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Personal Strategy Plan
Description:  In no more than 5 single spaced pages apply the front end of the strategy process model (vision, mission, goals, external and internal analysis and five forces) to your first five years after graduation.  Be specific about your vision/mission, goals and objectives and how you will allocate time and effort to these.

The plan should include the following sections:

1.    Goal Analysis
a.    Analyze your own goals.  An important step in your career strategy must be carefully analyzing your own goals.
b.    You may be trapped by a success ethic you think you should have but do not really feel.  You think you should want to get ahead, make more money, try for the top.  For some people these are realistic goals, but not for everyone.  If your family means more to you than your job, if money is not that important to you, you will be a lot happier if you admit this.
c.    Understanding your own goals is not easy, but can be done.  The best way is to discuss them with someone else, preferably someone with professional training – a psychologist, psychiatrist, minister.  If you feel uncomfortable discussing your goals with a trained professional, try to do so with a friend or relative who is a good listener.
d.    A few questions you should ask yourself:
i.    If you could have any job you wanted, what would it be?
ii.    How important is making a lot of money?
iii.    How much income do you want?
iv.    Do you really want to do an executives work?
v.    In what size of a firm do you want to work?
vi.    How valuable is security?
vii.    Where do you want to work and live?
viii.    How many hours a week are you willing to work?
ix.    Are you willing to travel and/or relocate?
2.    Personal Analysis
a.    Analyze your assets and liabilities.  You would not forecast your firms future without first clearly analyzing its assets and liabilities.  Your career strategy should be based on the same type of analysis: you must understand the assets you have to work with and the liabilities you must overcome or compensate for.
b.    Businesses have standardized accounting procedures and assets and liabilities can be compared by stating them in dollar terms.  Your assets are hard to measure and usually cannot be compared to one another.  We do not know the exact value of a business degree, high intelligence, a pleasing personality, etc. 
c.    Although you exactly assess your assets and liabilities, you can make a more accurate approximation than you have now by using the same general technique you used to analyze your goals: with or without help from another person ask yourself a large number of fairly specific questions, write down the answers and then sort your assets and liabilities into two columns.  Compare yourself to whom you are competing for jobs, raises and promotions, not with the general public.
d.    Ask questions such as:
i.    How intelligent are you?
ii.    How hard do you work?
iii.    Are you good at company politics?
iv.    How persistent are you?
v.    How good of a supervisor are you?
vi.    How much demand is there for your experience?
vii.    How does your past success compare with your competitors?
viii.    How good are your relations with your superiors?
ix.    How well do you get along with your co-workers?
x.    Do you have any unusual skills or knowledge?
3.    Opportunity Analysis:
a.    Analyze your opportunities.  Normally the work “opportunity” refers to your chances for advancement, but here we shall use it to refer to the chances you have to reach your goals, regardless of what these goals may be.  If you want to start your own company, so be it.  If you want a lower pressure job, or one with more satisfying work, more regular hours, less company travel, “opportunity” refers to your chance to reach these goals.
b.    You need to understand the growth, profitability and opportunities in your firm and industry, and the possibilities of your present job and other jobs you can obtain.  
c.    Ask questions such as:
i.    How rapidly is your industry growing?
ii.    How profitable is your industry compared to other industries?
iii.    How well does your industry pay compared to other industries?
iv.    How does your firm’s growth rate compare to the industries?
v.    How do your company’s profit compare to the industry average?
vi.    How well does your company pay?
vii.    How much agreement is there between your goals and values and the official and unofficial company policies and practices?
viii.    How highly is your unit valued by top management at your company?
ix.    How many people have moved upward from your unit or present job to higher management?
x.    Is your boss promotable?
xi.    Do your superiors view you as promotable?
xii.    How much has your income increased since you started with the firm?
4.    Long Range career planning
a.    Plan your career.  Most people do not plan their careers.  They take a job because it looks good and inertia takes over.  They may stay at a job long after they should quit, or change jobs prematurely or for irrational reasons, and they rarely have an overall concept of where they are going and how they are going to get there.
b.    The first step in career planning is a long term goal.  Where do you want to end up ultimately?  There are two basic parts of an effective vision: first is a “Guiding Philosophy” – a set of core values and principles.  Second is a bold mission, or what Jim Collins (author of Good to Great) likes to call a BHAG – a big, hairy, audacious goal.
c.    Guiding criteria for BHAGs are:
i.    Are set with understanding, not bravado.
ii.    Fit squarely in the 3 circles of a.) what you are passionate about b.) what drives your economic logic and c.) what differentiates you.
iii.    Have a long time frame – 10 – 30 years.
iv.    Are clear, compelling and easy to grasp.
v.    Directly reflect your core values and purpose.
d.    One the long term goal (or goals) is set, you have to establish intermediate term goals.  If you want to be president, what jobs will you first have to take in order to get there and when do you need to have these jobs?  What training do you need?  What political connections do you need?  Then you have to set up an orderly plan for obtaining the connections and training you need and getting into these stepping stone jobs.
e.    Finally, you need to establish short term goals to clearly fit into a coherent plan for your entire career.  Your next job should be picked not only for its salary or for its opportunities for advancement, but for its chances to provide you with the training and connections you need to reach your long term goals.to

( but it is not necessary to write about the eqtuation that you won't need to take about)