GPS Blog

Strategic Planning Made Simple, Part 3 – Products

At first glance, this seems pretty simple.  What are your key products?  Most businesses could name those.  They may really only have one key product.  The problem is that products – like businesses – have a life cycle.  And there are no exceptions.  Every product has a growth phase, a plateau phase, and a decline phase.  … Read more

Strategic Planning Made Simple, Part 2 – Patrons

I ended the last blog post by saying, “Maybe strategic planning isn’t that hard after all!”  I’ll be honest – it is hard.  The purpose of the 6 P’s of Planning is to break down the process into pieces and attack smaller parts.  And the process is flexible so that you can work on each part in whatever order … Read more

Strategic Planning Made Simple: Is That Even Possible?

Here’s something I’ve heard from people many times: “We’ve tried to do strategic planning for our business but it was too overwhelming”, or “We know it’s important for us to plan but there are just too many issues”, or “We want to do some long-range planning but we don’t know where to start”, or any number … Read more

Are You Listening? 4 Steps to More Effective Listening

All too often my husband and I find ourselves saying that our kids “never listen”.  Perhaps you say the same thing at your home.  However, I must admit that I too could do a much better job listening.  Listening is an essential skill when relating to others and it is critical to finding out what’s … Read more

Fail Forward

My daughter, Marisa, and my grandson, Tyler, recently spent four days with Marsha and me. Marisa said that being with us was a nice “mini-vacation” for her, but for Marsha and me it was a little slice of heaven. Tyler is a 2-1/2 year old ball of energy from the time he awakens in the … Read more

Are You Riding a Dead Horse: The 10 P’s of Business Strategy

According to the ancient wisdom of the Plains Indians:  “When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount” and the ineffective strategies that we frequently utilize to try to revive a dead horse. How do you know if you are riding a dead horse?  To help you answer this question, take this … Read more

Defining Company Core Values: Consider Starting Here

What makes a great workplace culture?  Employee survey after employee survey demonstrates that most people want to work in an environment where their work is interesting and challenging, their performance is recognized, their input is valued, and time is taken to celebrate achievements and just have fun.  Many business owners and leaders would like create … Read more

Top Organizations: How Do They Achieve Success?

We often wonder why some businesses are so much better than others, even though they sell the same products and services. Why is this the case? Studies of businesses indicate that rather than simply being slightly more successful than their competitors, the top firms are often three or four times more successful.  Research into the … Read more

Why is Change so Hard?

Over the next four weeks we are republishing our most popular posts since the inception of our blog in November, 2010.  Since that time we have gained many new subscribers to whom this material will be new.  We hope that our long-time readers will find positive reinforcement in reading this valuable content again. Have you … Read more

Can Your Competitors Help You Gain Your Competitive Edge?

We thank our good friend, Chris Mason, for contributing this post to our blog.  Chris is the Founder of Mindshop. Mindshop fast-tracks the success of business leaders and advisors by providing them with the business tools, strategic methodologies, global peer-networking opportunities and experienced coaching support needed to achieve their growth and profit objectives. I like having … Read more

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