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Are you ready for your game plan?

Written by: Michel Amour

Article Overview: A 75 and 25 year old men were sitting on a bench watching a ball game. The younger one looks at the elder and with a pompous attitude, asks him the following:” I am 25, my generation built Apple air, IPods and PDA’s”. What did your generation build? The older man turns his head and with simplicity, replies:” I am 75, my generation built the Computers that helped you build the Apple Air, IPods and PDA’s”.!

Are you ready for your game plan?

How well do you know your game plan? How far can you see?

In many companies, strategy is only communicated to upper management, in some instances kept hush-hush amongst the members of the Board. Why? What appears to happen in these cases is a lack of effective communication amongst departments, contradictory directional plans, heavy processes and a terrible loss of productivity. You could compare it to a 3 story ship, with 500 blindfolded men rowing and no drummer to keep the pace. Do you think the ship will reach the shore on time? I have my doubts!

Having a clear organizational strategy and communicating it with everyone involved in driving your business will help you empower your employees and engage them to the fullest of their abilities.
That is not all though, communicating your strategy does not mean it is simple to understand and that it is linked to every score card in your organization’s pay-for-performance.

Many business owners out there cannot make the difference between their company’s vision, mission statement and strategy. They too often mix these elements all together and start losing game!

Here are a few tips that should help you differentiate these elements and put an end to this myth:

1– You need to be able to communicate your strategy in 25 words or less. If you can’t, you need to go back to the drawing board.

2– Define a clear organizational objective. What should the end result look like?

3- Define your organization’s scope: this is your business domain, or nature.

4– Define your competitive advantage: What differentiates you from other similar domains?

5- Define your value proposition: why should customers by your product/service and not the competitor’s? What’s in it for them if they come to you?

6– You have to clearly gather all necessary data and define the mix that makes your business what it is today: (Competitive offerings, your company’s capabilities and your customer’s needs).

Now that you have all of this information handy, define the following:

7– Your mission: “the sole reason why your company exists”

8– Your values:”aligned with your culture. This will have to explain why your organization will act or behave in a certain way and how”

9– Your vision: “what does your organization wants to be when it grows up”

Finally, the fun stuff: defining your strategy. What you have done above, is analyze your tools, the bats you will playing with, the field, wind factor and your mood, your opponent’s strengths and best players.

Your strategy is YOUR GAME!

How well you play the game will depend on how comfortable you are with your abilities, how well you communicate your plan with your team and how well you know your field.

I always said that professional life is similar to any sports out there. The components are the same, the strategy is the same and the passion we each put into our game depends on our ability to see further in the field—when you hit the ball, do you look at the bat or the furthest point on the field?

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Article Tags: business domain, business owners, competitive advantage, competitor, doubts, drawing board, drummer, effective communication, end result, game plan, hush hush, losing game, necessary data, organizational objective, organizational strategy, s vision, score card, upper management, value proposition, vision mission



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Serious Problems for Younger Folk - It's a big problem, people not taking you seriously. As a child, I was always much more mature, and I was on my own working as a writer in my teens - at the time most people were a sophomore in highschool. Still, I am considered very young to be doing what I do. These are a few things that I've found that have helped me out a lot. 1. Always act like a professional. No matter what comes up, always be a complete professional in the situation. If you act like you're an old pro, people stop looking at your numbers (Age), and start looking at your brains. 2. Consider dressing older. I'm not saying you need to wear ugly tweed, or your pants too high -- never wear a simple tee shirt, or tennis shoes. A suit and tie, or likewise, a tasteful skirt/jacket combo with light gold jewlery and low pumps, can make all the difference in the world. 3. Plan ahead. Always, always, always, have a game plan, a backup game plan, and possibly even a backup for your backup! Lots of young entrepreneurs like to rush into things - projects, meetings, presentations - without a plan, or thought to it at all. 4. Realize that you have a disadvantage. People, by nature, aren't going to take you seriously if you're just-out-of-high school, or just-out-of-college, with no real-world experience. You always have to be two-steps up from everyone else, and if you know this, you can use it to your advantage. And, of course, 5. Be an expert! Stay up late, know the lingo, know everything you can about your field. Go to every event you can find to learn and network, and stay on top of your game. Good luck! ~Marie
Re: Playing sports or games with clients - If we are playing more than one game, I will let him win the first game, then win the second one and let him win the third. Business relationship should not be jeopardise because of sport or game. The reason is because some people don't like loosing.
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Re: What are you doing if o have a bad day? - Glad you all like that idea. I don't play it too often, but it definitely helps with stress or relieving anger. David, that reminds me of another game for the NES called Galaga. It's also a shooting game in which you have to also dodge projectiles. Very fun as well. A pure classic. I would say that any video game would work well to just take your mind off of work. Who knows, you may be able to come up with a breakthrough idea from playing them!


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