“Staying on Your Strategic Course”

A lot of companies have a strategic plan, but don’t deploy it properly, says Dale Crownover, president and chief executive officer of Texas Nameplate Co., a Dallas-based manufacturer of equipment nameplates that generates about $4.5 million in annual revenues.

Identify your drivers. Get started by determining your core values. "They help everybody understand who you are and why you’re doing something," explains Crownover. His company, Texas Nameplate, is driven by customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, controlled growth, process optimization, fair profit, community interface and environmental consciousness.

Develop, then deploy: Make sure your long-term goals link back to the company’s core values; then create a blueprint to execute those objectives.

Texas Nameplate has nine long-term goals — along with 40 action plans and 300 specific steps. The company makes sure every employee gets a copy of the strategic plan — with versions available in Spanish and English. It’s also important to talk about it. "You’ve got to refresh everyone’s memory," stresses Crownover.

Writer: TJ Becker