The holidays are a good time for planning

I've spent a good portion of my day today and yesterday with Tom Staples of Cooler Planet reflecting on 2008 and making plans for 2009.  The process of figuring out the strategic priorities for a company can be a bit of a dizzying process. It's easy to focus on tactics -- make a list of the things that should be done or you've thought about doing and haven't gotten to yet.   Tactics for Cooler Planet include providing more value for our installer base with additional products, providing more value to consumers with more energy efficient offerings and information, increasing traffic through a variety of strategies, etc.  But tactics don't really allow you to answer questions of priority and more importantly, what you won't do. And that's where strategy comes in -- what is this company, what market are we in, who are our customers, what are the strengths and opportunities face the company.  The good news about not having a lot of cash reserves is you can be very focused and very tactical and drive the company hard toward increasing cash flow (and thereby increasing cash reserves). So Tom and I have gone round and round -- and we're not through it yet but the strategic conversations have placed the tactical decisions in a different and clearer light.  So, I'm encouraging all my companies and readers to spend some of the holidays planning for 2009.