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Shelta Chieza Change Management
Any great business plan and strategy should be easy to communicate and summarise in the simplest of ways. Some strategists believe that a business plan or strategy should be less than 15 words.
The reasoning behind this is that anything that is short is easier to understand.

It is also easy to communicate to customers.

Someone that cleans the office and serves you tea must be able to articulate the objectives of the company.

I was impressed by the answer that a security guard at one hospital gave when he was asked about his job by a visitor.

His answer was short and simple “We serve people that need a future.”

Your business objectives must not be lengthy and twisted to the point of getting people confused.

This is the same reason I love Twitter, everything is so simple and short.

Keep it Simple and Short (KISS)

One of the greatest strengths in military is precision.

At training you are taught the art of shooting from range.

It requires precision for one to hit a target that is way off.

There is also the art of precision bombing which refers to bombing with some degree of accuracy and all this is hinges upon timing.

In culinary arts, there is a cooking technique that is known for producing perfectly cooked food which involves cooking food in vacuum-sealed pouches, submerged in a water bath held at a precisely controlled temperature.

It is believed that heating foods to the right temperature, for the right length of time is the key.

When cooking the heat induces chemical reactions with different effects at different temperatures.

For example, the different proteins in the albumen of eggs coagulate at specific temperatures.

Just a few degrees difference in cooking temperature will affect just how much the egg white solidifies.

Several studies have been conducted to explain what precision does.

It is believed that human beings understand something better when there is a comparison to something else than in isolation.

A successful company only appears so when it is compared to another.

Variations of colours such as red, blue, yellow, brown came about when black was contrasted to another.

Timing
Time is an important attribute of precision. You create a lot of business opportunities when you observe correct timing.

Today, you may have an opportunity to maximise on an opportunity but tomorrow it might be gone.

Good business opportunities are taken by individuals whose timing is better.

The sports arena offers good examples of precision and timing.

Be it athletics, or golf, or tennis, you need to understand the attributes or good timing to achieve success.

Comedians have a way of perfecting their time or they will not be able to connect with the audience through their jokes.

Timing and precision work perfectly for customers that need to have competitive advantage. Most investors make the best investment decisions when they “time” the market.

In some circles it is referred as “market timing”.  This is when you buy before the market goes up and sell before the market goes down. Investors and speculators have that option of watching the movement of stocks.

Maximising comes when they buy low and sell very high.

That way they work out a certain level of precision required by investors.

Companies often talk of the power of strategic clarity.

Success of many is seen on the business model but there is a certain distinction that the precision of the company’s strategic direction has that makes them succeed.

There is a choice for companies to build themselves around their current product or service; but more successes could be recorded if they focus more on the strategic direction, which is the future.

I was amazed at the clarity and precision of a competitors’ social media strategy.

The first step was selecting who their competitors were. Businesses that offer the same service as yourselves must be limited to a specific number.

Their next stage was to select the main social networks, that is your Twitter, Facebook, Whatsapp, Linkedin.

They devoted time to researching on how active their competition was on those networks, and how many of their target customers were on that network.

It is also important to find out how your competitors have set themselves up on those social networks.

Take note of the particular key words they use so you can use them to up your search engine ad increase traffic to yours.

Don’t forget to research on the products and services your competitors focus on, make sure you have those on your page too.

Use social media to update your audience on the latest industry news and developments; because if you don’t they might as well get the latest updates from you than your competition.

Be very engaging, reply on comments and questions when you need to.

Always be on the lookout for change in strategy, when your competitors change do the same.

Till next week may God richly bless you.

• Shelter Chieza is an Advisor in management issues. She can be contacted at [email protected]