Be sure to renew your PVT subscription before March 15th! Just cli'ck this link: mailto:Mike@SeniorManagementServices.com?Subject=Renewal-2005

I take part in a forum, a sort of Master Mind group of business people in several countries. In a recent teleconference, a well-known business consultant said, "Small businesses fall apart when it comes to strategy."

This led to a discussion of difference between strategy and tactics.

I then offered my views on difference -- and how that difference is implemented in my company. Some people said that strategy and tactics are same. Others said, "It's all semantics -- and who cares anyway!"

Well, semantics is relationship between words (or symbols) and their intended meanings. In my company, "tactics" and "strategy" have different but specific meanings.

Anyway, concurrent with all that, I was reviewing and updating my own purpose and goals. I noticed that during my brainstorming, I was not concerned with either strategy or tactics. I was simply brainstorming my purpose. From my Purpose, I created Goals. That was about it.

But sooner or later, I know that I must create some plans (strategies) to achieve my Purpose and Goals.

And I must take some steps (tactics) to make my strategies happen. So, I drew a diagram showing concentric circles, labeled Purpose, Goals, Strategies, and Tactics. See Diagram at: http://www.SeniorManagementServices.com/Images/bullseye.gif

OK. Suppose I wanted to organize a company to fulfill that Purpose and those Goals? Here's an example of how I would arrange company's Org Chart from top down. (Not all possible boxes are shown.) See Diagram at: http://www.SeniorManagementServices.com/Images/purpose-chart.gif

N0w, here's where fun begins because there is a phenomenon called inheritance (in my organization), where each subordinate inherits one of their manager's Tactical Objectives as his or her Strategic Objective.

In a moment, I will give you a link so you can study how we do that. Meanwhile...

Now for story: Markel didn’t want me to be left out of his latest ground floor business opportunity — something called Scamway — that’s been around since serpent in Mel Gibson’s movie conned Eve.

So we showed up at Denny’s restaurant where a room full of glassy-eyed goofballs were pretending to be sharp business people. It reminded me of another Easter Island etching that says “Being doted on by a crowd of annoying scamsters is not a good thing.” That’s when I asked Markel if this was some kind of weird used-car salesmen cult. The whole room roared with laughter evoking eerie images of ugly statues.

The Chief Scamster arose to click his power point presentation about time my Tex-Mex Chicken-in-a-Bagel Skillet arrived. Before Scamway came along, this guy said he lived on edge of bankruptcy in a roach-infested trailer park. Now he lives in a 39-room, 4,000 square foot home on a lake. Geez, I thought, I wonder if that’s same apartment building where Uncle Afred lives?

All you need do is enroll eight more people, he said while flailing his arms with help-I’m-being-attacked-by-a-swarm-of-wasps enthusiasm. “If you enroll eight people this week who enroll eight people who enroll eight people, in eleven short weeks all 6.4 billion inhabitants of earth will be in your down line including Madonna and an extra 2 billion from some unknown galaxy.”

How could I refuse?

$29.95 buys my own business. “That’s less than a McDonald franchise,” he added.

For that I get privilege to annoy my friends with a catalog full of Baptist-slash-Mormon looking models using over-priced detergent, vitamins and cosmetics in concentrate. And it comes in a handsome binder.

“Any questions?” he asked.

Silence.

“There are no stupid questions,” he added. (He’s never met Uncle Alfred.)

I like a challenge. So I asked, “If chickens don’t have noses, where do they keep their boogers?”