A book review from Dan Beaulieu:
Business Strategy by Brian Tracy
Price: $9.95
Pages: 107 with Index
This is the very best book of this series so far. And I found it at just the right time.
I was getting started on a new project where, as luck would have it, I was working with a client on developing a new strategy. There I sat, surrounded by stacks of books on developing a business strategy, when I spotted this small blue volume.
Knowing how valuable I’ve found the other books in Brian Tracy’s Success Library, I chose to pick this one up and read it first. It was a good thing I did because this had just about everything I needed to develop my client’s new strategy. From the first chapter where he talks about how young Alexander the Great destroyed Darius’ much larger army and became the leader of the world at 23, to the chapter on how to define your company in terms of where you are today and where you want to be in five years, I literally found everything I needed to write a business strategy. This book contained everything I needed to lead my client’s team on their search for a new, effective and comprehensive strategy that we could all agree on as well.
From the book:
How to re-invent your company:
- Let go of the past
- Encourage courage
- Embrace failure
- Do the opposite
- Imagine the possibilities
- Put yourself out of business
- Reject limits
- Aim beyond
I love the set-up scenario he uses to re-invent your company:
Imagine that you arrive at work one morning and your company has burned own overnight. Luckily, none of your staff members were in the building, but everything else is gone. You must now start the business from scratch. What are you going to do?
And he goes on to give you the right questions you need to ask at that point:
- Which products and services do want to start making…and would you decide not to produce?
- Which customers would you try to reach…and which would you decide not to win back?
- Which employees would you take with you and which employees would you decline to keep?
Think about that and apply it to your company.
And finally, five reasons to develop a strategic plan:
- To increase your return on equity
- To reposition your company
- To maximize your strengths and opportunities
- To form the basis for making action decisions now
If you’re serious about your company’s strategic planning, this book is for you. And if you’re not serious, then you won’t be around much longer anyway. Pick up this little volume, the latest from The Brian Tracy Success Library.
