Think Tanks Are Necessary To Strategize the Future of Business

Guest Blog Post by Hank Moore, 1/7/12

Failure to prepare for the future spells certain death for businesses and industries in which they function. The same analogies apply to personal lives. Greater business awareness and heightened self awareness are compatible and part of a holistic journey of growth. I conduct think tanks and mentor business principals on all their options and the big ideas. I lay the groundwork so they can best utilize the niche consultants. I support all of the others and educate business owners on the best contexts to make consultants most effective.

There are seven levels of strategy retreats and processes in which companies can engage, with #1 being a starting point and #7 being the ultimate outcome:

1. Information Sharing. What’s new in the marketplace. What the competition is doing. New ways of looking at the core business.

2. Reacting to a Crisis or Emergency. Responding to crises is a good way to get in the research-planning habit. Preparing for crises helps avert 85% of them.

3. Niche Review. Some phase of the business requires re-evaluation.

4. Growth Strategies. How and where to grow. Concepts of orderly growth. Dynamics of growth, in relation to other organizational factors.

5. Planning for the Future. Planning, vision and strategic direction account for 15% of an organization’s full picture…constituting the trunk and roots of The Business Tree™. The company that does not plan will not achieve staying power.

6. Visioning. Determining what the organization will become.

7. Change, Growth. Determine how the organization will get where it needs to go. Creative thinking about new approaches. Develop a true corporate culture.

7 Levels of What Companies Do with Think Tanks:

1. Don’t understand the concept (confuse it with selling or training).
2. Hold when the company is at a crossroads.
3. Realize value and merit.
4. Want to know and learn more. Eager to hold, assess and apply.
5. Do something with it. Put findings to good use.
6. Want to do more and evolve the business to higher plateaus.
7. Change-Growth. Achieve advantages via knowledge. Make impacts
on company future.

What Is a Think Tank:

* Source of new ideas from outside speaker-presenter (as opposed to a training facilitator).
* Common sense reminders of things people already know.
* Inspiration to try new things and be successful.
* Injecting Big Picture thinking into each part of the organization, macro over the micro.
* Inspires the development of organizational Vision.
* Realistic views or company strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
* Study of external forces that can hamper your ability to do business.
* Outside-the-box approaches to old problems.
* Creative learning that helps executives think new ways.
* Common sense updating of old principles, with Futuristic viewpoints.
* Puts the demands of the moment into perspective.
* Converts learning to knowledge…and knowledge to wisdom.

Think tanks for purposes of planning will accomplish the following:

• Help small businesses of any size focus more clearly on their niche, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
• Apply Big Picture thinking toward all facets of the organization…to reduce costs of companies responding to problems with small-picture treatments.
• Reduce costly organizational problems with planning on the front end.
• Provide business owners with a totally different perspective on how they can operate and be more successful.

Hank Moore has advised 5,000+ client organizations in (including 100 of the Fortune 500, public sector agencies, small businesses and non- profit organizations). He has advised two U.S. Presidents and spoke at five Economic Summits. He advises companies about growth strategies, visioning, strategic planning, executive leadership development, Futurism and Big Picture issues which profoundly affect the business climate. He conducts company evaluations and Performance Reviews. He creates the big ideas, mentors the board members, reorganizes the corporate culture and anchors the enterprise to its next tier. The Business Tree™ is his trademarked approach to growing, strengthening and evolving business, while mastering change.