KEEP IT SIMPLE
It’s all to easy to  get carried away preparing detailed strategic plans and allowing the thinking and the planning to become an end in itself rather than a mechanism  for guiding you to success and prosperity. Do take time to think and to plan periodically – preferably with  your colleagues, preferably away from the office to avoid distraction and, possibly, with one or two third parties such as a consultant or accountant or even a couple of customers if you know them well enough.

LOOK OUT
Scan the horizon – what is happening in your market place? What do customers want now? What might they want in the future? How is the market place changing? What are  your competitors doing? What are their strengths and weakness?
What is happening  in the wider environment? Undertake a PEST analysis. What are the opportunities and threats posed both by the  market place and by that wider environment. 
Compare your own business practices with the  best.  Benchmark  yourself in an effort to improve what  you do.  But always remember that benchmarking will not help you to surpass the best. For that, you need to innovate. 

LOOK AHEAD
Be foresightful. Construct scenarios. Ask yourself ‘what if…’ questions. Add to your analysis of opportunities and threats. Anticipate the needs of your customers.
What will your next product  or service be? And the one after that?

LOOK IN
Study your own business.  Do the key staff have similar values? What drives you? What does the company believe in? Can you define the culture – the way we do things round here – particularly, the management culture?
Are the company’s values consistent with its purpose and goals? Are the values likely  to lead to problems with potential customers? Would the community be happy with your values?
Does the culture support what the business  is trying  to do? Does it encourage initiative and responsibility ( if that is necessary)? Does it encourage change – or resist it?
What resources – human, financial, facilities – are available? What additional resources can you attract?
Where have you come from? What have been defining moments in the development of your business to date? What are the strengths and weaknesses of your business? What are your core competences? What  is it that gives you your competitive edge?
Ensure that you have in place appropriate  management information and financial systems, to give rapid access to information, but do not over-complicate.

DEFINE A DIRECTION.
Be purposeful – define, carefully, your business’s purpose. What do you do? Are you focusing on your core competences? Who are your key customers? What is your generic strategy – differentiation or cost leadership?
Where  are you going? Do you have a vision of where you want to  be in, say, five year’s time? Do you have some big hairy audacious  goals that you and your staff can rally behind? Are your purpose and goals consistent with and supported by your values?
How are you aiming  to position yourself in the market?
Does all of your business share your vision?

DEFINE OBJECTIVES
Do you have clear strategic objectives, operational objectives and performance measures in the areas of 
business activities?
finance?
marketing?
quality?
staff development?

Do the purpose, goals, objectives and performance measures hang together coherently? Do you focus on customer’s needs?
Adopt a total quality approach. Aim for  continuous improvement. 
Do you have  a sufficiently  small number of targets to make monitoring relatively straightforward? Are the targets demanding but realistic? Do you monitor regularly? When you do identify variances, do  you take appropriate corrective action?

ORGANIZE FOR SUCCESS
Have you thought about you role as a leader? Do you lead – guide, inspire, motivate – or do you spend too much time ‘managing’? Do you recognize, and reward, success?
Do you aim for all your staff to achieve their potential? Do you provide challenges which stretch?
Does your management structure reflect the strategy that you have adopted?  Does it give staff the opportunity to develop, or surpass, their potential? Does it encourage communication?
Are individuals given the appropriate staff development mechanisms? Do you encourage staff to engage in training, education and personal development?
How do you encourage, capture and share institutional learning? Above all, remember that thinking strategically is not something that you do once – and then forget about. It is something that should happen on an almost continuous basis.  Every time you make a decision for the business, it may have a strategic implication for the  business.
It can be very easy, once a business is up and running and doing moderately well, to become too comfortable and too insulated from the wider world. Most importantly, however, take time our from your business periodically to review and, if necessary, to update your strategy. That  way you can ensure the strategy is right for your business – and thus maximize  your chances for growth, success and prosperity.