Business Strategy Archives – Page 20 of 38

14 Apr 2011

The Gap Between Intention and Reality

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:46:17-06:00April 14th, 2011|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

Most business owners see a gap between what they intend and where they really are.

You may have an intention to have a certain culture and live by certain values.

You may have an intention to follow a certain higher mission.

You may have an intention to implement a new vision and achieve certain goals.

This is all fine.

The gap between intention and reality creates movement; hopefully towards your ideal state. The larger the gap, the more movement (or change) required.

The Problems Start When…

The problems start when you sell the intent and not the reality.

You sell the intent to your customers but that is not what […]

22 Mar 2011

Is Building A New Product A Dream?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:46:46-06:00March 22nd, 2011|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

Is it your dream to launch a new product into the market? Are you looking for your dream job? Dream house? Are you dreaming of running a successful business?

Stop dreaming!

Actually, don't stop dreaming. Dreaming is good.

Stop "stopping" at dreaming.

Make your dreams real.

Dream, plan and take the action require to manifest it.

On two levels that is what our Manifast vision is about:

Building and shipping a useful software product (us),
Helping business owners manifest their dreams (us helping others).

It is not a just a dream. It is happening.

What is your dream?

3 Mar 2011

Which Way Is The Wind Blowing?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:47:24-06:00March 3rd, 2011|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog|

I live in Calgary (Alberta, Canada). We've had a cold snowy winter. The other day it was minus 30 Celsius with a minus 38 Celsius windchill. For those in the US, this is pretty close to the same number in Fahrenheit). Either way it is cold and windy.

I noticed that some of our doors and windows were not sealed right and quite a breeze was blowing in. This made the house feel cold and it was costing us money; not to mention wasteful from a green perspective.

So I picked up some materials from the local hardware store and proceeded to […]

17 Jan 2011

Fortune Cookies Don’t Lie

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-03T11:48:23-06:00January 17th, 2011|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog|

I recently got a fortune cookie that said:

"The smallest deed is better than the biggest intention".

In a nutshell: dreams, ideas and intentions are worthless without action towards achieving them.

Far too many starting entrepreneurs are all about the next "greatest idea". They put in place non-disclosure agreements, confidentiality clauses, and non-compete agreements. They are focused so much on protecting the idea and preventing others from stealing it (and thereby building it) that they often don't get past the idea phase.

How can you get customers, investors, employees, etc. if you can't tell anyone your brilliant idea.

Yes, in order to build […]

5 Jan 2011

Shaping the Path – Building a Business That Reinforces Success (Part 2)

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-04T14:30:48-06:00January 5th, 2011|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog|

Continued from Part 1…

People and Process

I think the real trick to leadership and correspondingly actual fulfillment doing the work (team member) is to have the right balance of scripting and freedom to choose how you accomplish the work.

Script the things that don’t require creativity, are repetitive, or are really important to follow exactly the same process. Surgeons scrubbing for surgery have a predefined process. They don’t reinvent it each time. This saves having to think about it or the risk of making mistakes.

The same holds true during change. Because you are changing behavior it is sometimes necessary to script the […]

4 Jan 2011

Shaping the Path – Building a Business That Reinforces Success (Part 1)

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-04T14:32:48-06:00January 4th, 2011|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog|

In a recent post I talked about Driving Corporate Change – Made Easier and how we can take the lessons from a book and apply them to what we are doing in the real world. I did the same for Business Retrospective – Finding The Bright Spots, digging deeper into one chapter and integrating it into my thoughts on reflection. This was fitting as we were also wrapping up 2010.

Today I want to talk about creating an environment for success.

Whether we call it working on the business, building a business architecture, franchising a business, or shaping the path […]

15 Dec 2010

Driving Corporate Change – Made Easier

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-04T14:40:43-06:00December 15th, 2010|Categories: Books and Courses, Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

If you’ve been reading my blog posts over the last few years, it should come as no surprise that I have been putting a lot of focus into what makes companies and people succeed. I’ve been reading books, attending seminars, reading blogs, etc.

Our mission is

“Help people achieve their full potential; including living a fulfilling life.”

We are building a software product to do just that for entrepreneurs and business coaches.

We are at an amazing point in history; so much of the knowledge that people have amassed is readily available and openly shared for our taking. This blog is […]

9 Dec 2010

Our Mission – Defining Our Purpose and Direction

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-04T14:42:52-06:00December 9th, 2010|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

After reading, researching, thinking, brainstorming, agonizing and writing numerous blog posts on the subject… I am finally ready to share our very own mission. Theory is great but time to show a real example, one that is close to home.

Our (Sunwapta Solution’s) Mission

“Help people achieve their full potential; including living a fulfilling life.”

Breaking It Down

The first part is somewhat straight-forward.

Help people achieve their full potential. Maximizing the potential of people.

Without the second part we felt that there was a danger that we could help people achieve their full potential but that their lives might not be in […]

2 Dec 2010

Why? Why? Why?

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-04T14:44:42-06:00December 2nd, 2010|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Mindset and Motivation|

“Why? Why? Why?” said with your best Jack Nicholson impersonation (think the Witches of Eastwich movie where Jack plays “gasp” the devil).

Why should you have a mission? Why should you have a vision? Why should your goals and business strategy be tied to these things?

Many (most?) people strive to find a higher purpose or meaning in life; especially once they become aware of their mortality.

Some people, including many business owners strive to create a legacy… to live beyond the grave through their business or some other mechanism.

As someone recently said in a seminar […]

1 Dec 2010

Living Your Mission

By Doug Wagner|2017-04-04T14:46:44-06:00December 1st, 2010|Categories: Business Strategy, Doug's Blog, Marketing, Mindset and Motivation, Sales|

In a prior post I defined the mission as being the Tweet sized statement of your service to humanity without reference to your current products or services. The mission is long-term and should be able to survive changes in your business offerings. In fact this is essential, as what exactly your business does, must change over time to address the changing world in which we live.

But your mission is not just for your customers.

You must live it internally in your company. Your shareholders, partners, vendors, and employees must see the consistency.

Before the Internet and social media you could […]