Best practice snapshots

Snapshot of the month

Small business strategic planning: ten tips to transform your company

Snapshot topics

• Administration
• Business continuity/disaster recovery
• Change management
• Communications technology
• Corporate culture
• Corporate social responsibility
• Exiting
• Finance
• International
• Leadership
• Legal and compliance

• Marketing
• Media, communications and reputation management
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Non-executive directors
• Performance management
• Sales
• Skills
• Social media
• Start-ups
• Strategy
• Talent management

Administration

• Shortcuts
• Eight things never to do at a company conference
• How to conduct creative (and productive) meetings
• Working with a virtual PA

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Business continuity/disaster recovery

• Treat the human factor when a crisis occurs
• Roads to Resilience – how to avoid corporate catastrophe
• Roads to Ruin – a study of major risk events
• Business continuity – why you should have a plan!

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Change management

• Change management – a strategic tool and conscious leadership choice
• Change leadership – essential but not simple

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Communications technology

• The “too busy” mindset and its impact on leadership
• Email – how to get back in control
• Don’t let voicemail antagonise your customers

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Corporate culture

• Cultural change: the critical few
• Top tips to achieve a high-performance culture
• Assessing company culture

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Corporate social responsibility

• Corporate social responsibility

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Exiting

• Moving on – the “do’s and don’ts” of exiting
• Succession planning
• Building value for the sale of your company

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Finance

• Ten techniques for agile resource allocation
• Financial difficulties checklist
• Ten tips on cash management
• Costs and cash flow checklist
• Cash crisis avoidance steps
• Business plans to attract world-class financing
• Credit checking
• Avoiding financial mistakes
• Developing a sound financial plan
• Invoice discounting

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International

• Eleven tips for cross-cultural communication
• Develop an export plan
• Growing your business internationally
• British business culture – top 20 tips

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Leadership

• YouTube channels to help you become a better business leader in 2019
• Leading with integrity
• How can the C-suite successfully use AI?
• Becoming a great leader – seven points to consider
• The high costs of appointing the wrong CEO
• Leadership: Moments of truth
• The chemistry of leadership
• Three things good leaders need
• 14 leadership principles
• The CEO – back to basics
• Leadership by storytelling
• Crisis leadership
• Seven lessons on leadership
• 20 leadership habits that hold you back
• Questions for change management leaders
• Leading in the new normal
• Four common leadership myths
• Leadership – 12 breakthrough steps
• One-to-ones – coaching direct reports
• The human side of scalability
• Leading vs managing
• Leadership courage in uncertain times
• The six essential roles of the CEO

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Legal and compliance

• Contract negotiations – pitfalls to avoid
• Anti-bribery checklist
• Legal security checklist for your business

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Marketing

• What should you spend on your marketing?
• Ten steps to build your brand
• The need for strategic marketing
• The truth about sales and marketing
• Tips for marketing in a recession
• Marketing in a slow economy
• Exhibition sponsorship – is it a good deal?
• Are you getting payback on your marketing?
• Calculating marketing ROI
• Keeping marketing costs low in a recession
• How to pitch your story to the media
• Is marketing a luxury in troubled times?
• Improve your email marketing results
• Improve your online surveys

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Media, communications and reputation management

• Top tips for managing your corporate reputation

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Mergers and acquisitions

• Due diligence checklist
• Business valuation tool
• Creating an acquisition integration checklist
• Post-acquisition integration – points to consider
• Is the time right for you to acquire?

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Non-executive directors

• Portfolio careers
• NEDs and cyber risk

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Performance management

• Setting up a performance measurement process

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Sales

• How to create a customer referral programme
• So what is the value of loyal customers?
• Key account planning
• When to say goodbye to a customer
• Exceeding customer expectations
• Customer data integration
• Customer equity
• Improve your sales pipeline
• Low cost / low risk sales growth
• Know what you are selling
• Coaching to increase sales
• Customer service tips for small businesses

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Skills

• Do you ask for referrals?
• Making a good impression
• Five tips for keeping yourself employable in the future
• Eye contact
• Influencing skills
• Negotiation – five key questions
• Delegation
• Media interviews – don’t get caught out!

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Social media

• Twenty tips on social media

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Start-ups

• Questions angel investors will ask you
• Business lessons from the samurai

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Strategy

• Small business strategic planning: ten tips to transform your company
• Five strategies for winning in 2019
• Ecommerce – lessons for bricks and mortar organisations
• Top ten tips for budding entrepreneurs, from Robert Herjavec
• A simple step to avoid strategic plan failures
• Building a strategy control system
• Advance your strategic plan with an agile strategy process
• Why your strategic plan might fail to drive growth
• Three keys to a strategic plan that gets results
• What is the value of a strategic plan?
• Strategy versus tactics in strategic planning
• The “activist” manager
• Ten strategies for business new year planning
• How to identify your critical success factors
• War games – creating strategic advantage
• Why do strategic plans fail?
• How to create a strategic plan
• 35 things experience has taught us about business
• Do you make mistakes in strategic planning?
• Better team collaboration
• Benchmarking
• Strategy – six steps
• What is the true meaning of strategy?
• Outsourcing
• Reorganise successfully
• So now you’re the CEO!
• Supply chain management
• Ten ways to boost execution
• Competitive advantage and USPs
• Transformation and recovery in a recession
• Aligning your organisation for growth
• Is your glass half full or half empty?
• Avoiding common pricing mistakes
• Contingency planning for a downturn
• Recession checklist
• 13-point recovery plan for difficult times
• Do you need a new business model?
• Small business growth

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Talent management

• Pipeline recruitment
• Business mentoring – five key questions
• Five fundamentals of employee motivation
• Pre-employment tests
• Running an effective internship programme
• How to recruit the top 25%
• Do you have the right people on the bus?
• Employee share schemes
• Building your team with the right people
• How to build accountability among your employees
• Why good people leave
• People development
• Small business non-executive directors
• Are you giving positive feedback to your employees?
• Small business advisory boards
• Successful leadership of flexible working
• The top 10 recruitment mistakes
• Performance appraisal

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