Time to reassess your strategies

Today’s business climate is exceptionally volatile and complex. Information isn’t written in stone. The information you created your business strategy with may not have withstood the shifting trends and your clients’ changing needs. In this type of uncertain environment, it’s essential to reassess your business strategy and the information and beliefs used to create those plans. You don’t want to find out too late that you’ve lost touch with your clients and are miscalculating how much risk you really face.

Assumption flaws

Most financial advisors believe they already know what impacts their clients and their business. Typically, if you have worked in your profession for a long time, you have a strong point of view about how things should be done and what your clients need.

Yet what if those beliefs you use to make decisions stem from information that’s no longer current or correct? It’s easy to stop paying attention to what’s really happening in the evolving world around you. But client expectations change. Budgets and priorities shift. Competitors make aggressive moves. Tactics that previously worked well are no longer getting the same response from your clients.

Review your strategic assumptions

To stay on track, regularly set aside time to fully reassess all of the critical strategic assumptions and information used in your business. Make sure, though, you have more than just a superficial or one-sided understanding of the issues at hand. Go beyond your perspective by encouraging your trusted colleagues and key employees to work with you to challenge the assumptions used in your organization for decision making.

Developing better assumptions

Once you have taken a hard look at the information and beliefs that make up your business strategies, you can identify changes you can make now — before emerging trends wreak havoc on your future financial stability.

Instead of being misled by outdated or incorrect information, you now can develop strategies that leverage the new opportunities offered by changing industry trends. Discover how these market shifts can benefit your bottom line or create new revenue streams.

The world and your clients do not stay frozen in time. Your information needs to be continually updated. In the future, become even more observant of evolving trends. It’s always safe to assume that something is going to change. 

Jill J. Johnson, MBA, is the president and founder of Johnson Consulting Services. She helps her clients make critical business decisions and develop market-based strategic plans for turnarounds or growth. For more information, visit www.jcs-usa.com.

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