Newsletter: Farrier Industry Report | June 2006

Forecasting for Growth | by William Cottringer

To be effective as a leader, you must develop skills in strategic thinking. Strategic thinking is a process whereby you learn how to make your business vision a reality by developing your abilities in team work, problem solving, and critical thinking. It is also a tool to help you confront change, plan for and make transitions, and envision new possibilities and opportunities.

Strategic thinking is like making a movie. Every movie has a context (or story) which it uses to get you to experience a certain outcome (an emotion, in this case) at the end of the movie. Strategic thinking is much the same in that it requires you to envision what you want your ideal outcome to be for your business and then works backwards by focusing on the story of HOW you will be able to reach your vision.

As you develop a strategic vision for your business, there are five different criteria that you should focus on. These five criteria will help you define your ideal outcome. In addition, they will help you set up and develop the steps necessary to make your business vision a reality.

The following is a list of the five criteria of the strategic thinking process:

• Organization. The organization of your business involves the people you will have working for you, the organizational structure of your business, and the resources necessary to make it all work. What will your organization look like? What type of structure will support your vision? How will you combine people, resources, and structure together to achieve your ideal outcome?
  
  
• Observation. When you are looking down at the world from an airplane, you can see much more than when you are on the ground. Strategic thinking is much the same in that it allows you to see things from "higher up." By increasing your powers of observation, you will begin to become more aware of what motivates people, how to solve problems more effectively, and how to distinguish between alternatives.
  
  
• Views. Views are simply different ways of thinking about something. In strategic thinking, there are four viewpoints to take into consideration when forming your business strategy: the environmental view; the MarketPlace view; the project view; and the measurement view. Views can be used as tools to help you think about outcomes, identify critical elements and adjust your actions to achieve your ideal position.
  
  
• Driving Forces. What are the driving forces that will make your ideal outcome a reality? What is your company's vision and mission? Driving forces usually lay the foundation for what you want people to focus on in your business (i.e., what you will use to motivate others to perform). Examples of driving forces might include: individual and organizational incentives; empowerment and alignment; qualitative factors such as a defined vision, values, and goals; productive factors like a mission or function; quantitative factors such as results or experience; and others such as commitment, coherent action, effectiveness, productivity, and value.
  
  
• Ideal Position. After working through the first four phases of the strategic thinking process, you should be able to define your ideal position. Your ideal position outline should include: the conditions you have found to be necessary if your business is to be productive; the niche in the MarketPlace that your business will fill; any opportunities that may exist either currently or in the future for your business; the core competencies or skills required in your business; and the strategies and tactics you will use to pull it all together.

By working through these five areas, you will begin to get a clearer picture of exactly how your business vision can be accomplished. As your vision becomes more focused, your ideas will appear stronger and more credible. Not only will it be easier to convince others that your idea is a good one, but it will also be easier to maintain your own conviction and motivation when you reach any pitfalls or obstacles in the road.

Overall, you can apply strategic thinking skills to any area of your life. But by making a concerted effort to apply them specifically to your business venture, you will have a much better chance of bringing your vision to life. And isn't that what you want.
United States Small Business Administration Web site. (www.sba.gov)

Bill Cottringer is a business success coach and college teacher in Collinsville, Ill., and is author of “You Can Have Your Cheese & Eat It Too.” This article was adapted from a lecture given at the Boeing Leadership Center and reprinted in Executive Excellence Magazine.

© St. Louis Small Business Monthly, The Source for Business Owners July 2003.

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Business Conference Report
The time has come to register for our 2006 FIA Business Conference. We are pleased to announce that this years speaker will be Elly Valas, author of the best selling book series Guerilla Marketing. Elly will be presenting two short lectures Saturday and Sunday morning. Following a short break Elly will organize interactive educational and fun group activities.

More plans are underway for exciting group activities and events. There will be plenty of free time for you and your guest to explore Cancun and take advantage of all the fun activities Crown Paradise Club Resort has to offer.

The Crown Paradise Club is an all inclusive resort which includes all your meals, drinks, activities and transfers. Airfare for you and your guest is not included. Please be sure to book your travel itinerary when you schedule your hotel reservations. This should prevent any scheduling conflicts with your hotel reservations and your travel arrangements.

Time is short so please be sure to book your reservations before July 11, 2006, deadline!  

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Letter from the President
Another summer season is upon us, and we are grateful to continue serving you with updated information regarding our association. We have completed yet another successful meeting in Omaha, NE, with a total of 24 new members and 160 returning.  
 
Presently, we are continuing our search for new members and we expect next year’s convention to be better than ever. As mentioned in the past, any comments or input you may have regarding any upcoming events, please contact either myself or any of the board members. We value your input and look forward to working with you and for you in the future.

We have continued to develop a closer relationship with the AFA and we will be present for the mid-year meeting scheduled for September 9, 2006.

By now, you should have received an information packet regarding our business conference scheduled for October 20-23 at the Crown Club Paradise in Cancun, Mexico. Our expectations are high for this conference and we have prepared a full agenda to be presented to the FIA by Elly Valas, author of the best selling book series Guerilla Marketing. Elly will present two short lectures on Saturday and Sunday morning and, following a short break, she will moderate interactive group activities that promise to be both educational and fun. Please visit Elly Valas’ website:  www.Ellyvalas.com.

The FIA business conference will allow time for socializing, shopping, golfing, snorkeling, biking, or a short drive to the botanical gardens--whatever your heart desires. Please visit the resort’s website at www.crownparadise.com\cancun.

A heartfelt thanks goes out to each and every FIA member, the FIA Board, Directors and the committee chairpersons, as your efforts continue to result in benefiting the Farrier Industry as a whole.

Looking forward to seeing all of you in Cancun!

Marguerite Therrien-Paige
President, FIA

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MarketPlace News
Once again, the FIA MarketPlace at the AFA Convention is shaping up to be another sellout event. This year's MarketPlace in Albuquerque promises to be another blockbuster for our members with good sales, a great town and lots to do during our off time. The desert, the mountains and artful Santa Fe are close by. There are only 37 booths remaining so if you have not booked your space, you'd better hurry before they're all gone.

In a never-ending attempt to make sure booth selection for our members is fast and fair for all, we will be instituting a new selection process for 2008 that will allow a smoother delivery of the packets to the membership. Starting in 2008 we will offer you the choice of receiving your packet by broadcast e-mail, broadcast fax or regular mail. Everybody who chooses email or fax will get the information at the same time. Those who chose regular mail will get them a few days later, of course.

Today's technology allows us to purchase fax machines for about $20, so there's really no reason why everybody can't receive their packets all at the same time.

We will go around to all booths in Albuquerque and sign you up for your preferred method as well as send out letters to all members asking for their method of choice. This will be communicated to the membership several times in newsletters and separate mailings to ensure everybody understands the concept. We hope this will eliminate the yearly trouble of lost or slow mail.

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New FIA Members
Alberta Farrier Supplies
JM4 Ranch Harness & Tack
Luwex
Montana Farrier Supply
Nanoflex Inc.
Ranchers & Farmers Supply Co.
Val Verde Marketing