RISK-PROOF YOUR BUSINESS: ALL IT TAKES IS A LITTLE ADJUSTMENT

Discover the keys to keeping your business on track during these less than perfect times.

In a perfect world, business would be booming all the time. Employees would never leave; profits would always exceed expectations; the economy would flourish; and new strategies would work exactly as planned. Unfortunately, the world is far from perfect. With the country at war, the economy unstable, and businesses losing employees to military duty and/or budget cuts, the strategies and initiatives that seemed to be working are now coming to a screeching halt. How can a business stay on track in this less-than-perfect world? According to business consultant Pamela S. Harper, all it takes is a little adjustment.

Whether key customers are changing their inventory systems or the country is suffering the economic effects of war, we cant predict whats going to happen next, but we can adapt," says Harper. To avoid being blindsided and keep your business plan on track, you must first recognize the various types of risk that can impact it, challenge your assumptions about what is and isnt important, and then adjust appropriately along the way."

Harper asserts that there are three different risks that can affect your business plan: 1) Risks you can anticipate; 2) Risks you cant anticipate; and 3) Risks that sneak up on you. Each of these risks are different, but they all point to a common theme: although you can never know just whats going to happen as a strategic plan unfolds, you can build in a process for monitoring and adjusting to the different types of risk so you can keep your strategy or initiative on track," says Harper. Setting up milestones and checkpoints that are appropriate to your objectives and risk tolerance will enable you to do that."

Through her experiences as an internal and external consultant to leaders of entrepreneurial, mid-sized, and Fortune 500 companies, Harper has identified the seven common roadblocks that snarl business performance as well as the keys to unlocking them. Her strategies have helped leaders transform their business initiatives into high performance results.

Pamela S. Harper shares strategies and techniques for keeping your business on track and setting up an effective process for monitoring and adjusting in her book, Preventing Strategic Gridlock®: Leading Over, Under, & Around Organizational Jams to Achieve High Performance Results (Cameo Publications, $19.95, ISBN 0-9715739-4-8). For a review copy, please contact Paula Duncan at 1-866-372-2636 or send an email to marketing@cameopublications.com.