Do you run your business, or do you sometimes think that it runs you?
Do you spend a lot of your time fighting fires?
Are you progressing as you would like toward the future you want for your company?

Overview

The 3 day Take Charge of your Business! workshop is for owners and management teams of micro, small and medium businesses that want to develop and implement a strategic framework for their business that will enable them to “take it to the next level”. More than one company management team can participate at the same time.

What was the vision that led to the founding of your business? Is that vision still alive and well? To what extent does it guide you in your day-to-day activities?

What goals have you set for the business, and what strategies and plans are you implementing to achieve them?

To what extent are your strategies and plans based upon a solid foundation of information? Do they take market information, current economic developments and global, regional and local trends into consideration?

Have you taken the time to dispassionately consider what you do really well? And what you don’t do well at all in comparison to your competition? Are you using that information? Are you capitalising on your strengths and implementing defensive strategies to protect against your weaknesses?

What are your most burning issues? Are you consequently addressing their root causes, or simply fighting fires when they erupt?

You will address these and many related issues in the Take Charge of your Business! workshop, and use your results and considerations to formulate a concise and precise way forward.

At the end of the workshop you will have developed

• a holistic strategic framework that includes your company’s vision, mission and values,
• draft overarching strategies,
• a draft set of Key Strategic Goals, and
• two preliminary Improvement Activity Charters and Action Plans,
  • one set for the implementation of your strategic framework, and
  • one set to address your most burning issue.

You will have done this against the background of stakeholder, PEST and SWOT analyses, and have learned how to formulate SMART goals and implement plans.

How to prepare

• Consider your own personal vision, mission and values, and those of your company
• Bring along documentation on organisational plans, strategies, goals, measures and results the company is achieving
• Consider why and where, and how much time you spend fighting fires
• Research and bring information about trends in your sector
• Research and bring information about predicted economic and political developments in countries in which you do business
• Know what your competition is up to!
• Inform yourself about technological developments that could impact your business/activities
• Bring along a pencil, sharpener and rubber
• Bring along business cards
• Dress comfortably

Case studies

Are you still asking yourself if it is really worth your time? Click here (pdf) and read what earlier workshop participants have to say about their experiences—in their own words.

Mentoring

Beginning the Journey to Excellence must almost always correspond with a change of mindset in an organisation’s people. This is not easy, and experience shows that the professional mentoring of action plan teams greatly supports the implementation of improvement activities.