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Strategy

StrategyYou know that establishing a clear strategy for your business is crucial to your success. But how will professional management help you with your strategy? It's simple. You will clearly define a decision-making process. Your strategy will define reality, focus your enterprise and determine the competency required to achieve your goals. Clearly identifying your strategy will also assist you in allocating time, people and money appropriately and help you to focus on the important matters of your business not just the urgent or immediate ones.

Without a strong direction for your company, you will never reach the goals you set for your future and could possibly miss your opportunity for success.

 

  • Empowering, Measuring, And Incenting Employee Performance President’s Perspective

    Having a strategic plan is only useful if you have the right people to implement it. An employee performance process can help find and retain the people that will help reach your strategic objectives. Mike Nemeth, general manager of Elliott Tool Technologies, facilitates this program. It focuses on how to implement a proven employee performance process to hire more effectively, transition more responsibilities with confidence, increase employee performance, and grow your business. He also shares his personal perspective about how using such a process increased revenue by 93 percent, quadrupled profitability, and increased employee satisfaction by 33 percent.
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  • UDevelop Digital Marketing Strategy

    There is so much more to a digital marketing strategy than a website. Unfortunately, many small businesses don't know where to start when it comes to developing a digital marketing plan. Students from the University of Dayton can change that. Aileron's UDevelop Digital Marketing Strategy program teams UD marketing students with small businesses to create a customized digital marketing plan. At the end of the program, the participating companies can extend an internship to one of the students to help execute the strategy.
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  • Becoming a Social Media Strategist

    Social media tools are changing everyday. Learn the components of a successful social media strategy in Aileron's Becoming a Social Media Strategist session. Attendees will gain new perspectives, fresh ideas, and strategies for using social media to increase sales and nurture online relationships, while also learning how to measure social media ROI. Attendees will also learn the advantages, limitations, and best practices of the most popular social media tools from Aileron's Communications Manager, Jean Webster.
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  • Panel Discussion: Social Media that Matters

    Join Aileron for a panel discussion on how to use social media tools to increase sales, strengthen online relationships, and build communities. Panelists include Barry Moltz, speaker, consultant, and author; Sarah Robinson, business coach, strategist, and advisor at Fierce Loyalty; and Dave Lavinsky, speaker, consultant, and co-founder of Growthink. Learn firsthand how to harness social media to generate real results that improve businesses from those who have done it.
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  • Interactive Conversation: Aligning People and Culture to Drive Results

    Culture and success: You can't have one without the other. In this 90-minute event inspired by his best-selling book Becoming A Category of One, author and speaker Joe Calloway takes you inside the mindset of today's most effective leaders. You'll learn how business leaders from Apple, Southwest Airlines, Starbucks, and Proctor & Gamble align people and culture to drive strategy and create results. And, you'll learn how you can do it, too.
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  • Aileron's Approach to Strategic Planning

    During this two-and-a-half hour session, you'll learn how our proven process takes the guesswork out of strategic planning, one of the most important elements of business management. You'll also hear how other business owners, CEOs, and presidents have approached strategic planning, and you'll find out what has worked and what has not.
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  • Updating Your Strategy: Best Practices Exchange

    How often should you update your strategic plan and how do you know when your strategic plan is no longer effective? Discover how other business owners, CEOs, and presidents successfully evaluate and adjust their strategic plans to keep their businesses on track.
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  • Communicating Your Strategic Plan: Best Practices Exchange

    Do your employees know what your company's strategic plan, mission, vision, and value statements represent and how to apply them? If not, what are they working toward? Learn how others have successfully communicated these concepts to their employees.
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  • Defining Your Lean Strategy Workshop

    You know what lean thinking is all about, and you know how it can help your business. But how can you implement this approach across your entire business and ensure that it's synced up with your long-term goals?
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  • Growing Your Sales in Today's Economy Professional Perspective

    At this Professional Perspective, you'll tap into the advice and experiences of sales expert Roger Wentworth. With a career spanning 30 years, Roger has potent real-world insights that can help you improve your sales process, create a more efficient sales structure, and overcome the challenges posed by today's economy.
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  • Know Your Customer Workshop

    Are you selling to the right customers? Do you even know who the""right" customers are? If not, you're throwing your sales and marketing budget away. Aileron's Know Your Customer two-part workshop helps small businesses gain a clear picture of their overall customer base and understand the customer groups they should be pursuing. Attendees will learn a customer segmentation process they can tailor and manage on their own for years to come.
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  • Minimizing Threats and Uncovering Opportunities - SWOT Analysis Workshop

    Need help adapting to the changing marketplace? This hands-on workshop can help! You'll use a highly effective strategizing tool to understand the external environment confronting your company and identify your most important issues. With this information in hand, you'll be ready to start planning for a more prosperous future.
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  • Uncovering Your Critical Success Factors Spotlight

    At this hands-on presentation and discussion, you'll learn how to use straightforward, effective tools to prioritize your top issues and identify their true cause. The insights you gain can help you think deeper about directing your resources and planning efforts toward your company's make-or-break areas.
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  • Strategy and Sales: Sync it up! President's Perspective

    Is your sales system just generating revenue, or is it bringing you closer to your goals? At this president's perspective you'll hear from Scott Knowles, a successful president and former sales manager. Two decades of experience have given him firsthand knowledge and insights on a strategy-based sales process that produces sustainable growth and stronger customer relationships.
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  • President's Perspective: Building a Better Brand

    Branding is more than just creating the right look for your marketing and advertising. It's about building an effective image and reputation that can help you stand out from the competition in a challenging marketplace. Join us for an eye-opening group discussion to learn more!
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  • Coffee & Candor: Can I Really Fire a Customer?

    Eliminating customers is part of any successful corporate strategy. Join us for an informal discussion as we talk about why and how you can boost your organization's performance by "firing" value-draining clients, freeing up time and resources to focus on customers who contribute to its profitability.
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  • Professional Perspective: Keeping Your Company Sellable

    Do you plan on selling your company? This professional perspective will help you focus on maximizing your company's value ahead of the sale. Whether it's just around the corner or off in the distance, preparation can make the process smoother, and more profitable.
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  • Quick Solutions for Better Meetings Spotlight

    Is your organization hampered by frustrating and unproductive meetings? At this interactive discussion, you'll tap into effective tools and techniques that can help you ensure each of your meetings is efficient, engaging, and focused on moving your company forward.
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  • Social Media: A Hardcore Business Tool

    What does it take to create a successful communications strategy? How can you get started, and how can social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn support and improve your professionally managed business? Find out at this hour and a half discussion, where you'll tap into the knowledge and experience of Jean Webster, Aileron's Communications Manager.
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  • Ten Tips on How to Research Your Competition - Article

    Want to know how your business compares to your competitors? Keeping tabs on your competition is a great strategy for growing your business. Consider these best practices tips from other small business owners on how to get started.
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  • Creating an Organization's Mission and Vision - Guidelines

    Why do you do what you do? As a business owner, you can bring clarity to your company by defining why you exist (mission) and where you want to go (vision). This guideline, along with examples and characteristics of well thought-out statements, will start you down the path of asking the crucial questions of why you are in business.
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  • ABC Landscaping Company - Strategic Plan Example

    You might already know how important it is to create a strategic plan for your business. But what exactly should this document cover? This clearly explained sample plan will give you a better idea of what a thorough strategic plan looks like. It covers key elements such as SWOTs (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), mission and vision, strategic priorities, and a detailed action plan to address those priority issues. Use it for a helpful reference as you build your own strategic plan.
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  • Core Values Assessment

    In the business world, there's a lot of talk about leaders and their values. You probably have a good idea of what your values are. But have you ever really taken a moment to define them, or focus on the core values that are most important to you? This clearly-written, step-by-step exercise can help you on both counts - and in turn, give you insights into how you're shaping the culture of your organization. You can also use it with members of your team to help them explore their own values.
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  • Think Before You Plan, Plan Before You Act - Video

    Before you figure out how to get from point A to point B, you have to figure out why you're in business. That's the core message that Dave Sullivan delivers in this video clip, as he underscores the value of thinking before planning. If you aren't sure what to focus on in your planning process, his advice and simple questions can help you find clarity.
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  • SWOT Analysis - Online Package

    In this self-paced online program, you'll learn about SWOT analysis and work on your business to paint a clear picture of your current reality. Our interactive activities will also help you use this planning tool to focus on your company's true capabilities and make-or-break priority issues.
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  • Business Owner's Horizon Report

    What's happening in the world around you? What external forces and trends have the potential to impact your company? This in-depth report, issued August 2011, provides a thorough overview and analysis of economic, political, technological, and demographic changes. These facts can help you during the planning process as you determine how to navigate your business through the changing marketplace.
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  • A Vision Is A Dream With A Plan - Video

    In this economy, relying on short-term planning and problem solving skills just isn't good enough to ensure future success. Dave Sullivan, Aileron's Executive in Residence, discusses the importance of understanding why you exist, setting realistic goals and employing limited resources effectively and efficiently to achieve them.

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  • Personal Vision - Online Activity

    What is a personal vision, and why is it so crucial to your lasting happiness and success? In this video, you'll find out how a personal vision can ensure that your business supports your life's dreams and goals - not the other way around. Then you'll hear from two Aileron clients about their own inspiring experiences using a personal vision to improve their lives. Crafting your own personal vision is an important prelude to the strategic planning process; once you know where you want to take your life, you can start to figure out where you want to take your business! With that in mind, the final part of the video will show you how to get started creating your own personal vision, using a hands-on worksheet activity.

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    Download Worksheet