Stefan Olsen

In the first two instalments around our current theme of Strategic Reviews, Annual Business Plans & Execution we looked at the importance of strategic reviews and staff workshops to gain insight. In this update we look into the key questions you need to ask on your way to discovering your competitive advantages.

Previously we introduced the topic of Strategic Reviews, Annual Business Plans & Execution by first looking at strategic reviews. In this instalment we continue with this theme by looking into staff workshops as a way of gaining better insight and how they fit into the Strategic Planning process.

Over the next three months (July-August-September 2021) we’re going to be looking at Strategic Reviews, Annual Business Plans & Execution. As part of this we’ve pulled insights from two PlanA Consulting clients that we’ll call Business 1 and Business 2.

In an earlier vlog I talked about Family Charters or a Family Council when you've got a family business. As you can probably appreciate family businesses bring their own set of dynamics that some other businesses don't and so for a business and especially if it's intergenerational, sometimes a Family Charter can actually help smooth the water.

Today's video is a continuation on my vlogs around strategy and business planning. So today I wanted to give you some specific things to be thinking about when it comes time to do that business review and set your business plan.

So today I wanted to tell you what I believe is one of the key things are when it comes to implementing strategy and business objectives in your business. It's all about having a focus on 90-Day Plans. Let me explain what I mean – think of it as a cascading waterfall.

If there is one thing I love it 's slow cooked barbecue and tonight I'm going to be cooking some pork spare ribs. They'll take about five to six hours and I was thinking, cooking a barbecue is a little bit like business planning. Let me explain why.

Businesses I work with (that I think are a good snap shot of Hawke's Bay SMEs) had a pretty strong run up to the end of 2020 and a good finish to the end of the financial year. Their financial reporting is showing strong trading and financial position, but there is still a feeling of cautious optimism.

In my October 2020 Spring Update I outlined how I saw the Hawke's Bay business climate as we headed towards Christmas – READ IT HERE. And without wanting to sound like Ground Hog day, in my view not a lot has changed.

Today I want to talk about shareholders agreements. I was with some people the other day and we were discussing their shareholders agreement and I just thought I'd pass on to you what I see are the key features around shareholder agreements.