October
2012
In this issue: 1 2013 Strategic Planning 2 The Lowest Common Denominator 3 Personal Best, Volume Leader 4 SERVPRO Code of Ethics Chart Toppers 6 Save the Date! 7 Training Certificates 8 Words of Wisdom
SUN
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SERVPRO® of Southern New England and New York
Your Strategic Plan should include the following: 1. A commitment to change Please read Ready to Grow by Kevin Brown in the September 2012 SERVPRO Newsline 2. Best practices 3. C oncise priorities for implementation of your Operating Plan 4. H onest assessment of your strengths, weakness, and limitations and of your staff 5. L eadership principles and skills 6. Operating Plan 7. Patience 8. U nderstanding of your opportunities and challenges In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it. ~Robert Heinlein
2013 Strategic Planning Strategic Planning is a process that helps determine your long-term goals and initiatives while identifying the best approach for achieving the desired outcome. Not every plan is a strategic plan. A strategic plan provides guidance in fulfilling your mission statement with maximum efficiency. If it is to be effective and useful, it should state specific goals and describe the action steps along with any resources needed to accomplish the plan within the next three to five years. An Operating Plan is a coordinated set of tasks involving details of roles and responsibilities necessary to achieve the goals stated in your strategic plan. It also has a shorter focus than a strategic plan — usually one fiscal year. A Final Word It is important to understand the limitations as well as the possibilities of strategic planning. A strategic plan is not a wish list, a report card or a marketing tool. It is certainly not a magic bullet or a quick cure for everything that ails an organization — especially if the plan winds up on the shelf. What a strategic plan can do is shed light on an organization’s unique strengths and relevant weaknesses, enabling it to pinpoint new opportunities or the causes of current or projected problems. If you are committed to its implementation, a strategic plan can provide an invaluable blueprint for growth and revitalization, enabling you to take stock of where you are, determine where your want to go and chart your course to get there.
A Mission Statement A brief expression of the organization’s purpose. It should answer the questions “Why do we exist?” and “What, at the most basic level, do we do?” A Vision Statement A description of the organization’s desired future state. A vision statement is internally focused: It projects the future answering the question “Where do we want to be?” A Values Statement The principles on which your business is built, and which guides all planning, operations, and programs. It answers the question “What do we believe in?” Goals and Objectives Progress toward achieving goals and objectives should be measurable. Goals answer the question “What do we want to accomplish?” Objectives are the steps you take to get reach your goals. An Implementation Plan This is your “user’s guide” to the strategic plan. The implementation plan answers the questions “What are our specific priorities?” and “How can we pursue our plan in a logical and feasible fashion?” Excerpts and ideas from http://www.tccgrp.com/pdfs/per_brief_tenkeys.pdf