During a special CEO Roundtable seminar in August, Watermill Group Managing Partner and Founder Steven E. Karol posed essential questions all CEOs must answer to strategically lead their businesses.
Karol developed the series of questions by borrowing from time-honored theorems and applying his own leadership and implementation experiences in close to 100 organizations. The result is an effective owner/manager perspective that characterizes Watermill’s approach to strategy development.
Karol offered a holistic 6-question approach to strategic planning:
Purpose: Why does, should, or will society value what I do?
Vision: What do I want to be when I grow up?
Values: What am I?
External Analysis: What is the context that I must compete in?
Strategic Position: How do I want to play? What is my business model?
Crucial Turning Points: What do I do to get started?
To assure that the plan will be actualized, Karol recommends limiting the number of goals to four or five. To ward off staleness, and to keep the program moving, fresh and relevant, he suggests creating a 90-day plan to achieve each goal.
During a special CEO Roundtable seminar in August, Watermill Group Managing Partner and Founder Steven E. Karol posed essential questions all CEOs must answer to strategically lead their businesses.