We’ve run some workshops recently on prioritisation.  It is not merely a vital business skill, it is a vital life skill.  Life is short, even if you are young. The life of a business can also be very short if it does not focus all its skills and energies on the things that matter. 

If you are thinking about your personal priorities, then you only have yourself to argue with.  In a business getting to an agreed set of priorities is hard but not impossible.  Most businesses manage it once a year.  Strategy signed off, budget signed off, OKRs in place, everyone aligned, here we go.  What could possibly go wrong?

As Mike Tyson so memorably said “everyone has a plan until you get a punch in the mouth”.  That wonderful sense of aligned priorities lasts just until the first punch.  What mostly happens then is an unravelling of the plan and it’s priorities.  By the end of the first quarter the sense of order has gone, things slow down and one department’s priorities are different to everyone else’s.

The only remedy for this it to accept it will happen and for the leadership team together to re-align the company priorities.  It needs to be done again and again. It can often seem like a waste of time.  But it can reduce stress, keep the business aligned and focused on what the priorities are at that moment.  In the business climate today a strategy that looked right in January may look very wrong by June.

Business leaders have to stay focused on the future and that means being focussed on the world outside your industry bubble.  Networking is all very well but if you just network within your industry then what you hear will probably just reinforce your existing prejudices. 

 You need to start talking to people outside your industry and you need to keep a very close watch on local and global politics.  This is the sharp end of risk management and it’s a million miles away from planning what to do if your building catches fire. You need to do that too but it’s not hard.

Never look at major threats and think “It’s all too difficult, we’ll face that one when it happens.  There are two things you should be thinking about now. 

One is the shift of nations to a pre-war footing.  That means two things, more spending on defence and less spending on everything else.  Coupled with the economic backdrop that is not too rosy what does that mean for your business?  Is it a threat or an opportunity and what are you going to do about it? You don’t have to be in the defence industry to be affected by this.  It means less spending on many things and will almost certainly mean higher taxes.

The other thing to think about is the US election (and all of the other elections around the world).  Whether or not Trump is elected, 2024 will be a year of uncertainty, and that means less spending and less investment (apart from defence).  If you have plans to raise money this year might it be better to wait until the election is over or should you do it now?

Don’t wait until it is too late.  Start on scenario planning now.