Strategic Planning in the Small Business

HO 2-4 (continued)

Unit 2

Man.gers

of businesses

that exist in a fairly stable

industry with

few contemplated

changes can

afford to meet

less often than

managers

of businesses in

a growing or

evolving industry.

At

the least, these

sessions should

occur annually

with managers

in industries

subject to

cha-aging demands,

technology

and

competition meeting

more often.

Three to

four hours should

be allotted for

such sessions.

Once the program

is in place,

personnel can do

th: necessary meeting

preparation

on their

own

time, thereby

minimizing group

meeting

time. It is im­

portant

to allow sufficient

time for good,

creative ideas

to sur­

face.

In selecting participants

for this

session, personnel

should

be included

who have

key contacts with

the environment.

For

example, top

salespeople or

marketing people,

financial

people,

those who

deal with customers

or suppliers,

and the board

of

directors

(if there

is one), should

attend.

Environmental

brainstorming

can follow

a number

of di­

rections. However,

a fairly structured

format

is preferred,

at

least

for the initial

meeting. It

may be started

by asking par­

ticipants

to prepare

an ETOP. As noted

earlier, this

approach

to ETOP is

slightly modified

from traditional

parlance

to make

it more relevant

to the needs

of small businesses.

First,

each

participant

lists the key environmental

threats

and opportu­

nities that

they see for the

business both currently

and for

the

next year. Reaching

conclusions

is not important

at this stage.

The object

is to generate ideas

and points for

thought-wait

until

later to reflect,

analyze, and

pare-down

the list. Next,

everyone

should rate

the threats and

opportunities

on their list

in terms

of each factor's

impact or

significance to the

firm. A

detailed

rating scheme

is not necessary.

Asking participants

to

rate each

factor on their

list as extremely

significant,

somewh.'

significant,

or mildly significant

will allow

the breaking

of en­

vironmental

opportunities

and threats

into three categories.

Similarities among

participants'

lists should

be studied. Ifevery­

one lists new

competition as

a key threat and

assigns it the

highest priority,

then this factor

most clearly becomes

an area

of needed focus.

Again, this process

takes time,

but it forces

key personnel to

become involved

in planning and

to generate

concepts

not found

through historical

analysis.

41

Chapter One

Environmental

Analysis

184