Strategy

As Aileron's Executive in Residence, Dave Sullivan facilitates programs, leads workshops, provides consulting, and offers his unique perspective at speaking events. Now, with office hours at the Aileron campus, you can sit down one-on-one with him and talk about your business.

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Do you need a trusted guide to assist you with the strategic planning process? Fear not; Aileron is here to help! We offer three strategic planning packages to choose from, depending on your unique needs. A business advisor will provide you with support and advice as you tackle key elements of planning, such as conducting a SWOT analysis to get a better grip on your external reality. Beginner, intermediate, and advanced packages are offered to any business owner, with the option to add on services at any point in your planning process.

How valuable is each customer group to your business? How do you know which ones to target? This activity will help you find the answers by quantifying each group's attractiveness. When you're done, you'll have the knowledge you need to prioritize and focus on the right customers - the customers who bring the most value to your organization.

As you work through a SWOT Analysis for a specific market, use this worksheet to create a "snapshot" of your organization.  What are your internal resources and capabilities?  How do your customers perceive your company, and how do they think you stack up against your competitors?  The answers will help you test your assumptions about your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.  With this information, you can create a "revised" SWOT list that more accurately reflects what's happening with your company, customers, and competition.

What does your company do better than the competition? What are your company's super strengths? This activity has some thought-starter questions to get your head around what your company is really good at, better than the rest, or what your company needs to be good at in order to beat the competition.

This activity helps you narrow down why your customer groups buy from you by taking you through seven questions and plotting your groups on a scale.  If you need a starting point to determine which side of the scale your customer groups fall (cost or differentiation), check out this activity.

Market segmentation sounds a bit "textbook", but it's really nothing more than putting your customers into meaningful groups. As you might guess, this involves some in-depth thinking about your business. We'll start by looking at your customers that represent your entire customer base.

Once you've determined which customer groups need you, then you can determine how to start handling the customers you have. This action plan gives you the space to jot down your short and long-term plans to get the right customer groups in place.

Use this worksheet to paint a clearer picture of your external reality - the political, economic, social, and technological factors that may help or hurt your business.  While these "PESTs" are outside your control, identifying these trends will help you plan for the future.  If you happen to be working on a SWOT Analysis, you can also use this information to create a more accurate list of your company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Assuming you have a good handle on the pluses and minuses of your customers, you can take that a step further to start identifying groups of customers. For each customer, you'll list the key definers. When you think about the customer relationship and those pluses and minuses, what are the key characteristics that define your business relationship? We listed some questions to help you get started. Finally, review your list to see if you spot some logical customer groups. You'll look for characteristics that they have in common. We've provided a table for some more brainstorming ideas. Once you've identified some customer groups, you'll list them in a table and include the characteristics that you previously brainstormed.

This highly useful SWOT tool invites you to put yourself in your competitors' shoes.  In the first step, you'll answer questions about yourself and your competition to get a better grip on your various SWOTs. In the second section, you'll measure your SWOTs against the competition to find areas where you have a competitive advantage. You might also find that some of your perceived strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats don't hold up when you subject them to a competitive comparison. In other words, get ready to challenge your assumptions! By the end of the exercise, you'll have a more accurate picture of your company and the competitive environment in which you operate.

Do you know what your customers' needs and wants are? Do you know what their current perception of your business is? In this activity, you will interview at least 10 of your key customers to learn more about their needs and wants, and how they view your business. Using these survey results will not only give you insight into your customers, but will provide you with a better understanding of what needs to be changed or updated in your strategy to meet your customer-related goals.

Looking for some help with your SWOT list? This case study shows the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for an architectural company. Many of these (such as a lack of resources) are common SWOTs that appear in many industries. While the case study doesn't narrow the list down to the top three, as Aileron recommends, it's still a helpful way to get your gears turning on brainstorming a SWOT list of your own.

Scenario planning offers many benefits for small business owners. This online tool, which guides you through the process in clear detail, can be used to record your thoughts and save your scenario plan. (As the instructions point out, the tool can also be used to get a grip on the personal factors in your life. Very useful stuff!)

The final step in the SWOT analysis is to determine your planning assumptions, which are informed predictions on which to base strategies and actions. Slice and dice your SWOTs, draw some conclusions, put them up against the external realities and determine the impact and potential response. It's a multiple step process that will get you to the next step in planning - determining your priority issues.

You've built a strategic plan and put it into place. But how can you ensure that it's performing as planned? This strategic plan review will guide you through a straightforward process that can help you determine what's working, what's been accomplished, and what course adjustments are needed. Space is included to record your thoughts and conclusions, helping you measure your actual results against your expected outcomes. After completing the review process, you'll have the information you need to modify your plan and move confidently forward.

As you move through the planning process, strategy statements can help you organize your thoughts and findings.  These documents also provide a logical place to list your conclusions so you can refer back to them at a later time.  You may want to use these sample statements as rough templates for listing details about your planning assumptions, SWOT's, priority issues, action plans, and other key elements of strategic planning.

One of the first steps of a SWOT analysis is to fill out this matrix.  There is plenty of space to write down your thoughts as you brainstorm the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for one of your markets.  Also included are guiding questions to help you focus and think deeper about each category. An example matrix from a fictitious landscaping company can help you get started.   After you finish, keep the matrix handy; it will help you generate planning assumptions later on.

Uncovering your critical success factors is an important step on the road to long-term growth. The purpose of this exercise is to reveal the true priorities and issues that business owners may be unaware of. There are four steps to identifying  top issues or causes. Once you've completed the exercise, you'll have a better understanding of the areas where you should be investing your time and resources.

SWOT is an effective planning exercise for any organization, from small private businesses all the way up to multi-national giants. This case study, compiled using public information about Wal-Mart, features a detailed SWOT analysis of the retail giant. It'll help you start thinking strategically about your company, industry, competitors, and marketplace, even if you're not sitting on a market cap of $240 billion.

Time to get a little self-centered and think about what's truly important for your business. This tool will help you determine what the critical success factors are for your business, also called the "make-or-breaks", that will significantly influence your success. Once you've identified the 3 - 5 most crucial make-or-breaks you'll prioritize and determine how to measure each one. This tool can help you decide which customers or groups of customers, also known as market segments, you might want to pursue. In addition, it can help encourage some deep thinking and healthy conversation as you and your team contemplate your company's future.

Which customer groups need you? This five-step process will help you find out! Don't worry - you won't get lost. There are steps and thought-starters to help you along.

Do you truly understand your customers? This online retailer thought it did - until it took the time to test its assumptions. After shifting its focus to the customers' perspective, the company made minor adjustments to its online ordering system. Total cost savings were a whopping $300 million. Professionally managed organizations should use the same approach to shore up their revenue base during the recession.

Want to know how your business compares to your competitors? Keeping tabs on your competition is a great strategy for growing your business. Consider these best practices tips from other small business owners on how to get started.

Done right, a blog can be a powerful part of your company's marketing and sales strategy. This article highlights 10 best practices that can help you dial in the right content, as well as avoid common pitfalls. The bottom line? A seat-of-your-pants approach will probably lead to poor results, while a carefully-considered blog strategy can help you boost your sales and improve brand awareness.

A corporate mission statement isn't merely words to slap on a coffee mug or on the wall of your reception area. It should guide decision-making on every level--so read this article and learn ways to communicate it effectively.

You're the boss, but you still spend too much time on the day-to-day. If you find yourself resisting "being strategic," because it sounds like a fast track to irrelevance, or vaguely like an excuse to slack off, you're not alone. Here's how to become the strategic leader your company needs.

This article offers solutions to a common problem: you've built a social media presence using tools like Twitter and Facebook, but nobody is interacting with your business. As the author points out, the key is to truly understand your audience. Who are they? What inspires them? Are you giving them what they want?

When faced with tough times, many companies immediately move to aggressively cut costs. Here are some compelling reasons to avoid this temptation and look for cost-cutting alternatives. These insights can have a positive impact on your strategy, customer selection, work environment, and the big picture of how you run your company.

Now more than ever, it's essential for companies to adapt to the difficult and ever-changing marketplace. That's what Best Buy is trying to do as it moves into the (already-crowded) mobile phone outlet arena. But one is left wondering if the company did its homework, might it have found out if its current customers actually need and want this new service?

This article excerpt focuses on the importance of vision in guiding a business to enduring success. As the author points out, organizations with a clearly-defined vision tend to do better than those without one. But vision isn't merely a buzzword; it must create real action throughout the business. The excerpt highlights the basic building blocks of a useful vision, and sheds light on the importance of having core values and a rock-solid ideology that holds the organization together.

Identifying a company's core competencies is necessary for diversifying and dominating their market in any industry. Using numerous examples of companies that have and have not utilized core competencies, this article will give business owners the push needed to figure out their strengths and their markets. Along with what a business leader needs to do to find the right company mindset, C.K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel provide insight on what a company should not do.

Strategic planning is a process that requires commitment and resources. As with any process, there are ways to make the process more effective. This article describes eleven best practices to make your strategic planning process a success. How many of these tips are you currently implementing?

As you plan for the future, is it more important to be strategic or long range? For organizations in an ever-changing marketplace, this article answers that question and highlights steps to take to ensure your plan is strategic.

It might sound counter intuitive if you've never challenged the idea, but not all customers are created equal. Some can help your business move toward its goals; they're a great fit. Others are just an okay fit, while some customers might even hamper your long-term strategy. This article, profiling a decision made by the match-making service eHarmony, offers a real-life example of this principle in action. As the author points out, the decision to pursue a wider range of customers didn't necessarily fit with eHarmony's mission and core competencies (or in plain English, the things it does best).

With all the discussion about strategic planning, many people think they have all the answers. As this article points out, you don't want to skip these four important steps to creating the best strategic plan for your company. Find out what to do and what to avoid when planning your business' strategy.

No doubt about it, the economic downturn of 2008-2009 was a survival-of-the-fittest environment. Some organizations, such as this car dealership, had to take extreme measures to make it through the recession. Their experience offers inspiration and lessons for business owners in any economic environment: with the right combination of quick action and building on your strengths, there are countless ways to adapt to the ever-changing marketplace.

Unsure of how to create an online presence? Google has teamed up with Intuit and the Ohio Small Business Development Center to help you create a website, utilize online tools and become a more successful business.

Why is it so important to make sure an organization lives and breathes its strategy? What happens when those goals aren't clearly communicated? This article offers a real-life example of a poorly-communicated strategy, then provides practical steps to make sure that everyone knows how their work contributes to the long-term goals of the business.

When you boil it all down, social media is just another (albeit high-tech) way of communicating with your customers. This articles explains how to make the most of those conversations and opportunities. Included: where to look for new relationships, how to get your customers and followers talking, and how to respond to customer feedback. The author is the CEO of Constant Contact - a hugely successful web marketing company.

When it comes to marketing your products or services, recessionary environments present unique considerations. This article offers insight into how you can market effectively in a downturn, while continuing to meet the needs and wants of your target customer groups. As the authors point out, losing sight of your core customers - by viewing them as one homogeneous group, for example - can create long-term problems.

General Motors is a textbook example of what happens when a company fails to adapt itself to an ever-changing marketplace. This article summarizes GM's journey from an agile, dynamic organization to an inwardly-focused company that stubbornly refused to change. Its many mistakes, including failing to meet the shifting demands of its target customers, offers a cautionary tale for any business.

This article focuses on the potential benefits of changing your business model.  (A business model is defined here as what your company does, how your activities are linked, and who carries out those activities.)  Real-life examples of companies that successfully changed their approach highlight the value in finding "new and novel ways to do business."  While this isn't a quick-and-easy solution - a new business model may require fundamental changes throughout the organization - it can provide an alternative to cost-cutting, boost your performance, and create a competitive advantage.

Innovators may be feeling a bit lonely in these turbulent economic times. A thoughtful response during such times can actually accelerate and expand returns on innovation initiatives. Kevin Bolen offers a brief list of actions that innovators should and should not be taking in today's skittish climate, focusing on the two main areas most likely to provoke the wrong behavior: your relationship with an increasingly nervous core business and the efficient allocation of scarce funds.

What can established businesses learn from successful start-ups? One lesson, outlined here, is to be highly focused when you're targeting customer groups. If your current approach is to aim for a wide, vaguely-defined market, you may be missing out on an opportunity to meet the needs and wants of customers who are a better fit with your business.

This is a must-read for anyone who's struggling to instill their business with a set of core values. As author Pat Lencioni points out in this article, poorly-implemented values can often be worse than having no values at all. Fleshing out his points with plenty of real-life examples, he outlines several common mistakes that organizations make (for example, confusing their core values with values they'd like to have in the future), and explains how to get your people on board once your values are set in stone.

This article examines a major question faced by most business owners: once I have a strategy in place, how do I help my people understand it and bring it to life? The answers, according to experts who have successfully dealt with this challenge, lie in clear communication, empowering your employees to shape the strategy, core values that support those goals, and other practical principles that encourage the entire organization to embrace the strategy. Real-life case studies are also supplied, helping to explain how this advice can be applied in everyday situations.

Aileron is a firm believer in the value of SWOT exercises during the planning process. This article (and accompanying worksheet) offers an outside take on SWOTs that supports many of Aileron's teachings. With clearly written sections on the hows and whys of SWOT, it offers an excellent overview/summary that's easy to digest, a good starting point for anyone who's not familiar with SWOTs. Follow-up links at the end of the article provide additional resources that build on the power of SWOTs. The worksheet is a SWOT matrix where strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats can be collected on one page. This mirrors Aileron's SWOT matrix, which makes an appearance in the SWOT workshops.

Note: To view the article, click on the "instructions on using SWOT Analysis" link at the top of the worksheet.

You've gone through strategic planning and now what? Unfortunately, for many organization executing the strategic plan is overshadowed by the day-to-day activities. This article explains the necessity of operational planning, which must be done if strategic goals are to be accomplished.

Good things happen when a company truly understands its customers. This piece on Netflix is a prime example. Rather than standing still, the company focused on serving the changing wants and needs of its customers. The positive results, including steady growth in the middle of a recession, speak for themselves.

Dave Sullivan is an Aileron facilitator and Executive in Residence with decades of experience navigating the constantly changing marketplace. In this article, he offers his time-tested perspective and some unconventional advice for moving forward in any economic environment. Read on to see why it isn't enough to simply plan for the future, and find out why Dave thinks that recessions and boom periods are in the eye of the beholder.

One of the hallmarks of the recession was a brutal tightening of lending conditions for small businesses. This article points out a troublesome fact: although credit has resumed flowing since then, the climate remains very difficult for entrepreneurs who want loans. The reason? It's not a lack of credit in the banking system - it's the fact that federal regulators are asking for more proof that the loans will be repaid. Keep these facts in mind if you plan on opening new lines of credit.

This article details Sprint's 2007 decision to fire 1,000 of its customers. The telecom provider made this move in response to subscribers who flooded the customer service department with endless complaints. These subscribers were directly impeding efforts to improve the company's customer relations. Sprint's lay-offs are in tune with Aileron's perspective that poor-fit customers (those who hurt the bottom line or prevent the business from pursuing its goals) should be eliminated. Smaller private companies can use this approach to improve efficiency, streamline resources, and boost revenue.

This article really packs a punch! Focusing on seven key areas to address - and related questions to ask of yourself and your organization - the author offers a detailed, common-sense template for addressing problem areas and avoiding common pitfalls on the road to long-term success. Customers, people, and business controls are just a few of the important areas covered here. The article provides an excellent jumping-off point for building (or modifying) your strategy.

An excellent overview of the SWOT process, from an outside perspective that's in line with Aileron's. Covering both internal and external forces, this article outlines a basic SWOT analysis. A second section focuses on an expanded SWOT, which brings in industry trends and other aspects of the dynamic, ever-changing business environment. Overall, it's a solid, easy-to-read primer on using this powerful planning tool.

This Harvard Business Review article called The Theory of Business, by Peter Drucker, gives some great insight into the ever-changing reality of the environment and how companies can set themselves up for handling the change.

Dave Sullivan, Aileron's Executive in Residence, has a knack for putting things into perspective. This brief (but inspiring) article is a prime example. Relating the changing marketplace to the classic fairy tale about a forward-thinking pig and his two hapless counterparts, Dave offers sage advice as he highlights the keys to succeeding in this new environment: a willing culture and great people, guided and held together by your leadership.

Top Guard Security, based out of Hampton, VA, has made it a priority to focus on the right customers. This article details the company's decision to fire customers who drained time, energy, and resources. It provides an excellent real-life example of a business doing better by using an approach that's consistent with Aileron's point-of-view: not every customer is created equal, and those who don't "fit" the company's direction and goals should be let go or replaced.

You might already know that setting a vision is a big part of professional management.  But why exactly is a vision so important?  How can you go about designing one for your organization?  And how can you, as a leader, see that it's implemented and making a real difference - not only in your company's strategic direction, but its everyday operations?  This detailed and in-depth article will help you find the answers.

It's no small undertaking to challenge an industry giant, but that's exactly what this possible PayPal rival is doing. Their experience as a start-up outlines a common challenge that any business faces: the potential threat posed by new competitors entering the market. While there's no guarantee of success, their focus on the external environment is essential to mitigating those threats and uncovering new opportunities to meet customers' needs and wants. A similar approach can help you get a better understanding of the marketplace in which you operate.

You probably have your fair share of customers who are less than ideal. But how should you handle these poor-fit customers? This article offers practical advice for tackling this issue, focusing on both low-profit customers (who could be replaced with clients that bring in more revenue), and customers who tax your resources with unreasonable demands or abusive behavior. As the author points out, firing a customer doesn't have to be a traumatizing event that leaves you with an upset customer; there are better alternatives that allow you to gracefully part ways.

This article offers advice on how to adapt to the changing habits of both your target customers and the media that delivers them information.  It gives an out-of-the-box perspective on public relations and advertising, arguing that the lines between the two are becoming increasingly blurred.  As a result, your company may find new opportunities to reach customers with the creative use of PR - an often cheaper (and possibly more effective) alternative to conventional ads.

Why does Aileron guest facilitator Joe Kelley think the economic recovery is even riskier than the recession for many businesses? Find out in this interview with Fox Business News. Joe gets right to the point, explaining the importance of having a crystal-clear vision that keeps an organization on a steady course through good times and bad.

What are the signs of financial distress? How can you tell if your company is headed for a downturn, and for what should you be watching out for in this difficult environment? In this video, two experts - Sonny Saeks and Mark Kebe - will provide you with fresh viewpoints and insights into answering these timely questions.

It’s not always easy to identify and visualize the elements of your business model. In this video, you'll see you how to use a simple and effective tool that can help you paint a big-picture view. With this “canvas” laid out in front of you, you’ll be better-positioned to focus on key issues, spot potential opportunities or areas of weakness, and improve your current approach.

How can business leaders confront the economic downturn? Gary Heinze and Mike George, co-owners of Northwoods Consulting Partners, Inc., offer their perspective in this timely interview. Their approach is to stay focused on the company's long-term goals, while using careful, deliberate planning to engage the challenging external environment and find new opportunities for growth.

Dave Sullivan is Aileron's Executive in Residence, and a business leader with decades of hands-on experience. In the midst of a challenging recession, he stopped by the Aileron campus to offer his insights and advice. His talk can be seen in this five part video series.

In part 1, Dave addresses questions such as: How can you stabilize your business during a downturn? How can you position your business to thrive when the economy recovers? Sit back and hear from Dave as he weighs in on these crucial issues and much more.
In part 2, We ask: what causes companies to fail or succeed? What are the management fundamentals that can ensure you get the results you want? Let's hear from Dave Sullivan for more insight into these questions.
In part 3 of this video series, Dave Sullivan elaborates on management skills that can help you shape a brighter future for your organization. He also digs into the "meat" of the topic: positioning your company to prosper in an economic upturn.
Part 4 gives Dave Sullivan's thoughts on strategies for guiding your company through a changing marketplace. The focus here is on targeting the right customers, meeting their needs, and your role in leading positive change within your organization.
And finally in part 5, after explaining the importance of having the right people in the right positions, Dave Sullivan summarizes the core concepts that can help your company survive difficult times and thrive in a recovering economy.

David Ganzsarto is the owner of Alternate Solutions Homecare, a provider of home-based healthcare and other medical services. He's also an Aileron client who improved his business by using a customer selection strategy.

What does your competitive environment look like?  Listen to Harvard Professor Michael E. Porter as he explains his Five Competitive Forces model, a framework that can help you make sense of your external environment and bring clarity to your operating reality.  He explains the model, incorporates it into real-life examples, and shows how you can apply it to your strategic thinking.  These insights can help you throughout the strategic planning process, whether you're running a SWOT analysis, finding which markets segments are right for your business, or figuring out which customers need your products or services.

A strategic approach to management offers incredible benefits for any owner who embraces these market-tested concepts and techniques.  In this video, Dave Sullivan - Aileron's Executive in Residence - discusses the Strategic Management workshop.  What's involved in this hands-on session, and how can it help you start planning for a more stable and prosperous future?

In this podcast interview you'll hear from Dave Sullivan, Aileron's Executive in Residence, about surviving and thriving in the weak economy. Dave has seen this uncertainty before, and he has some great advice for adapting to the weakness, finding new opportunities in the marketplace, and moving your company forward in a challenging environment.

Kevin Plank is the CEO of Under Armour, a highly successful athletic apparel company that continued to grow through the latest economic downturn.  In this interview, he discusses the value of having a vision, the power of believing in your dreams, and how having the right attitude can help your business develop a competitive advantage.

Former Executive Vice-President of Global Merchandising of Best Buy, Ron Boire, talks about how he led Best Buy through the market segmentation process. The goal was to start at the customer and work back through the supply chain to identify highly differentiated and value added solutions to strengthen their business model. They identified four customer groups, and changed their stores to serve those groups better, based on each groups' needs and wants. This is a great example of how a company gathered objective customer feedback, divided their customers into groups, and targeted those groups to serve them better than their competition based on the customers needs and wants.

Why do you exist? Why are you risking your capital, and what should your people be focused on? As Dave Sullivan points out in this brief video, mission and vision statements help you answer these crucial questions. While there's often confusion about what a mission and vision are (hint: they're not hallow sentences on a business card), Dave's explanation will help you get a firm grip on their definition and potential benefits.

Intellectual property - demystified. In this interview you'll hear from a legal expert about "IP" and its relevance to small business owners. What are the possible threats, and how can they be mitigated? How does protecting your intellectual property relate to your strategic plan? What issues can emerge as you grow your business? Listen and learn! 

In this interview, Dave Sullivan - Aileron's Executive in Residence - offers his thoughts on dealing with an economic downturn. How can you innovate when times are tough? What should you be focusing on to stabilize your business and make it better? Dave addresses these issues, and offers real-life examples of companies that are adapting to the changing marketplace.

Discussion with business consultant Doug Welsh about the unique challenges posed by a difficult sales environment. As President of Strategic Sales Planning, Doug has some timely insights on making the sales process more efficient, developing a deeper understanding of your customers, and adapting to a shortened sales cycle.

This video uses stats about the non-stop growth of sites like Facebook and Twitter to underscore a crucial point: social media has created a new way for you to attract potential employees, communicate your values, and reinforce your culture. Given this trend that's shaping the workforce and changing the way people share information, it's a good time to ask yourself how these tools could benefit your business.

Sit in on an Aileron workshop as Dave Sullivan talks about the key components of a strategic plan: reality, focus, and competency.  What are they all about?  How do they fit together and move an organization toward its goals?

Three minutes of excellent advice-- John Jantschis, author of Duct Tape Marketing, is a marketing and digital technology coach. Just like Aileron, he believes that effective marketing strategies are driven by strategy - not tactics. Listen as he outlines two key elements of a solid strategy. With his focus on finding the right customers and differentiating the organization from the competition (in the customers' eyes), his recommendations would fit perfectly in any professionally managed business.

For business owners, the external environment is a world of constant flux. Changes in marketplace, government regulations, and technology can all impact a company's ability to pursue its long-term goals and implement a system of professional management. This is why Aileron feels that awareness of the external world is so crucial. But as this video shows, it takes a watchful, attentive eye to catch all the important details.

Before you figure out how to get from point A to point B, you have to figure out why you're in business. That's the core message that Dave Sullivan delivers in this video clip, as he underscores the value of thinking before planning. If you aren't sure what to focus on in your planning process, his advice and simple questions can help you find clarity.

Aileron's Executive in Residence, Dave Sullivan, took a few minutes to chat while visiting the Aileron campus. Dave offers advice on surviving and thriving during this economic downturn. Watch the video to gain insights into how small businesses should navigate these turbulent times.

SWOT: the systematic analysis of your organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It sounds impressive and is something that most businesses have done at some point. But when the topic comes up the energy level crashes. The reason is that a SWOT analysis often fails to produce any useful information, just broad generalizations that reinforce what's already known and don't add much value to the planning process. Dave Sullivan will introduce you to a better way. When implemented properly, a SWOT analysis can be one of your most useful planning tools.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that every successful business has a clear sense of purpose. In this video clip, Dave Sullivan - Aileron's Executive in Residence - explains how knowing why you're in business and having a clear purpose can help you keep your business on track through every type of economic environment.

Pricing on Purpose, written by Ronald Baker, can help you think deeper about adding value to your pricing strategies.  Clearly explained and filled with real-life examples, the book provides useful strategies for creating, communicating, and capturing the value of your products and services.

You might already know that Aileron focuses on strategic planning. But what does this process really do? What steps are involved, and how can it help your business? For the answers, check out this detailed guide, which includes an overview of the process, clear definitions of terms like "values" and "action plans", a realistic planning schedule, and common pitfalls that cause plans to fail. By the time you're finished, you'll have a clear understanding of how strategic planning can help you move from where you are, to where you want to go.

You already have a good idea of what social media is, but how can you use it to benefit your business? How should you get started, and what sites should you be focused on? You'll find the answers in this handy guidebook. Also covering helpful tips and common mistakes, it'll help you separate the hype and buzz from the truly useful applications of social media.

What's happening in the world around you? What external forces and trends have the potential to impact your company? This in-depth report, issued three times a year by Aileron, provides a thorough overview and analysis of economic, political, technological, and demographic changes. These facts can help you during the planning process as you determine how to navigate your business through the changing marketplace.

What's going through the minds of business owners? How are they reacting to the latest changes in the external environment? What trends and changes are creating potential opportunities, and what's keeping them up at night? The Business Owners' Mindset offers answers to those questions, using both survey data and feedback from Aileron clients. Updated three times a year, it provides a window into what entrepreneurs are feeling and experiencing.

This handbook shows you a way to determine which customer groups need and want you. There are activities and examples included that will guide you through the process. Plus, check out the blank activities in the back of the guide to get you started on your own customer selection strategy.

Do you find yourself mystified by the alphabet soup that is your financial statement? Are you uncertain how to separate the core drivers of your performance from the lagging indicators? This resource guide - originally designed to help business owners in a hands-on workshop - can help you use this information to make better decisions. Now available for you to work through at your own pace, the guide explains and defines the important numbers that show up on financial statements. We've included case studies to bring these terms to life and have also added worksheets where you can add your own information.

This resource guide takes you step by step through the process of segmenting your markets. It incorporates the Green Leaf Landscaping example, and it includes blank market segmentation activities in the back. The guide will be passed out as participants finish The Great Divide workshop.

This document is meant to provide insight into the trends that will affect Small Businesses in 2012 and give concrete actions to lead rather than follow these trends. The list is ever-changing and provides a list of sources and summaries of the current trends affecting small business owners.

This in-depth resource guide is your one-stop shop for all things SWOT.  You'll find out why SWOTs are so helpful during the planning process, and how they fit into the larger picture of professional management.  Then you'll delve into the nuts-and-bolts of conducting a SWOT analysis for your key market segments.  Activities and real-life examples will help you complete each step.  By the time you're finished, you'll have an accurate SWOT list for one of your market segments and several useful conclusions about the future of your business.

You might already know how important it is to create a strategic plan for your business. But what exactly should this document cover? This clearly explained sample plan will give you a better idea of what a thorough strategic plan looks like. It covers key elements such as SWOTs (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), mission and vision, strategic priorities, and a detailed action plan to address those priority issues. Use it for a helpful reference as you build your own strategic plan.

What does a good strategic plan look like? While there's no one "right way" to do it, Aileron's own document is a solid example. In a nutshell, it boils down the organization's most important strategic elements: its external environment, core values, mission and vision, core competencies (the things we're best at), and top issues. A similar approach can provide helpful focus as you shape your own strategic plan.

Courtesy of The Shamrock Group, this short PowerPoint presentation walks you through an example of how a general contracting company used the attractiveness criteria to determine which customers to pursue. The decision was based on measuring six criteria that are important to the success of the company. After the company went through this exercise, senior leaders found that the original target customer group was no longer who they should pursue. The exercise helped them identify new groups of customers that were going to fit better with their business' vision, mission, and goals.

In strategic planning, you must consider the strategies of your competitors. What customer and market segments do your competitor's reach and what do they offer their customers? What can you offer your customers that your competition can't or won't supply? This type of analysis should help you identify and expand your competitive advantage by looking at a number of different categories including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.

Why do you do what you do? As a business owner, you can bring clarity to your company by defining why you exist (mission) and where you want to go (vision). This guideline, along with examples and characteristics of well thought-out statements, will start you down the path of asking the crucial questions of why you are in business.

Green Leaf Landscaping is a fictitious company based out of a mid-size city in the Midwest. They currently serve residential markets in their community. The next step after identifying their customer groups is to determine which of their targeted customer groups need and want them. Read how the management team at Green Leaf worked through the customer selection process in this example.

Green Leaf Landscaping is a fictitious company based out of a mid-size city in the Midwest. They currently serve residential markets in their community. They are in the midst of planning trying to determine which market segments they should pursue, hold, watch, or abandon. After their team participated in the The Great Divide: Find Your Winning Markets workshop and working through the tools, they identified four market segments that best fit their business. See how the Green Leaf planning team worked through the process and activities to arrive at their decision.

Follow Green Leaf Landscaping as the company works through a SWOT Analysis, from initial brainstormed SWOTs all the way to reality-tested planning assumptions.  This detailed case study takes you through each step of the process, providing real-life examples that make it easier to understand and use a SWOT analysis for your own organization.

How do you ensure your strategic plan is being implemented correctly? Do you review the results of your plan regularly and make changes as needed? Holding meetings is a good way to keep your plan in check – specifically, reviewing strategic outcomes, priority issues, and action plans. This template and example will help you gain a better understanding of how to determine who is responsible for each of the outcomes, priority issues, and action plans, and when they need to be updated.

How do you measure progress on your company's priority issues? Each priority issue your company has established has high-level action items (or key initiatives) that need to be completed in order to reach the necessary outcomes / objectives. This template allows you to evaluate each individual’s progress or each department's progress on these initiatives.

What are your company’s priority issues? Do you have a full understanding of the objectives or outcomes that each of the issues addresses? This template will help you review and better understand each objective / outcome for each of your company’s priority issues.

Having trouble making sense of the constantly changing external environment? This tool can help! A Seven Factor Analysis focuses on the key elements of your external environment, including the economy, your competition, and the regulatory climate. By looking at these factors, you can get a firmer grip on the changes that may hurt or hinder your business over the course of your planning period. You'll also find a few integrated case studies to see how some businesses might use the tool.

An example SWOT analysis pulled from a sample strategy statement, this document shows how two different markets (in this case, corporate and retail) can have different strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This underscores why it's so important to conduct your SWOTs on a market-by-market basis. Just like the findings on the worksheet, your conclusions will vary depending on the customer group you're analyzing.

Are you unsure of what your company should be focusing on? After looking over this strategic plan summary example, you will have an excellent starting place. This example lays out the strategic focus and success factors of one company and details how they will be addressed and measured. Keep this example handy as a useful reference to build your own strategic plan.

During this two and a half hour session, you’ll learn how our proven process takes the guesswork out of strategic planning – one of the most important elements of business management. You’ll also hear how other business owners, CEOs, and presidents have approached strategic planning, and you’ll find out what has worked and what has not.

Many business leaders understand the “why” behind social media, but they aren’t as comfortable with the “how.” Aileron’s Becoming a Social Media Strategist session combines one part presentation and one part workshop to help attendees better understand the components of a successful social media strategy. Attendees will leave with best practices they can implement immediately within their own organization and will have started (or completed) a strategic social media plan.

Effective branding can help your company stand out in the marketplace, boost your revenue, and support your long-term goals. Come join us for an open-ended discussion and learn more about the hows and whys of building a better image.

Many organizations operate on the flawed assumption that every revenue-generating customer should be maintained and supported. As you'll find out at this coffee and candor session, there's a clear strategic difference between clients who add to your organization's value, and those who don't.

Do your employees know what your company’s strategic plan or mission, vision, and value statements represent and how to apply them? If not, what are they working toward? Learn how others have successfully communicated these concepts to their employees.

Economic history is repeating itself with another period of uncertainty. This speaking event will help you think deeper about ways that you can adapt and react, ensuring that you emerge from the slowdown in a stronger position.

Participants will have the chance to join a panel of financial service experts for a timely discussion around managing cash flow and finding alternative forms of financing.  Business owners will gain fresh perspectives and tried-and-true insights that can help them reduce financial ambiguity, maintain or increase lines of credit, and adapt to the latest changes in the lending industry.

At this Professional Perspective, you'll tap into the advice and experiences of sales expert Roger Wentworth. With a career spanning 30 years, Roger has potent real-world insights that can help you improve your sales process, create a more efficient sales structure, and overcome the challenges posed by today's economy.

Clayton Christensen's "The Innovator's Dilemma," will be the focus for our upcoming Book Talk, The book argues that it's essential to focus on your most profitable customers, and the markets of the future. The most successful companies excel at both, positioning themselves for long-term growth.

Need help adapting to the changing marketplace? This hands-on workshop can help! You'll use a highly effective strategizing tool to understand the external environment confronting your company and to identify your most important issues. With this information in hand, you'll be ready to start planning for a more prosperous future.

One of the biggest changes companies have seen in awhile is the Affordable Care Act. This law will affect every small business owner, and it's important that you know what this legislation means for your company, your employees and your bottom line. Scott McGohan, CEO of McGohan Brabender, and his team of experts will cut through the political talking points and separate myth from reality so you have a clear understanding of what the Affordable Care Act means for your business.

At this book talk we'll be shining the spotlight on "Passionate & Profitable: Why Customer Strategies Fail."  Written by award-winning business consultant and syndicated columnist Lior Arussy, the book explains why so many organizations fail to win over and maintain customers. Filled with real-life case studies and useful activities, "Passionate & Profitable" can help business owners avoid common mistakes and think deeper about crucial questions.  What's the role of your customer?  Which customers do you want, and which should you reject? What should you do after the sale to make sure they stick around?

The upcoming pub talks will be a great way to focus and think deeper about dealing with the downturn.  These informal discussions take place in a casual, relaxed setting where business owners can step away from the daily details of running their business.
Depending on the interest of the group, the discussion could include:

• The stimulus package's impact on your business
• Strengthening your revenue
• Adapting your workforce to the challenging environment
• Managing cash flow and finding alternative forms of financing
• Your questions about dealing with the downturn

This panel discussion is for anyone who's dealing with, or wants to prevent, declining sales and revenue.  Our panel of experienced, successful business leaders will offer their market-proven advice and insights on adapting to the downturn and finding new opportunities in the shifting marketplace.

For many organizations, business research starts and ends with a glance at Google. That's not a bad start - but at this professional perspective participants will see that a more focused approach gives owners the ability to dig deeper and turn their findings into immediate action. Tapping into this information can help owners learn more about their target industries, markets, customers and threats in the marketplace.

At this panel discussion, you’ll have an opportunity to hear from three business owners who have become some of the Internet’s leading small-business bloggers. Find out how they got started, discover how they built a (frankly massive) online following, and learn how they turned their social media strategies into a powerful driver of growth and profits for their businesses.

What does it take to create a successful social-media strategy? How can you get started, and how can sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn support and improve your professionally managed business? Find out at this two-hour discussion, where you’ll tap into the knowledge and experience of two social-networking professionals.

The Strategic Management Workshop - a hands-on workshop for leaders of established businesses who are in need of strategic direction. The offering is designed to identify strategic needs, then address those issues with a practical and comprehensive planning process that can be put to work immediately.

At this President's Perspective you'll hear from a successful business leader about his experiences developing and implementing a winning sales system.  Aligning his sales processes with his company's strategy, he achieved sustained growth and built stronger, long-lasting customer relationships.

As you confront the ever-changing market, how can you be sure that you're focusing on the right areas? At this interactive presentation and discussion, you'll learn how to use hands-on tools to conduct a "reality check" by prioritizing your most important issues and drilling down to their true cause.

How often should you update your strategic plan and how do you know when your strategic plan is no longer effective? Discover how other business owners, CEOs, and presidents successfully evaluate and adjust their strategic plans to keep their businesses on track.

Market segmentation is one of the most powerful tools in the planner's arsenal. It may not slice or dice, but it can give your bottom line and long-term performance a major boost by helping you identify and target the right markets. These right markets are those that best fit with your strategic direction. This presentation gives you an overview of market segmentation and its importance to your business as well as the key steps to getting it done.

Need help adapting to the changing marketplace? This online package can help! You'll use a highly effective strategizing tool to understand the external environment confronting your company and to identify your most important issues. With this information in hand, you'll be ready to start planning for a more prosperous future.

The best way to predict the future is to create it. But without a steady diet of planning, you'll have a tough time getting there. Join strategy connoisseur Dave Sullivan as he serves up what you need to know about planning: details on the four types and phases of planning, a model of the process, and the information you need to get started. We know you're hungry for ways to improve your business, so dig in!

Aileron is a non-profit organization created to strengthen communities by helping business owners lead and manage their companies, driving growth, innovation and jobs.  Aileron was founded on the principles of learning, doing and giving. Its participants learn the value of professional management, putting knowledge into practice and sharing their paths to success with others. Aileron provides an inspiring environment to help owners focus on their goals, practical workshops and services to provide opportunities for continuous learning and ongoing assistance to help put concepts into practice. myAileron expands this environment into the on-demand world of YouTube, where business leaders can find targeted resources that will help them improve their business - and their lives. Tuning in provides 24/7 access to Aileron videos that offer:

• Insights into key issues

• Shared real-life experiences from owners who have dealt with similar challenges

• In-depth expert perspectives on issues and practical solutions

• Video segments from our facilitated sessions, where leaders learn about professional management and work on their business.

The myAileron YouTube Channel also helps owners navigate their way through YouTube's vast resources by connecting their "favorites" and "groups" that align with our ongoing mission.

You might be wondering how to ensure that your vision and mission statements don't turn into meaningless feel-good exercises.  The key is to clearly communicate them to your people, get buy-in at all levels of the organization, and then reinforce them with your own behavior. This graphic clearly depicts the difference between the two when compared side by side.

One of the keys to maximizing your company's potential is to target the right customers, then focus on meeting their needs and wants.  This graphic will help you think deeper about accomplishing these tasks, guiding you through three fundamental questions: "What are the right customer groups for me," "Which customer groups need me," and "How do I start building the right customer mix?"  The answers can help you optimize your customer selection strategy - and in turn, build a more effective business.