Ready, Set, Succeed Excerpt - Schumacher Consulting, Inc.

What if I showed you how to conduct groundbreaking strategic business projects so you can triumph over “business as usual” and propel your business to the next level? What if I told you that your business would languish and decline if you didn’t master the techniques of doing projects? Ready, Set, Succeed! is your guide to getting serious about projects, with tools and techniques to do them, while running your daily business at the same time.

What is a strategic business project? It’s an endeavor that moves you beyond the status quo. Maybe it’s developing a new product, process, or service. It might even be relocating your office, adding an additional office location, renovating your restaurant or retail store, or upgrading your computer system.

As a business owner, you’ve probably achieved a certain amount of success. Take some credit where credit is due. Your customers are happy and you provide a valuable product or service. There’s variety, excitement, and challenge in your business life.

However, your major focus, by necessity, is coping with the various demands on your attention. Countless tasks need to be done and there’s only so much time, energy, and resources to do them. You probably take on many responsibilities yourself, because otherwise they just wouldn’t happen.

You may have a clear vision of what you want the business to become. Perhaps you realize that successfully finishing certain strategic projects will drive your business to the next level. Maybe you just haven’t been able to get started on them.

With the pace of change constantly increasing, successful businesses need to grow, change, adapt, and evolve to meet market demands and customer needs. Maintaining the status quo in the current fast-paced business environment means you’re inevitably losing ground.

What are your most successful competitors doing that you’re not doing? Businesses that succeed at the highest level and sustain that success handle ongoing daily operations and develop new aspects of their business at the same time. Your hottest competition is working on new, exciting products and services. They’re inventing new ways to deliver current products or services efficiently, effectively, and creatively. If you're standing still, doing things the same old way, if you aren't thinking and acting ahead of the pack, you'll fall behind.

Beyond the limitations of finding the time and resources to undertake such projects, your next problem is choosing what you want to do first. What types of projects should you be doing over and above “business as usual”? Why should you do them? What are the financial costs and benefits? What opportunities will you miss if you don’t do them?

Once you’ve selected the right project, what stumbling blocks should you expect along the way? What are the pitfalls of introducing something new in your environment? What are the risks? What are the secrets to accomplishing your project on schedule and on budget? To answer these and other questions about how to triumph over “business as usual,” I’ll coach you through the process of choosing and starting a strategic business project and provide you with techniques for making them successful.

1. Reprinted from the article "Building For Tomorrow" appearing in the November 2001 issue of CMA Magazine by Lynn K. Sugden, CMA, FCMA, with permission of Certified Management Accountants of Canada. (return to text)