Many a company executive has asked me over the years, “Why is it necessary to continuously look at our strategic plan? We work on it prior to the start of a new year, as you recommend, and now you’re telling us to look at it again when it is only May 1st? We are only four months into the year!”
Yes – that is true. Your plan and SWOT are impacted by continuous forces, caused by either internal or external events, which are out of your control.
An example of such an outside event was reported in the Wall Street Journal today, May 2nd. The mall landlords are preparing to meet in Las Vegas for the ICSC. David Simon, of Simon Property Group, and colleagues are pushing the states for collection of sales tax from online retailers. Amazon, for years, has been urging lawmakers to leave this existing regulation alone. The sales tax collection issue has been left on the back burner as far back as the days of catalog shopping and shipping locations. Now that e-commerce has become such a strong avenue for retail, the “brick and mortar” stores are suffering. Now the landlords are coming forward, trying to help their tenants.
What is the effect of e-commerce charging sales tax? How does this change the dynamics of your business? Whether as a manufacturer, distributor, retailer, or landlord, this change will either give you parity with e-commerce or remove one of your differentiation values.
Keep your eyes and ears open for these changes in the wind which will affect your business and cause you to have to re-think your strategic plans (marketing, merchandising, and e-commerce). For help or ideas call us at Elanstrategic.