive presence, enhancing strategic thinking, dealing effectively with conflict, and building effective teams within an organization.
Business Coaching
Business Coaching (when referring to getting coached by a professional coach) is a teaching, training or development process which is aimed at the “totality” of the business organization where the business organization gets support while learning to achieve specific business results or goals. Business Coaching is focused on the “business organization”. It is a process of business awareness, guidance, mentorship and learning focused on changing patterns that do not work and nurturing patterns that do work within the structure of the business. It is most closely tied to the cultural and institutional characteristics of the business organization.
Business coaching is a type of personal or human resource development. It provides positive support, feedback and advice to an individual or group to improve their personal effectiveness in the business setting. Business coaching can be a combination of executive coaching, corporate coaching and leadership coaching.
The structures, models and methodologies of business coaching are numerous, and may be designed to facilitate thinking or learning new behavior for business growth and development. Business coaching is grounded from a place of asking questions and offering opportunities that will challenge the business organization to find answers from within itself. This facilitates the business organization to discover answers and new ways of conducting itself based on the values, mission, goals and resources of the business organization.
There are almost as many different ways of delivering business coaching as there are business coaches. Some offer personal support and feedback, others combine a coaching approach with practical and structured business planning and bring a disciplined accountability to the relationship. Particularly in the small business market, business coaching is as much about driving profit as it is about developing the personnel.
Coaching is not a practice restricted to external experts or providers. Many organizations expect their senior leaders and middle managers to coach their team members to reach higher levels of performance, increased job satisfaction, personal growth, and career development. Business coaching is not the same as mentoring. Mentoring involves a developmental relationship between a more experienced "mentor" and a less experienced partner, and typically involves sharing of advice. A business coach can act as a mentor given that he or she has adequate expertise and experience. However, mentoring is not a form of business coaching. Mentoring is more apt to be used in Executive Personal Coaching.
Forensic Consultation and Investigations
Forensic science (often shortened to “forensics”) is most commonly known as the application of a broad spectrum of sciences and technologies to investigate and establish facts of interest in relation to criminal or civil law. A Forensic Consultant is a person who offers expert advice about matters that relates to a court of law or other legal matters. It can also be a person who can provide the same expertise that is necessary to understand a particular situation that is not obvious from the facts that are known.
Businesses apply forensics to help make decisions that requires deep reflection. The use of who, what, where, when and how questions towards problem solving or making a decision is a form of forensic. There is a misconception that forensics is only limited to the field of criminology and civil actions. The reason for the misconception, in part, is attributed to the media that portray the use of forensic by the criminal justice system and civil actions on television. However, this misconception is starting to change since businesses have started to see the value of forensic in addressing complex business issues. Forensic is used to solve intricate problems; hence, it is very attractive to the organizations that use it.
The application of forensic in business involves data collection and analysis of current and past business activities of the business organization. It is also useful for corporate decision-making in all areas of the business organization. Business forensics is often not recognized by a business organization as being needed until it is almost too late in the failing of the business organization. And, it requires an independent outside consultant to sometimes be the investigator in such forensic evaluations.
Successful executives are aware that business consultants help businesses to change the way they think and lead. Change is good because it is core to growth. Outgrowing leadership of a business organization's perspective happens to small, medium and larger companies alike. Outgrowing business organization's products and services can also be a lack of willingness to deviate from their founders' leadership skill or simply unawareness of paradigm shift in leadership. Forensic leadership consultants can mitigate these business problems and provide a process of reinvention of the business or a business operations and practices.
The business organization that wants to sustain their share of their market, but fail to recognize the paradigm shift in leadership, simply because they did not see the need to hire a consultant, specifically forensic leadership consultants, are most likely to head towards a downward direction in their industry. Successful leaders understand that forensic business consultants bring new perspectives to their organizations. Leadership is about challenging the existing paradigm because since leadership is not static, neither should the executive’s thinking about how to lead be static
Successful business executives understand that the forensic business consultants will help their clients by asking challenging questions that would enlighten the executives about the probabilities of perilous situations to avoid in business. Such questions might include a) What does the company need to sustain and increase productivity?; b) Who is on staff to implement the business activities to achieve the goal of the company? c) When will these activities take place? and d) how did the company miss the industry's recent business opportunity without anyone in the organization taking notice? A leadership forensic business consultant provides analysis and synthesis of the leadership dynamics to clarify these situations for the executives and the business organization.
Community Systems Associates, Inc. has the professional and technical skills to be applied to such forensic areas of interest as business, real property transactions and issues, and accounting and financials topics. If there is something which can be used as “evidence” in the legal, tactical or strategic areas, there is a need for a Forensic Consultant, a professional who provides expert advice in a particular domain or area of expertise relating to the use of science or technology in the investigation and establishment of facts or evidence.
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CSA. continues to provide the highest quality of services to its private and business clients with a focus on specific services that are necessary to attain our client's goals and to fulfill their specific needs. The services offered are designed to address a variety of general topics. CSA private and business clients range from gross revenues of $5 million to $150 million adn from 10 employees to 500 employees.
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