Our topic this month is “Strategic Planning Versus the Holiday Hangover.” To avoid the “holiday hangover,” it is vital to have strategic planning done before the new year begins so that it starts off with a bang. Instead of wasting the first month of the new year battling a holiday hangover and trying to create strategy at the same time, it is better to have strategic planning done before the new year begins.
Part of that strategic planning and the business operation must include a vital step of preparing for growth.
Spring Cleaning
An age-old tradition, especially in regions with cold winters, is something called spring cleaning. The concept was basically that once warmer weather began to arrive with spring, the windows could be opened and house aired out. At the same time, items that had been accumulated throughout the winter could be put away or some cases thrown out.
Close to the time of spring cleaning for the retail sector is what came to be known as “white sales.” The early part of the year was generally a slow sales time in retail, so stores, originally, discounted sheets and other white items in events. Later, other household goods were added in to these sales. The term is used today to mean a sale that takes place for a short period of time, and isn’t at all limited to linens and household items.
A Corporate Cleanup
How could spring cleaning be applied to a corporate environment?
Over the previous year, a company could acquire a number of incomplete projects, campaigns and programs. These might consist of ad campaigns that were discussed but never got off the ground, or perhaps didn’t run a full course. Another example might be a product upgrade that was planned but didn’t quite make it into production. Maybe an expansion was planned for the facilities that didn’t get completed or was stopped for some reason.
There might be things of this nature that have been hanging around for far longer than just a year, especially given the major interruption that COVID brought to the world.
The Net Effect
What kind of effect do these undone actions have on a business? Well, think about how the number of unfinished tasks affects you personally. Perhaps you’re like many others that become bothered by such things. If so, you’ll probably recall that the number of incomplete jobs absorb bits of your attention. And the more of incomplete tasks there.
are, the more attention gets absorbed. These take up an increasing amount of attention that is not available for concentrating on things that must be done in the present.
In a business, undone projects, campaigns and programs hang up the attention of more than one person—they are distractions to any member of the staff who participated in them.
Preparing for Growth
Now, just at the beginning of the year, you really need to prepare your company for growth. To the extent that incomplete activities are still taking up attention in the business, that growth is going to be slowed down.
The solution? Get as many of those undone actions as possible completed. This can be done by either reviving them and making them part of your current strategy for the new year, or by deciding they don’t need to be done after all and putting them away for good. Doing one or the other completely removes them from the attention of company leadership and staff—and the company is prepared for growth!
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