'Tis the Season

In a recent conversation, a colleague commented they felt completely unprepared for the coming year.

They described 2014 as so busy and demanding, everyone in the company has remained laser-focused on what has to be accomplished this day, this week or this month. The urgency of now has left little time, energy or brain power to create a plan for 2015.

If you're wrestling with similar challenges, let me offer this ...

Strategy | Pinpointing Product Priorities

It's planning season, that time of year when every organization large or small is struggling to refine its strategic focus for the coming year.

We have in fact been working with a small business client on just such an effort. The big pieces of the plan have solidified and the client is so delighted, they were happy to share a high level overview here.

Let's take a look.

Strategy | Focus on Your Sweet Spot

This has been a hectic year for everyone, and as it races toward its close, everyone is scrambling to formulate a plan for the next one.

Sound familiar? Let me offer a few words that will help you simplify and streamline your approach: Focus on your sweet spot.

It's a fast, familiar and easy way to grasp the big picture and translate it into terms that are meaningful. To you.

Here are a few articles that will help you quickly get started:

• Strategy | Find Your Sweet Spot
• Strategy | The Sweet Spot in Action
• Strategy | Find Your Future Sweet Spot

Through the years, I've shared many sweet spot strategies and techniques applied in varied ways. To see them all, click here.

Economy | What Employers Really Want

Some years ago, I wrote a book called, What Employers Really Want: The Insider’s Guide to Getting a Job.

What Employers Really Want took the first detailed look at the hiring process from the employers’ perspective.

                                   

The goal was to explain the inside viewpoint to help job seekers understand and navigate the job search to find the right job – and right employer – for them.

Strategy | Target Your Customers' Sweet Spot

We’ve been examining the powerful insights simple tools can reveal.

Recently, we highlighted a quick way to create useful customer profiles as a first step in defining your customers’ sweet spot.

                                                                                    

Once again, a picture tells the story.

Strategy | Find Your Future Sweet Spot

Many organizations are trying to figure out how to move from where they are today to where they want to be in the future.

They’re working to redefine their company and get positioned for the next stage, whatever that might be.

If that sounds familiar, you might want to pinpoint your sweet spot from a fresh perspective.

Strategy | Define Your Customers' Sweet Spot

We recently posted a short series of articles about using Venn diagrams to find your sweet spot.

Both individuals and organizations have sweet spots, that zone where people and organizations are able to maximize strengths and minimize weaknesses.

Our sweet spot strategy applies to customers as well.

Strategy | Target Your Audience

We’ve spent some time looking at the Sweet Spot, which is one way to pinpoint a broad vision for the future.

At Crossbridge, we also spend a great deal of time helping clients define their primary target audiences.

Why? Because these are the people and players crucial to success.

Strategy | The Sweet Spot in Action

Sometimes, a picture tells the story.

Let's look at an example of the our version of the sweet spot model in action. Just click the image to enlarge it:

Strategy | Find Your Sweet Spot

Have you found your sweet spot?

Your sweet spot is the zone where you maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.

It's that elusive but powerful place that represents your optimum operating position in terms of revenues, results and, yes, satisfaction.

This applies to individuals and organizations alike.

Strategy | Where's Your Sweet Spot?

Many people and organizations describe the current business and economic environment as murky – at best.

As a result, they continue to struggle to create an overarching strategy and basic action plan for the near future.

If that describes you or your organization, perhaps it's time to find your sweet spot.