May 2019 - 36

Pohmer On
How to Start
YOUR JOURNEY
OF CHANGE
Deep down we all know that in today's dynamic
By Stan
Pohmer
I
t's May and you're in the throes of the busiest part
of the spring season. It's scramble time trying to
keep up with inventory management, customer
service, staffing and just trying to keep the wheels
from falling off.
You've long forgotten what a weekend off looks
like, and standing still for a few minutes to catch
your breath is often a luxury; it seems like every day
is a blur. Good Lord willing, all your hard work and
planning is paying off in a profitable season!
Right now, your focus is on operations and short
term, tactical decision making, and rightfully so. You
know that after the peak is over, you'll want to recap
the season, so you can start planning for next spring,
and the better the information you have of what
worked and didn't work, missed opportunities and
home runs, the better your 2020 plans will be. So, I
encourage you to keep a daily journal, jotting down
notes while they're fresh in your memory.
Over the years, one of the most rewarding (and
frustrating and challenging!) parts of my role as
an advisor to many companies in our industry is to
help them think and act strategically, planning and
positioning/re-positioning for growth.
As an industry, we're very adept at making day-today,
tactical decisions, but very few companies take
the time (and make the effort) to think and plan
longer term.
36 | LAWN & GARDEN RETAILER | MAY 2019
marketplace, change is not an option; it's an
imperative. But, more often than not, we tend to wait
until change is forced upon us from deteriorating
financials or negative market conditions, too
frequently waiting until we're in crisis mode when
it's difficult to set and execute new direction because
we're looking over the edge of the cliff!
Don't Go at It Alone
From my experience, one of the best tools to assess
where your business is in relation to all the internal and
external conditions that exist, and to ferret out where
you should be focused, is a Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis.
Change doesn't come easy, but if the
world around you is changing and
you're not, you're losing ground!
Used correctly, it's a great process for organizing
information, presenting solutions, identifying
roadblocks and emphasizing opportunities. It's helpful
in exploring avenues for new initiatives, making
decisions about execution strategies for a new policy
or direction, identifying possible areas for change in
an existing program, refining and re-directing efforts,
and an overall review of your business positioning.
Though this analysis can be self-managed or
administered internally, it is sometimes helpful to
bring in a third party to work with you and/or your
leadership team to offer an objective outlook on
where you are and where you should be heading.
The only way SWOT or any other analyses will be
effective is to be totally honest in your responses;
owners and managers are deeply invested in what
exists today, and human nature dictates that we
tend to protect the status quo we helped create,
downplaying the significance of any challenges or
problems/deficiencies that may exist.
Once you identify the objective of the review, you list
short, concise and factual responses to the following.
Strengths:
* What do you do better than others?
* What unique capabilities and resources do you
possess?
* What's your unique value proposition?
* What do others perceive as your strengths?
Weaknesses:
* What does your competition do better than you?
* What can you improve given the current
situation?
* What do others perceive as your weaknesses?
Opportunities:
* What trends or conditions may positively impact
you?
* What opportunities are available to you?
* Do any of your strengths open any new
opportunities?
* If you eliminated any of your weaknesses, might
that lead to new opportunities?
Threats:
* What obstacles do you face?
* What are your competitors doing that may impact
you?
* Do you have solid financial support?
* Could any of your weaknesses seriously threaten
your business?
May 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of May 2019
