Ceallant, Promises in Action

An objective business planning process is an essential ingredient in developing a grounded business
strategy. Ceallant provides technology clients with a systematic approach to evaluating new markets,
customers, and their critical concerns, which together forge the essential elements of a winning strategy.
Using a comprehensive, analytical and field-proven approach, Ceallant delivers consulting services in
the areas of strategic planning, competitive intelligence, and competitive positioning and messaging.
Contact us to discuss how Ceallant can help your organization.

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	If you had all the data, it wouldn't be a decision, it would be a foregone conclusion.

Why should strategy follow tactics? Why does strategic planning fail? Heard of the Stockdale Paradox? Do you know who Bert Hinkler is?

Why should strategy follow tactics?

Knowing what you do better than anyone else leads to new opportunity, how you apply that tactic to your strategy grounds your ability to execute. Tactically, no-one turns around planes faster than Southwest, everyone at Southwest knows that when the plane is on the ground they're not making money. Turning planes around faster than anyone else enables Southwest to deliver industry leading on-time departures, but more importantly requires fewer planes leading to lower operating costs, improved profitability and cheap fairs for customers.

Why does strategic planning fail?

Most companies strategic planning process is charged with politics and a mood of reservation about the market research sources and their numbers. The best market forecasts are good guesses based upon past history, so while having the best data is important, the difference between average planning and great planning is the conversation that focuses on the priority of customer concerns, the drivers of those concerns, and how your company can make a more powerful offer than the competition.

Heard of the Stockdale Paradox?

Jim Collin's in his book Good to Great identified what 11 great companies did to provide remarkable returns for shareholders...one of their critical factors was objective scrutiny of "the brutal facts" of a market and the company's position. Collin's coined this approach the Stockdale Paradox based on a discussion he had with Admiral Stockdale who led a group of prisoners of war out of the Hanoi Prison during the Vietnam War. Stockdale's men believed that they would prevail in the end regardless of the difficulties and at the same time confronted the brutal facts of their current reality.

Do you know who Bert Hinkler is?

The Law of Leadership: Hinkler was the second person to fly across the Atlantic, Charles Lindberg was obviously the first. In the mind of the customer, there is no better place to be than first; so if you can't be first, identify a new segment where you can be first. Bert was first aviator to fly from England to Australia, and was an Australian hero, however, a much smaller market when compared to the Northern Hemisphere heroes. From The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing, by Ries & Trout.