The Winning Manager’s Playbook

So, what do we actually do?

The reality is that most of us set goals and create strategies in an iterative process. We go back and forth to test the reasonableness of each.

For example, most of us always have some knowledge of our marketplace and our capabilities. In effect, we have some version of the Spider Diagram, however imperfect, in our mind.

Thus, based upon the available information, we create, in our minds, some rough but credible strategies that allow us to set a reasonable range for our goals. Then we set the specific goals, within this range. Finally, we create the detailed strategies we’ll use to achieve the goals.

For example, in the case of our mall-based sandwich shop, we might know that there are five other lunch places in the ...