Tag: Planning Tools

Defining Core Values

Our values should be the guiding lights that we use in shaping our lives and making decisions. Values, once identified, help you know yourself. Values show up in behavior, so knowing your values helps you identify behaviors that fit with your values so that you can walk the talk and operate as your most authentic self.

What values are most important to you or represent the person that you would like to be? Below is a list of potential core values commonly used by leadership institutes and programs. This list is not exhaustive, but it gives an idea of some common core values (also called personal values). The common recommendation is to select three to five core values to focus on—if everything is a core value, then nothing is really a priority.

One way to find your core values is to go through a list of potential values and circle those important to you. Again, sort through those selected to find the most important. Continue this process of winnowing until you find the three to five that are really core to who you are and to what is important to you.

Sample Values List

  • Authenticity
  • Achievement
  • Adventure
  • Authority
  • Autonomy
  • Balance
  • Beauty
  • Boldness
  • Compassion
  • Challenge
  • Citizenship
  • Community
  • Competency
  • Contribution
  • Creativity
  • Curiosity
  • Determination
  • Fairness
  • Faith
  • Fame
  • Family
  • Friendships
  • Fun
  • Growth
  • Happiness
  • Honesty
  • Humor
  • Influence
  • Inner Harmony
  • Justice
  • Kindness
  • Knowledge
  • Leadership
  • Learning
  • Love
  • Loyalty
  • Meaningful Work
  • Openness
  • Optimism
  • Peace
  • Pleasure
  • Popularity
  • Recognition
  • Religion
  • Reputation
  • Respect
  • Responsibility
  • Security
  • Self-Respect
  • Service
  • Spirituality
  • Stability
  • Success
  • Status
  • Trustworthiness
  • Wealth
  • Wisdom

See a more extensive list of potential Core Values.

This article is part of a series of articles describing the Life Planning process. To see the other articles in the series, click here. While individuals are welcome to complete this process on their own, partnering with a Life Coach is often more effective. Please contact us for more information.

SWOT Analysis

Most people in the business world are familiar with SWOT analysis – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. SWOT analysis is useful in many life and business decision-making situations. It is an important part of the strategic planning process. Despite being familiar to most people, it is not always used effectively in the planning process. This article presents a reminder of how SWOT should be used in the strategic planning process.

The Strengths and Weaknesses portion of SWOT is an inward view. They present the advantages or disadvantages of the organization, Strengths providing the advantages and Weaknesses describing the disadvantages. They are considered relative to the capabilities of competitors and in the context of customer needs. As an example, a new building or a certain manufacturing process is not a strength. Being more efficient because of a new, more organized building or a new manufacturing process could be a strength if it provided an advantage of faster delivery or lower costs, assuming that this was important to customers. The strength is actually then faster delivery or lower costs due to ….. Or another example, the ability to make our product a brighter blue is only an advantage or a Strength if customers actually would prefer a brighter blue. If any shade of blue is acceptable or if the customer would not pay more or switch suppliers for a brighter blue or if competitors already have a brighter blue, then there is no advantage or Strength.

Sometimes in evaluating Strengths and Weaknesses, organizations might ask the question “What do we do well or not so well?” But this question is too vague. In identifying Strengths it is better dig deeper and to answer questions such as the following. Imagine just the opposite to understand Weaknesses.

  • What would our customers say is our strength or advantage?
  • Why do we get the order?
  • What resources do we have or have access to that give us an advantage?
  • What knowledge or intellectual property do we have that others might not have?
  • What processes are we skilled at that give us an advantage?
  • What do we have, know, or do that our competitors wish they had?
  • What are the major reasons for our profitability or market share?

The Strength or Weaknesses needs to precisely defined, such as a $10 cost advantage due to specially-designed production advantage or 20% advantage in signal attenuating performance due to patent #99999.

Opportunities and Threats are the result of external factors. Opportunities are elements in the market environment that could be exploited. Threats are elements in the market environment that could present risk or cause trouble for the business. The market environment in Threats and Opportunities must be thought of broadly. It is more than current customers or current markets. Threats and Opportunities are affected by the entire value chain, by world politics and economics, by social changes, by environmental or resource impacts, by technologies of various sorts, etc. as well as factors impacting customers and competitors.

The questions that might be asked relative to identifying Opportunities are endless but here are a few examples:

  • Do our customers have unmet needs relative to our products or services?
  • Are there similar customers or markets that have similar needs to our markets or customers?
  • Are there particular segments of the market that are underserved or where competition is thin?
  • Are there competitors that might be exiting the market or leaving opportunities for us?
  • Are there potential changes in economics, politics, societal norms, regulations, or technologies that could result in opportunities for our products or services?
  • Are there changes in technologies or other factors that could present opportunities to improve or greatly change the way that we produce products?

Similarly, there could be a long list of questions regarding threats. Here is a sampling:

  • How healthy are our customers and is there risk of an industry shakeout?
  • How likely is the potential for new competitors entering our market?
  • What current or potential activities could lead to more aggressive action from our competitors?
  • Is there a potential for changes in the value chain that could adversely affect our customers or their need for our product or services?
  • Are there potential changes in economics, politics, societal norms, regulations, or technologies that could present risks for the market for our products or services?
  • Are there changes in technologies or other factors that could threaten our ability to produce products?

To get the full value of SWOT analysis in the planning process requires a rigorous effort. The items listed should be precise and definable. The list in each section should be realistic and prioritized. The analysis communicates best with only a short list of the most important factors. The purpose of the SWOT analysis is to increase the understanding of the business and to drive the implications into strategy and action plans.

Once you understand how to compile a good SWOT analysis, the results should provide a deeper view of your business. The SWOT analysis tool provides a means to explore new opportunities and improve your decision-making process.

Is your SWOT analysis clear enough to impact your strategic direction?

Strategic Segmentation

Most people are familiar with the concept of market segmentation, dividing the market for a company or product into various buckets that can then be further analyzed and understood. In consumer products the market is often segmented based on demographic factors such as age, income, education level, gender, ethnicity, or other distinguishing factors. In business-to-business markets, segmentation is often done based on factors like size of customer, end market, distribution channels, region, or other identifying traits. Market segmentation in this fashion is all well and good. It allows the supplier to examine various portions or segments of the market to identify trends or performance issues such as variability in market growth, market penetration, market share, profitability, etc. The information learned from these sorts of market segmentation studies can provide evidence for adjusting sales and marketing efforts, distribution programs, product offerings, and many other things.

There is another type of segmentation, often referred to as strategic segmentation, which is more valuable than simply slicing up the market to understand trends in various portions of the market. Strategic segmentation is the process of identifying the particular group of customers whose buying needs most closely match the value offering of the supplier. The purpose for strategic segmentation is to identify the characteristics of the segment to then make it easier for the organization to focus its efforts on the segment that is more likely to appropriately value the organization and its offering.

Identifying the means to segment strategically is not always easy. Buyers generally don’t post their buying needs on their website or on a sign on their front lawn. Sometimes this segment can be identified by their existing suppliers when there are competitors that provide a very similar value offering. Otherwise, the process of strategic segmentation requires developing an understanding of the characteristics of customers that correlate with that group that values the organization’s product offering.

For large and diverse markets, strategic segmentation is critically important. Understanding performance measures such as market share, brand recognition, or customer satisfaction in the strategic segment is generally more important than overall measures for a large market. Understanding the growth or changing needs of the strategic segment is more important than the growth or changing needs of an overall market.

The bottom line regarding segmentation is to not settle for some easy way to do market segmentation but rather do the work required to understand the strategic segmentation of the market. Focusing the organization’s efforts on the right segment brings a greater return.

Does your organization understand what defines your target or strategic segment?