Turbo Strategy - A Book Summary

Businesses are run mostly on auto-pilot and any problem areas are only dealt with when they are already critical, but by then it may already be too late. Most business managers are too busy with the day-to-day work to sit back and look at the business critically in terms of its context and the direction it is going. Brian Tracey's Turbo Strategy provides a checklist of areas that should be regularly examined by all businesses to ensure that it remains on the right path towards success and profitability.

In the book, the author introduces practical techniques that will help you come up with strategies and more importantly turn up profit quickly:

1. The answers have changed ? most businesses operate the way they do because they are "tried" strategies, not because it is efficient and profitable.

2. Flexibility is essential ? from time to time, it is important to take a step back and reevaluate the situation, then do something about it.

3. The one true measure ? two basic questions you need to ask everyday "What is working?" and "What is not working?"

Conduct a Basic Business Analysis

Whenever you go in for a complete medical exam, the doctors and nurses follow a set procedure. In the same way, there are basic business examination questions that you need to ask and answer continuously to determine the overall health of your organization. Remember the following:

a. The Customer as Centerpiece.

b. Determine What You Sell.

c. Define Your Competitor.

d. Set Clear Goals.

Design Your Ideal Future

Practice Idealization. To do this you must think of what your company would look like five years from now if everything were perfect. Then think in terms of possibilities. Are the goals you set achievable in five years?

Create a Mission Statement and Determine Your Values

A mission statement is essential to an organization because it gives meaning and purpose to the people in their daily activities and work. It inspires loyalty, commitment and become a key factor when making business decisions and when you are clear then you can easily revisit your mission statement and follow its guidelines.

Select the Right People

The two key qualities in finding the best people are that they can be counted on to get the job done well and to get it done on time. Another quality is that they should be good team players.

Market More Effectively

The four essential elements of marketing are: specialization, differentiation, segmentation, and concentration. All marketing elements are important but you should constantly evaluate what you are doing. Remember that the market is changing and changing fast! You may have to change one of your strategies or more than one at the same time.

Analyze Your Competition

You have to know your competition. You have to find out why the customers buy from them, what values and benefits do they get from buying from them. The biggest mistake you can make is to belittle your customers. You have to study them and learn from them.

Three Potential Areas of Superiority

1. Operational Excellence

2. Lead the Field

3. Be Close to the Customer

Change your Marketing Mix

1. Product ? define your product or service in terms of what it "does" for your customers.

2. Price ? be open to the possibility that you may have priced your products or services wrong.

3. Promotion ? this encompasses everything you do in the process of marketing, advertising and sales.

4. Place ? this is the location where the sale of your product takes place.

Position Your Company for Success

Social proof is a major influencing factor to determine whether or not people buy your products or services. Your reputation is the value that people will pay for. Building a brand trust requires personal experiences by people with your products or services. It is very much like a personal reputation that takes a long time to build but can be damaged or destroyed overnight with bad decisions.

Develop Strategic Business Units

The strategic business unit concept revolutionized multi-product or multi-service businesses; each of the products is grouped with similar products or services in different ways. The starting point of implementation is to have someone specifically responsible for the operations and results of the unit. To make this work, you begin by drawing up a complete business plan that would include sales revenue, costs and profitability.

Sell More Effectively The fact is that 80 percent of your markets have not yet been approached by your salespeople. No one has told them about you. Your business could be probably being selling twice as much if you could just find out how to sell it to them.

Eliminate the Bottlenecks

There are two important steps that you need to take. First, decide on your specific business goals; make them clear, measurable and time-bounded. The next step is asking the question: "why am not in that goal already?"

Reengineer Your Company

To simplify and streamline your operations so that it is more efficient, faster and more effective and therefore more profitable, you have to reduce the number of steps in each process. You have to simplify the processes and make faster and better decision.

Pump Up Your Profits Conduct a complete profit analysis on every product. You must also remember that labor has a real "opportunity" cost along with other use of other resources especially in a multi-product or multi-services business.

Focus on Results

All your customers care about is results. They do not care much about your problems with your people, products, processes or any other aspects of your business.

There are four questions that customers answer before buying the product or service. These are:

What does it cost?

What do I get for the money?

How fast do I get the benefits you promise?

How sure can I be that I will get those benefits?

Seven Steps to Personal Performance

Step 1: Set clear, specific, written goals for each important area of your business. Make them measurable and time-bound.

Step 2: Make a list of activities before you begin a day, put it on paper. The best time to do this is before you go to bed so the subconscious mind can work on your list as you sleep.

Step 3: Set priorities on the list you made. Apply the 80/20 rule and select the top 20 percent of your tasks to work on.

Step 4: Practice creative procrastination. Since there are only 24 hours in a day, decide in advance which of those tasks have little value or importance can you do away with.

Step 5: Select the one most important job and have the discipline to accomplish that first thing.

Step 6: Practice single-handling with the most important task you have identified. Resolve to work on it until it is resolved.

Step 7: Develop a sense of urgency. The faster you move, the more work you get done and the better you feel. This will create momentum.

By: Regine P. Azurin and Yvette Pantilla
Regine Azurin is the President of BusinessSummaries.com, a company that provides business book summaries of the latest bestsellers for busy executives and entrepreneurs.

http://www.bizsum.com
"A Lot Of Great Books....Too Little Time To Read" Free Book Summaries Of Latest Bestsellers for Busy Executives and Entrepreneurs

Mailto: mailto:freearticle@bizsum.com
BusinessSummaries is a BusinessSummaries.com service.

(c) Copyright 2001- 2005, BusinessSummaries.com - Wisdom In A Nutshell

---

Headlong Into Quicksand: The Tale of Today in America

America´s 220 years of Democracy (of its 400 years) is... Read More

Inspiration for the Fired Soul

You're Fired! is a book that tackles the real story's... Read More

What Really Works - AchieveMax® Top Ten Book Review

If you watch television, read the newspaper and/or magazines, frequent... Read More

Beyond Bodybuilding: Stranger in a Strange Land -- A Book Review

When America's foremost literary critic, Harold Bloom, professor emeritus at... Read More

Review: How To Write and Publish Your Own eBook in as little as 7 Days

How To Write and Publish Your Own eBook in as... Read More

A Ghost in Cornwall

This land is my memories. For two thousand years this... Read More

The Demon Plague - Book Review

"The Demon Plague by Joreid McFate is a fantastic paranormal... Read More

Pastoral Theology: Essentials of Ministry Book Review

Author: Thomas C. Oden Paperback: 384 pages Publisher: HarperSanFrancisco;... Read More

Book Summary: First, Break All The Rules

Based on a mammoth research study conducted by the Gallup... Read More

Primal Leadership - A Book Summary

Primal leadership takes center stage in this book. This concept... Read More

Sound Bodies through Sound Therapy - Book Review

"Dorinne Davis has written many books that concentrate on the... Read More

Introducing a New Web Site

You're Fired is a book that tackles the real stories... Read More

The Leadership Pill - AchieveMax® Top Ten Book Review

The Leadership Pill is another volume for those of you... Read More

Profitable Growth Is Everyones Business - A Book Summary

The days of ruthless downsizing and drastic cost cutting are... Read More

Multi-talented Author Joseph Yakel Releases Both Historical and Comedy Works

Author Joseph Yakel is leading a two-pronged charge to provide... Read More

Gilleland Poetry: A Book Review

For me, poetry is often too obtuse and difficult for... Read More

Looking for Harvey Weinstein Book Review

Brassy, ballsy and full of energy.A totem of two women's... Read More

Star - Book Review

Tom Peters crafted a moving, educational animal adventure story in... Read More

Review for Broken Angel, by SW Vaughn

Broken Angel, by SW Vaughn, breathes with an insistent life... Read More

The 18 Immutable Laws of Corporate Reputation - A Book Summary

Everything an individual or company does or produces contributes to... Read More

Do You Know How to Buy and Read eBooks!

Now, I know what you're probably thinking, "Reading and eBook... Read More

Your Flight Questions Answered

Whether you are an experienced air traveler or a novice,... Read More

Jesus and the Gnostic Cathars

These are some of the highlights of a connected story... Read More

Review: Profit From The Author Inside You

I've reviewed a number of eBooks recently, and none of... Read More

Job Interview Answers

Last week I found an interesting book called ... Read More

Niche Site Confessions Revealed ? An Unbiased Ebook Review

If you're like me then chances are when it comes... Read More

Are You Using Both Sides of the GoogleCoin?

By now most of you realise that Google can give... Read More

Putting it on Paper - Book Review

"Dawn Josephson, author of 14 books, has written a fantastic... Read More

What $ells on EBay For What - Book Review

You look at the salesletter and the price tag ($8.95... Read More

My Dad Wears Polka-dotted Socks! - Review

"Bright colored sheets just inside the sturdy book cover certainly... Read More

Be the Leader - AchieveMax® Top Ten Book Review

The author of Be the Leader: Make the Difference, a... Read More

The Birth of I Confess

I dreamed since I was fourteen years old to spend... Read More

Lethal Option - Book Review

"This has to be one of the best detective novels... Read More