I've made a list of where my past ideas came from and what the sources of inspirations were at the moment I thought of these ideas. I should definitely surround myself of more of these creative spark plugs...

- Sources of frustration
- An unfulfilled need
- Impatience with uselessness
- A hatred for the same-old routine
- A desire to make this better and solve problems
- Need to control my destiny
- Completely unexpected or unrelated circumstances
- Applying an idea from a completely different industry
- Nature / Architecture / Design
- New cultures and new ways of thinking
- My quiet time
- My kids' innocent questions

In the past years, I've developed an expertise in defining, building, refining and testing digital strategies for significant companies and brands. Digital media strategies generate awareness, define Web 2.0 policies, build communities for stakeholder alignment, establish thought leadership and reach key constituents through all digital mediums. These are, at a very high level, the structure and processes I've seen that were effective in developing the optimal digital strategy roadmap.

STEP 1 : General education – what is out there ?Repository of knowledge

Market analysis and trends
- New technologies
- New consumer behavior / usage stats
- Competitive landscape
- How it affects Media / Other departments

In the form of
- Presentations
- Briefs, posts on intranet
- Studies

STEP 2 : Strategic assessment – where are we now ?
Current digital situation (high level)
- Yearly updates
- Renewals every year

Corporate
- Values, mission, vision
- SWOT
- Core competencies
- Brand promise / BHAG

Context / Market
- Trends
- 4Ps
- Revenue behaviors

Consumer segment
- Demographics / Personas
- Interests
- Life-phase / roles
- Consumer behavior

Competitors
- USPs

Capacities
- Innovation
- Budget

STEP 3 : Opportunity development – where can we go ?
Identification of viable opportunities

Use cases
- Scenario-driven
- Consumer-based

Investment criteria
- w/ M&A group

Considerations
- Budgeting
- Market

STEP 4 : Digital media mix – how can we get there ?
Find the best mix to accomplish selected options with:
- Functionalities
- Media reach
- Expected results
- Digital team’s capabilities

Develop roadmaps

Customization of monetization features

STEP 5 : R&D and Partners – who can help us get there ?
Buy vs Build vs Partnering

Based on preset criteria

Builds the funnel for future acquisitions

Test out new concepts without significant investments

Following my many readings on strategic planning and combining the theory with my experience, here are the sections of a solid strategic plan with the critical questions for each.

Hope this helps in planning the growth in your businesses. I know it helped me (and my clients) a great deal.

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Mission statement
- To define the organization's core purpose.
- Why do we exist ?

Vision
- To explain where you are headed, your future state.
- To formulate a picture of what your organization's future makeup will be and where is the organization headed.
- What will your organization look like in 5 to 10 years from now ?

Values statement or guiding principles
- To clarify what you stand for and believe in.

SWOT
- To assess the particular strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that are strategically important to your organization through        Market Attractiveness and Business Strength

Competitive advantage
- To define what you are best at.
- What can your organization potentially do better than any other organization ?

Strategic objectives
- To connect your mission to your vision.
- Strategic objectives are long-term, continuous strategic areas that get you moving from your mission to achieving your vision.
- What are the key activities that you need to perform in order to achieve your mission ?

Strategies
- To establish a guide that matches your organization's strength with market opportunities to position your organization in the mind of the customer.
- Does the strategy match your strengths with how you will provide value to and be perceived by your customers ?

Short-term goals / priorities / initiatives
- To set goals that convert the strategic objectives into specific performance targets.
- Effective goals clearly state what, when, how, and who and are specifically measurable.
- What are the 1 - 3 year goals you are trying to achieve to get to your strategic objectives ?

Actions items / plans
- To set specific action plans that lead to implementing your goals.
- Are your actions comprehensive enough to achieve your goals ?

Scorecard
- To measure and manage your strategic plan.
- What are the key performance measures you can track in order to monitor whether you are achieving your goals ?

Financial assessment
- To determine whether your strategic plan makes financial sense.
- Do the estimated revenue projections exceed your estimated expenses ?

Wow. I started drafting this blog a week ago because I wanted to encourage the innovators and the thought leaders to continue to persevere despite the many challenges we face. Ironically, I had no idea how much it would be relevant for me personally.

Media Transcontinental, in a surprise move yesterday, decided to abolish the role of Director, Digital Strategies. It was a role I created to offer education, guidance, consulting and digital thought-leadership to all internal and external stakeholders: the many magazines, the business publications, the weekly newspapers, the advertising clients, etc.

I believe strongly (and I know I am biased) that in recessionary times, it is INNOVATION that will eventually determine the winners from the losers. When the dust settles, the one who will have prepared for the future will beat out the competition.

The proactive always bests the reactive.

Especially in fields like digital media where the consumers are evolving. Traditional brands need to be where the consumers are and will be migrating, now more than ever. It really is innovate or die.

While it is discouraging to see a big media company take that defensive approach, I do wish them well. They have amazing brands and great potential to change peoples lives with the information they are providing.

I feel like the missionary in the desert who was stopped before reaching the Promised Land. I can see it on the horizon, but I won't be able to step into it with them. Because of the tremendous respect and appreciation I have for the owner-family, I really do hope that they find their way there.

This does not, however, change my resolve to keep educating, innovating and guiding those who will want to embrace the digital revolution we are experiencing. Thankfully, I already have quite a few interesting opportunities in that respect.

So to those out there trying to promote change and innovation in a difficult context, keep persevering. I feel your pain.

After all, this was found on the wall in the late 1800's...

Here is a Visa commercial that demonstrates negotiation in the most creative form I've seen yet. So many subtle lessons here:
- he who has the gold, makes the rules
- the greatest asset in a negotiation is not necessarily money
- it's not over until you have all the desired assets in your hand
- if you can't leave the negotiation table, you lose
- if you are the most creative and innovative, you win

Chrystian Guy (www.cguy.org), a friend of mine and literary artist came up with 4 'hanging approaches' to desperate situations. Impressive how it adequately describes our common reactions, all related to the word 'hang'.

The 4 'hanging' approaches when things go bad
1. Hang in there
2. Hang yourself over with any type of numbing substance
3. Hang yourself - period
4. Hang up on it.

He then brings it all together in a nice simple package with these words of encouragement for those of you going through tough times:
If you decide on #1, we could meet for #2, trying to avoid #3 and find ways to do #4...

Love it.

Former City of New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani gave us a brilliant and memorable quote at the Republican Convention a few days ago. (I'm not showing my colors - I've watched most of both Conventions).

This quote sums up everything I believe in about two grand concepts I love: change and strategy. I take it out of context and I do not apply it to American politics, but rather to my experience in the corporate world and in human relationships.

"Change is not a destination just like hope is not a strategy".

Bullseye.

I was roasting marshmallows the other day with my kids. While analyzing how the sugary treat reacts to the fire, I couldn't help drawing parallels between that activity and managing people.

For those of you who have never had the joy of marshmallows on the fire, here's what happens :
- You put it on the end of a stick, usually a piece of wood you handcrafted with the pocketknife you brought to impress your friends.
- You bring it near the flame ... and the distance is the secret. Too close, and your marshmallow catches on fire, leaving a black calcined (and some say cancerous) outside crust and a hard middle. Too far, and your patience is what will get burned.
- At the right distance, and by wisely turning the treat with the stick, you get a golden outside color with a very tasty gooey middle. A true delight.

As a manager, I want my people to be entrepreneurial and take initiatives that they think are great for the organization. Which means they will make mistakes. Which means I want them to learn from their mistakes. If they can grow through their mistakes and come out stronger, then that is success - for themselves and the organization.

So I need to learn to let them feel the heat of the consequences of their actions, but just at the right amount. Too close to the flame and they develop a hard black outside crust and keep a hardened middle. Too far from the flame and they never learn. Both cases eventually become nightmarish for me.

The ideal is to make them feel the heat just enough to create a learned experience, an ingrained new habit and a willingness to keep putting themselves out there and be entrepreneurial.

That's when I - and the organization - gets the delicious golden hue with the gooey center.

And then, as I look at my 4 year old, I realize it's the same darn thing with kids...

I've read some interesting quotes about strategy in the last months, prepping for the current strategy-focused position I have. The one that stuck with me was from Verne Harnish, CEO of Gazelles - a growth consulting company. It give an interesting view as to why we need solid strategy in a company.

"Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed...

every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.

It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle...when the sun comes up, you'd better be running."

Strategy tells you where to run to either eat or to not get eaten.

Strategy.

A word that means everything and nothing at the same time. It is overused so much, I feel it's lost all meaning.

Since my current role at Transcontinental is one of 'Digital Strategies', it was was in my interest to come up with an easy, vulgarized, descriptive and rallying definition of the word.

So, true to form, I read over 30 books, countless blogs and even more web pages on 'Strategy'. I was searching for that common thread that would help cement what the word 'strategy' could mean in an organization like the one I'm in.

And finally I found it. Nothing groundbreaking, but the definition I formulated out of this process was one I could happily start promoting.

Strategy answers two important questions :

- What CAN you do ?

- What SHOULD you do ?

Now the key are the tools you will develop to answer those crucial questions. But that is for another blog...