Strategic Business Issues, Trends and Questions for Researchers

Strategic Business Issues, Trends and Questions for Researchers


It's not unusual to find executives searching the Web for critical information, knowledge, new ideas or proven solutions they need for their decisions. Unfortunately it's a rare occurrence when their research efforts yield the number of data sources necessary to assure those managers they have found reliable answers.

Executives, managers and entrepreneurs spend their valuable time picking at piles and piles of data - while many expect to discover that perfect mother lode, they either leave the mountain in disgust or have too much weight and bits they still need to sift through.

While pots of gold may not be found at the end of every search, there are approaches you can use to decipher the clues and find more of the treasures you seek from your online research.

Recognize Your Roles and Responsibilities!

Executives provide leadership. You lead yourself and others to a promised land of growth, new possibilities or envisioned prosperity.

Leaders and entrepreneurs realize they have to employ two forms of leadership to achieve success - thought and activity leadership.

Thought leaders attempt to comprehend the nature of their world, they continuously seek the meanings of living; they read the ebbs and flows of their existence. They are curious and are eager to learn, experience and work with new ideas or concepts.

In the minds of thought leaders there are visions of limitless opportunities for the future, there are numerous paths leading them forward and these leaders look for ways to help more people realize their dreams.

On the other hand, activity leaders use research to find out if their paths to progress will be wide or tight, be curved or bent, be easy or hard, be safe or dangerous, be open or closed, be shaped or formless.

The action leader investigates, scouts and maps out the terrain where actors will perform, where key activities and critical priorities will play themselves out, where the imagined meets reality.

Regardless of which leadership role you play, you must apply the information you gather to be an effective learner, teacher, navigator, coach or counselor and mentor for your own and your organization's growth.

Regale Your Stakeholders!

The World Wide Web is a collection of information sources; the Internet is a communications network.

Effective executives, professionals and entrepreneurs would do well if they took full and competent advantage of both mediums.

The lines between the Web and Net are beginning to disappear and becoming transparent.

Wise leaders know communications can help people:


Absorb new knowledge

Understand the relevance of information

Share and work with their knowledge

Question beliefs, meanings and feelings

Expand their worldview, enlarge their perspectives

Incorporate newly gained information into their prevailing paradigms or current thinking
A number of companies support a blend of customer communities, where their clients are separated into different roles - where clients do the leading, contributing, promoting or consulting. These businesses use their online forums to provide them with the missing pieces of the puzzle they need to transform their innovative brainstorms into blockbuster successes.