Shaun Dallas Dance’s Blog

The idea of hiring a business consultant for your firm might seem like a lavish, trendy concept, but the industry has been around since the late 1900s. The first strategy consulting firm was created by Arthur Dehon Little, a chemist who earned his undergraduate degree from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.). Since that time, businesses from all types of industries have called upon a temporary assessor and guide’s help. Consultants are professionals who work outside of a company who is brought in so they can give advice. The departments they generally help include human resources, management, operations, marketing, and information technology (IT).

Even if you are a serial entrepreneur, it can be challenging to choose which tasks to outsource. The first step is to perform a cost analysis. Outsourcing decisions, like any business-related issue, need to be analyzed before potentially wasting time or money.

Strategic planning is the basis for a company’s direction and focus. It outlines where resources and energy should be directed, determines priorities of both short- and long-term goals, and keeps employees and shareholders informed on progress and issues. With a strategic plan in place, everyone involved in a company is on the same team, working towards a common goal. They know what they do, why they do it, and who they serve. Everyone understands what intended outcomes and results are supposed to be. When an environment changes, the strategy behind the plan needs to adapt as well to ensure the company is still on track to reach its goals. When the future is uncertain, and every aspect of life is disrupted, that can be nearly impossible.

Strategic planning is the combined action of documenting and establishing the direction of a business. The complete exercise takes a look at the current state of an organization, where it will be heading, and the actions required to make that happen. An effective strategic plan also provides methods of gauging how to know whether it’s a success. In essence, strategic planning acts as a constant reminder of what a company does, why they do it, who they serve, and how to stay focused in order to have a successful future.

When people think of the word branding, they tend to associate it with a label or product type representing something purposeful. The truth is that this word’s origin is a lot darker, and the verb “to brand” used to have a different connotation. Back in the 17th century, lawmakers marked criminals with a hot iron symbol depicting the crime they committed. Two hundred years later, the term took on a commercial concept with household names like Heinz.