Vacation/Business??

By Roger Bostdorff

Last week I attended an open house for one of my clients. I facilitated their strategic plan just over three years ago. The open house was to share with their suppliers, customers and business partners the company’s expanded offices. This company literally doubled their office space. A little over three years ago while working with them on their Strategic Plan they set many goals. One was a specific revenue growth goal. While at the Open House one of the partners wanted to make sure that I knew that my client had indeed not only met but in fact, exceeded the goal. I was aware of that fact but let him beam anyway. He earned the proud moment!…

…Four years ago last August my wife and I, and two other couples spent two wonderful weeks on an Alaskan vacation. Randi and Mike, Dawn and Tom with Barb and I had a great time in Alaska. We started our trip by flying into Fairbanks. The two weeks consisted of the following adventures:

-River Boat Gold Dredge

-Bussed to Denali Park

-Denali Theatre

-Denali National Park tour

-Train ride to Talkeetna

-Mount McKinley

-Sun Dog Kennels with Sled dog ride

-Train to Anchorage

-Cruise to Hubbard Glacier

-Cruise to Skagway and then onto Juneau, followed by Ketchikan

-Finally arriving in Vancouver before flying home

We saw great mountain peaks, bear, moose, elk, caribou, whale, dolphins, salmon, glaciers and much more!

However, this great time would not have been possible without about 9 months of planning. I wish I could take credit for the planning but most of the credit goes to the ladies. They planned it all out with some help from AAA. They let the husbands feel like they were part of the planning but all of us knew that the women had the reins. We were able to spend two weeks together having a great time. Sometimes we were all together, sometimes 2 of the 3 couples participated in a common experience and other times we each went our separate ways. No arguments, no issues just a grand time!…

…I am curious, why would all of us spend that much time on planning a vacation? It was only two weeks out of our life, a small investment compared to running a company, managing people, attaining specific business results!  Some good planning netted us great results where we had a super time with no issues. Why do so many owners or GM’s of companies or organizations not invest the same sort of time to do Strategic Planning for their company? Strategic Planning drives the success for a company. It creates a road map for an organization’s success. Why does a company think that results will be different or better by doing what they have always done?

My client had measurable success by setting targets and incorporating “Action Plans” to accomplish those targets. Everyone on the team understood who had responsibility for each “Action Plan” and the timeframe for completion.  The vacation was great due to the planning that was invested before we ever left!

What are you willing to invest to increase your organizations odds for even more of a  successful year?

Roger Bostdorff is the President of B2B Sales Boost, LLC. He spent over 30 years with IBM in sales, sales management and general management.  B2B Sales Boost is a consulting company helping organizations solve their problems. B2B Sales Boost has dealt with challenges in sales, profitability, strategic planning, conflict resolution succession planning, sales training, personnel, executive training as well as overall business processes.  You can find more about B2B Sales Boost on the web at www.b2bsalesboost.com or calling 419-351-4347.  If you would like to receive the B2B Sales Boost Newsletter please send an email to roger@b2bsalesboost.com