With help from our four-phase business cycle methodology, companies are able to make the right decisions at the right time. ITR Economics can help you see what’s to come for your company and your industry, and planning far ahead into the future is a best-practice that will have your team ready to further propel your business forward.
Over the years, ITR Economics has teamed up with business partners to help thousands of clients create their five-year business strategy. With the new year looming, now is the perfect time to begin planning a five-year strategy for your company. But where do you even begin? ITR is here to help get you started.
Plan Your Business Strategy Effectively With Accurate Forecasts
An effective business strategy is built upon an accurate sales forecast, as sales are the lifeblood of a company.
Without an accurate forecast of what’s to come for your company, your strategy could be completely mistimed. This could potentially lead to missed opportunities for growth and profits, losing market share to competitors, diminished working capital, or even layoffs that weaken your workforce.
Fortunately, accurate forecasting is ITR Economics’ specialty. Our overall company sales forecast accuracy is 92.19%, five quarters into the future!
Now, this decade hasn’t been without pain. Misleading economic news headlines, labor issues, and a period of steep inflation are just a few of the issues businesses are facing today. Inflation in particular will require careful attention and planning, with the help of yet another accurate forecast. Unfortunately, inflation will be a persistent problem throughout this decade, leading up to the Great Depression in the 2030s.
The key difference between profitability and losing money in the 2020s will come down to finding a producer or material price index that fits your business. Some struggle with this, and ITR answered that struggle by developing our own Custom Price Index service to assist businesses during periods of high inflation and pricing uncertainty. Whether you choose your own index or seek guidance from our experts, accurate pricing foresight will be a must-have for your five-year strategy as we move through the 2020s.
[ Further Reading: Calculate Your Rates-of-Change to Reduce Risk and Make Better Decisions! ]
Build Your 5-Year Plan with Help From Our Partners
An accurate forecast can serve as the foundation of your five-year business strategy, but our team of economic experts can’t completely build your plan alone. That’s where our trusted business partners come in. We have meticulously worked to identify resources for you in those areas outside our expertise.
The Great Game of Business’s High-Involvement Planning is a business planning process that helps lay the groundwork for outlining your five-year strategy. High-Involvement Planning is a tried-and-true method that gets your planning process out of the boardroom and into the hands of the employees who will be executing the strategies. If you need help getting the plan outlined and all the steps completed, we recommend you reach out to The Great Game of Business for guidance.
Whether developed in-house or with outside assistance, that strategy will undoubtedly include a clear, strategic marketing component, with competitive analysis, pricing strategies, coming product demand, and more! Another business partner of ours, Chief Outsiders, can help you with this. Chief Outsiders offers chief marketing officers for hire on a project basis and is a fantastic resource for a long-term business planning project.
You are the expert in your business. However, strategic development can be made easier by partnering with others. When you look for help from outside resources such as ITR Economics and our various partners, you are well on your way to building a five-year business strategy that will set your company on a course for success. For further guidance as you build out your five-year plan, stay on top of each of these key steps with our checklist – it will help keep you on track throughout the process.
