Workbook

The S.W.O.T. Plan

The Secret...Simple Planning Systems

To help increase your effectiveness, even with the limited time you have available for planning, I've created my own version of the K.I.S.S. theory:

"Keep Implementing Simple Systems."

S.W.O.T.

Here's an example of one such "simple planning system" — with its own acronym — which I have been successfully using and recommending for over 30 years. You start by asking a few basic questions:

• What's the Situation in and around your practice?
• What are your Weapons and resources?
• What are your Objectives? In other words, what are your plans for the future — what do you want to achieve?
• And finally, what are your Tactics and related strategies? How are you going to get there?

The acronym I use to remember these questions is "S.W.O.T."

The S is for Situation. The W is for Weapons — your resources. The O is for Objectives. And the T is for Tactics.

I first used this system when I was in ROTC at Saint Peter's College in 1965. It was a military planning system. Then, it was S.W.A.T. The A was for Action plans. I updated it in the early 1980's due to the growing popularity of M-B-O: Managing by Objectives programs.

Defining Marketing Plan

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