Strategic Management Work2

I am going to begin one of 7 lectures covering the outstanding book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by the late Stephen B. Covey, highly sought after distinguished speaker and consultant to numerous organizations. I had the great pleasure of meeting Stephen Covey, getting a photograph with him and getting him to sign my copy of his book which Inhad read several times and refer to frequently in my own talks and consulting work. The Baret School of Banking at Christian Brothers College in Memphis has a distinguished speaker series each spring at the reception for bankers going through the schools classes and I am always invited to attend because when I was Associate Dean and Director of Graduate Business Programs at ASU, I had worked with the Baret School to allow graduates of their banking school to transfer 2 courses for degree credit in our MBA. Why did I select The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Peope to discuss in a strategic management course you ask. Well, I'm glad you asked! Quite simply each of the 7 habits has relevance and significance to strategic management and the formulation of strategies. And, these 7 habits are just as applicable to individuals, you and I, for our own personal and professional goals and how to achieve them. Habit 1: Be Proactive. I want you to think back on discussions early in the semester regarding how managers may approach making decisions. If you recall we said they can be proactive, reactive or inactive ( making the decision to do nothing which is the very worst decision managers can make). Remember Lee-Vac? Remember how the top management of Lee-Vac was presented with a 5-year window of opportunity to be proactive while the actual construction of the offshore oil port was underway and upon its completion was going to completely eliminate the company's highly profitable revenue stream generated from performing lightering services for very large oil tankers ( VLTs)? This was more than ample time for the company's management team to be proactive in making a strategic decision to utilize the assets (barges and tow boats)it was using for lightering in developing revenue streams from other markets. A strategic decision to take assets from one use and apply them to other uses is referred to as redeployment of assets. But what did Lee-Vac's management do? Absolutely nothing, they made a conscious decision to do nothing! So when the offshore oil port was open and tankers started docking at the port to discharge their oil into pipelines rather than having some oil pumped into barges to make the tankers light enough to go into the mouth of the Mississippi River, this revenue stream dried up for Lee-Val and because of management's decision to do nothing, it nearly bankrupted the company. SO, LEE-VAC WAS NEITHER PROACTIVE,NOR REACTIVE, BUT SIMPY WAS INACTIVE. IN THE WAKE OF CHANGE, AND WE KNOW CHANGE IS THE ONLY CONSTANT, IT IS A TRUISM THAT YOU EITHER ACT OR BE ACTED UPON (CHANGE OR BE CHANGED) In formulating strategy, managers must be as proactive as possible to make the right decisions or the best decisions to provide for long-term survival and growth of the business and ensure it is a formidable competitor in the markets in which it competes. The annals of Business are filled with examples of those that failed in this category. AND I WANT TO LEAVE YOU WITH THIS--YOU AND I, AND ALL INDIVIDUALS CAN AND SHOULD APPLY THIS TO OUR PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL GOALS AND ASPIRATIONS. WE NEED TO DEVELOP THINKING, THE SAME WAY A BUSINESS SHOULD, IN DEVELOPING STRATEGIES FOR LIFE AND FOLLOW THROUGH ON THESE STRATEGIES. WE SHOULD HAVE A MISSION STATEMENT AND WE SHOULD DEVELOP OUR OWN SET OF CORE VALUES TO GUIDE OUR THINKING AND BEHAVIOR AS WEVSTRIVEBTO ACHIEVE OUR GOALS AND ASPIRATIONS. " I know of no more encouraging fact then the unquestionable ability of man To elevate his life by conscious endeavor" Henry David Thoreau