Strategic Planning Kit For Dummies®, 2nd Edition

Chapter 4

Identifying Your Strategic Issues

In This Chapter

• Reviewing last year's successes and failures
• Determining your profitable products and services
• Using the Market Attractiveness Framework to build your portfolio
• Evaluating your financial performance and industry structure
• Recognizing and addressing your strategic issues

Don't you always hate it when your mom (or grandma) says, “Back in my day …” Yeah, yeah, I know. You walked everyday to and from school uphill both ways in a perpetual snowstorm. God bless her for trying to share her past, but it always sounds so difficult. The future is much more exciting than the past. The future is where the action is. It's moving. It's shaking. It's sexy and bright. The past just slows us down, like getting stuck in molasses or running under water. Or is it?

Learning from your past can save hours and hundreds of dollars spent on fruitless activities. Ignoring your past can be costly because you aren't adding to your knowledge base. Instead, you're just continually trying new things. By taking a good look at your past performance, you can move faster into the future by avoiding roadblocks and pitfalls you've already encountered to identify strategic issues you need to address during your planning process. Strategic issues are critical unknowns that are driving you to embark on a strategic planning process now. These issues can be problems, opportunities, market shifts, or anything else that's keeping you awake at night and begging ...