A Guide To Strategic Planning
Contents
Contents ...2 Foreword ...3 UK Business Advisors ...3 The Basics ...4The Do's and Don'ts of Strategic Planning ...4
The Real Definition Of Business Strategy...7
The New Strategic Planning ...9
What is your SWOT? ... 11
Do it Yourself Strategic Planning ... 13
The Vision ... 18
Are You Working On Your Business Or In Your Business ... 18
Visioning - Three Reasons to Incorporate It Into Your Strategic Thinking ... 21
That Vision Thing - Strategic Thinking for any Business... 24
The Secret to Success in Business Planning…plan your work and work your plan... 26
What Does Strategy Mean To You - The Unspoken Secret? ... 30
Where Will You Be In 2-5 Years?... 32
Strategic Planning - Why Should A Business Owner Bother Taking The Time To Have One? ... 34
The Execution... 37
Your Strategy Is Wrong, But That's Ok! ... 37
Your Action Plan… and how to execute it ... 38
Developing a Business Strategy is Simple - Executing is a Different Story... 40
Strategic Planning Done Right: Tips to Develop Strategies and Deliver Results ... 41
Bridging the Strategy - Execution Gap ... 44
Strategic Planning – The 2 Gaping Pitfalls ... 58
Strategic Planning - Helping You Make Those Hard Decisions ... 61
Strategic Planning – Everyone should be involve ... 63
The Results ... 65
How do you measure the risks and rewards that are associated with your business? ... 65
Measuring performance – Results make the difference ... 68
Strategic Accountancy - Making The Numbers Really Add Up ... 70
Prepare For Change ... 72
Strategic Change as a Journey ... 72
Organizational Personality ... 75
Change: Cultural characteristics and expectations management ... 79
The Market ... 83
How Easy Are You to Do Business With? Assessing your Structure when Working your Strategic Plan ... 83
Does Your Operation Fit Your Product Mix?... 87
Winning Marketplace Tactics?... 89
The Followthrough ... 92
Strategy is More Than the Boss's Business - It's Everyone's Business!... 92
Where Will Your Strategy Guru Lead You? ... 94
Strategic Planning - 3 Areas to Focus on When Doing Your External Assessment... 97
Strategy Review... 101
Author Profiles ... 104
A Guide To Strategic Planning
Foreword
UK Business Advisors are pleased to bring you this free ebook with a selection of articles from independent experts from around the world offering their knowledge in the domain of strategic planning to help you grow and develop your business. Please take time to explore the information enclosed within the next 100+ pages and we hope that you take on board some of the experience that is shared within to your advantage.
We welcome your comments on this ebook – please forward your feedback to
If you would like some help with your strategic planning – please give us a call on 0870 420 2756 or email us at [email protected] and also take a
look at our “Strategy Review” briefing near the end of this book.
UK Business Advisors
UKBA: the local business improvement team ...with worldwide back-up.
The Pragmatic Approach to Business Solutions
Who are we? - We are a group of independent business advisors working
across the UK. Accredited by the Institute for Independent Business, we all have hands on experience of running our own businesses. We know what it's like!
Who do we work with? - We work with small to medium sized
organisations that are working too much "in the business", rather than "on the business"....and who are looking to develop a future strategy, as well as being open to external help and support.
What do we do? - We help small businesses grow to become bigger
organisations and achieve sustained profitable growth.
How do we do it? - With expertise across a wide range of industry sectors
and skills, we adopt a hands on, practical approach to the issues facing a business...working with Managing Director/Owners to resolve problems across finance, sales and marketing, operations, people and management. We develop action based, timed and measured plans to achieve results. We look at where you are now, where you want to get to and how you are going to get there.
Why do we do it? - We get passionate about the different businesses that
we work with and are driven by making your business (as well as ours!) a success.
A Guide To Strategic Planning
The Basics
The Do's and Don'ts of Strategic Planning
Rebecca Staton-Reinstein
Strategic Planning has made a comeback worldwide. Companies, governmental agencies and nonprofits are all adopting it. Although Strategic Planning has been around for years and the basic tools are well known, many leadership teams still stumble in the planning and execution stages. Basic “do’s and don’ts” will help you lock in success and avoid common pitfalls.
Follow the (modified) KISS principle: Keep it Simple and Sustained. Less is more. A successful plan is not measured by the pound. Your goal is to create goals and objectives that focus your work for the next year or two. Limit the goals and objectives to one page so you can manage on the “top page.” Don’t go into greater detail than necessary or set too many Goals or Objectives. Too many details, goals or objectives lead to confusion, conflicting goals, micromanagement and failure to execute.
Follow all of the steps as described. Use the planning methodology you choose as it was designed. You chose it because of its reputation. Learn from others’
success. Don’t skip steps or do them partially. If you bought an expensive briefcase, you would not immediately change the handle, put on a different carrying strap or have it dyed another colour. Avoid tinkering with the process, since you have no data to justify your changes.
Stay focused on the Mission. The Mission, what the organization wants to do or be, is central for planning and day-to-day execution. Before you accept any goal, objective, strategy or tactic or take action ask, “How will this help fulfil the Mission?” Don’t do things because “we’ve always done it,” or “I think we should do it even though it doesn’t fit our Mission.” Without the Mission driving your decisions, you will miss innovative solutions, drift off course or become reactionary.
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Use the “brain dump” activity to alleviate the urge to begin the Tactical Plan prematurely. You are an excellent tactician and, faced with a problem, you quickly suggest solutions. This is a liability in strategic planning where you and your team have to create high level goals and specific objectives based on the Mission. List every idea the team has. Set these ideas, the “brain dump,” aside until you are ready to create the tactical plan. Don’t begin laying out the Tasks before the Mission, Goals and Objectives are clearly stated. The Mission sets the context for the Goals, which are the context for Objectives, specific, measurable results. Choose tactics to achieve these higher level results from your brain dump at the END of the process.
Measure, Measure, Measure! Select useful, significant measurements for all goals, objectives and tactics. What information do you need to make decisions? Revisit KISS: Keep It Simple and Significant. Don’t avoid measurement because it is sometimes difficult to do. Measurement may be difficult, especially when dealing with customer satisfaction, employee morale or effectiveness. Define some way to measure these intangibles so you can gauge progress during execution. Measure the quality of results wherever possible. Quality measures how
customers judge your products or services. This provides the best information for strategic decision making and keeps you focused on the mission and customer. Don’t select productivity measures, just because they are easier to define. Important as it is, productivity does not tell you if you are creating a product or service that the customer wants. You can always make junk faster. When you focus on quality, you are more productive, since you reduce costly rework. Provide support, resources, training, guidance, direction and coaching to assure everyone’s success. People cannot perform well unless they have everything they need to do the job. The plan is only as good as its execution, which depends on great people management. Don’t dump people into situations without providing what they need to get the job done. Delegation means understanding what the person needs to get the job done and providing it. You can only hold people accountable for what they can actually control.
A Guide To Strategic Planning
Manage by Fact: We are judged by our results. Good planning sets the stage for good performance. Review results regularly to make decisions and manage. The basic dialogue: “Are we on target?” “Yes” “Keep up the good work.” “No” “What is your plan to get back on target?” Targets are just targets. Look for root causes of undesired results. When you are not getting the desired results, investigate the root causes and modify your plans or targets appropriately. Don’t manage by intimidation, placing blame or gut feel. These approaches don’t work since people may comply but they won’t be fully engaged. Don’t ignore off target data or make excuses. The opposite of the “blame game” is denial. If a goal or objective is not reached, investigate, find the root cause, devise a solution and re-plan. Hope is not a strategy for success in the real world.
Strategic Planning works because it disciplines the organization to harness the intellectual energy of all employees and guides the organization in a clear direction. Following these “Do’s and Don’ts” will help you plan and execute successfully.
A Guide To Strategic Planning
The Real Definition Of Business Strategy
Art Consoli
“Thank you Dr. Richard Rumelt.”
I always knew I was good at devising strategies for the business opportunities that came my way, but I never gave much thought to what a business strategy really was. In Dr. Rumelt’s interview with Dan P. Lovallo and Lenny T. Mendonca as presented in The McKinsey Quarterly, he nailed it!
Unlike a business plan which is usually done on a repetitive time frequency, a business strategy plan is done when an opportunity or a crisis occurs. Some businesses may go for quite some time without ever having the need to do a strategy plan. Others may do them frequently.
At the heart of a strategy plan is the recognition of the opportunity (or the crisis) when it occurs and the understanding of whether the resources available (capital, talent and time) can be deployed to take advantage of the opportunity. Once satisfied that the right resources are available and that the opportunity passes the test of being worthwhile, the business leader has to devise the strategy to create a successful outcome.
Dr. Rumelt uses Steve Jobs success with the iPod as the result a strategic plan can produce. In fact Jobs was so good at understanding the real meaning of business strategy; what it was, that it occurred without respect to dates on a calendar and that it depended on recognizing that something was happening, that when he was asked, “What are you doing? What’s the long term strategy (for Apple)?”
Jobs replied, “I am going to wait for the next big thing.”
And when he understood what was happening with the need being expressed in the marketplace and how the technology Apple was already employing he leaped
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The strategic plan is what should be used whenever anyone recognizes the
situation Dr. Rumelt labels, “value denial.” Simply described this situation is when there is an unfulfilled need that buyers will pay for which no one is offering to fill. His example is the high rate of lost baggage occurrences now happening in the airline industry.
Would the consumer pay for a baggage delivery guarantee? Yes. Is such a service being offered? No. Why not? Certainly the airlines could figure out how much they would have to charge for this service which, in a totally ridiculous solution, could be provided by having employees hand place the insured pieces of luggage in a special compartment on the plane and hand retrieve same upon arrival. But this service is not available, the consumer is denied this service. This is a revenue generator the airlines are missing.
That’s what true strategic planning is all about; how to maximize the opportunity and minimize the crisis. Such a plan is not done annually; it is done when the opportunity or the need arises.
In a well run business (defined here as one with few if any crisis) where the leader has encouraged actively seeking out opportunities, strategic planning should be going on all the time. Besides creating new profit centres this practice will create a much stronger management team and an abundance of mentoring situations which will bring out the best of all involved.
A Guide To Strategic Planning
The New Strategic Planning
Shane Busby
Most organizations set out their direction in an overall strategic plan. The plan includes some rendition of a cascading goals – actions – evaluation process that is meant to have the organization achieve the financial or organizational success it desires. Unfortunately, most organizations stop short of engaging the correct planning methodology and the detailed analysis required to really create
measurable change.
If a company creates a strategic plan or business plan that is devoid of demographic projections and financial data, then it has probably defaulted to “motherhood” statements that attempt to portray where it wants to go and maybe includes some objectives, strategies, tactics, program framework and evaluation mechanisms in the process. However, if it does not do the crunching of the numbers and measure where it is before and after the strategic plan unfolds, then how will it know if it has arrived at its goal state? The answer is: it won’t! Too many strategic plans I’ve seen over the years have keyed in on high-level directional statements, nebulous goals, and loosely fitted strategies and tactics. The measurements usually consist of industry standardized metrics, which, at the end of the day may or may not be affected by the strategic since the strategies are not specific enough to create the targeted results they proclaim to create. So, then what is the answer?
The answer lies in the work that occurs either before or at the earliest stages of the strategic planning process. The most important work that can be done is to research, itemize, categorize, and analyze the data provided by your operating environment. It is important to utilize environmental or situational analysis models in order to really understand where you are right now. These models should involve a detailed assessment of the current, historical and projected aspects related to the internal and external operating and planning environments of the company. External factors include: political, regulatory, legal, economic,
A Guide To Strategic Planning
factors. Internal analysis should utilize past, present and future data related to people, finance, marketing, technology, leadership/management strength, project management capacity, growth capacity, capital investment and capacity,
measured internal growth and scalability.
Once you have surveyed these numbers and distilled out the common themes, then and only then should a strategic plan be formed which aligns itself with your organization’s strengths and protects itself against its weaknesses.
A visioning process masquerading as a strategic planning process leads nowhere, other than to the creation of glossy documents that all say the same thing. I’ve reviewed strategic plans for a service organization in the public sector that were indistinguishable from a private sector manufacturing company. This should not happen.
Executive level management and Boards of Directors need to be aware of the data and figures and how they relate to the organization’s overall strategic direction. Instead of creating separate strategic, business, operating, evaluation, stakeholder, communication plans; why not consider rolling them up into one planning binder. You’ll save paper, and the organization can use this corporate encyclopaedia to chart and navigate its course, instead of having several disparate plans and planning processes that more often than not create duplication, waste, and underutilization of resources.
A Guide To Strategic Planning
What is your SWOT?
Terry Hill
An effective tool that assesses and identifies opportunities and risks is a SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning toolused to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats involved in a business venture or project. Once a clear objective has been identified, a SWOT analysis can be highly effective in the pursuit of the objective.
SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It's an assessment technique that paints an accurate picture of how your business stacks up based on these four factors. SWOT is a simple, popular way to gather and use information in preparing or amending your business plan. It's also useful in solving problems, making decisions and educating staff when change is
necessary.
In brief, SWOT means identifying:
o
Strengths--internal factors- such as expertise, innovation, and resources.o
Weaknesses--internal factors- such as a high level of debt, slow moving inventory, and labour shortages.o
Opportunities--external advantages- such as a rapidly growing market where demand outstrips supply.o
Threats--potential external risks- such as natural disasters, competitive price undercutting, and changes in the general business environment. Calculate SWOT, and you can quickly identify your venture's pros and cons. Aligning internal strengths and weaknesses with external opportunities and threats is essential to sound strategic planning. With SWOT, you know where you stand today and where you are going tomorrow. With SWOT, you can identify and prioritize the issues that will accelerate success.In the planning stages of jump starting your business, SWOT is essential to your business plan--especially if you're looking for capital. Why? Investors appreciate
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To calculate SWOT, you need to understand the factors--internal and external--that will affect your progress.
Internal factors are those factors that are within your control and that take place within your business environment:
o
Operational issues--the efficiency of your operation.o
Staff and employees--the loss of a key salesperson or supervisor.o
Capacity-- resources available that match supply with demand.o
Cash flow--the timely flow of revenues to pay financial obligations.o
Costs--costs of doing business such as payroll, equipment, and rent.o
Productivity--ability to produce desired number of products or level of service within a given time frame.External factors are general conditions and environmental factors that are outside of your control:
o
The general business environment--interest rates and demographics.o
Economic change--a sudden deterioration in the geographic/regional market or growth in the macroeconomic climate.o
Industry/market/customer trends- -changes in the competitive landscape.o
Technology trends--trends that can be used to your advantage.o
Regulatory environment--changes that can create opportunity.o
Weather issues--whether you are a tennis pro, a painter, or a landscaper, long periods of bad weather can limit revenue-generating opportunities.o
Product availability-- manufacturing materials that you count on are suddenly impossible to obtain.The purpose of the SWOT analysis is to examine and identify all of these factors, (the likelihood that some or all of the factors will come into play), quantify how they can affect your business, and then develop a contingency plan. Examine each of the internal and external factors and develop reasonable responses.
A Guide To Strategic Planning
Do it Yourself Strategic Planning
Shane Busby
Contrary to what pundits, management consultants, or professional advisors will tell you, it is not necessary to have an externally procured individual or team come in to facilitate and develop a sound, strategic plan for your organization. It is entirely possible, with a little bit of training and initiative, for you to develop a sound, robust, comprehensive strategic plan yourself without taking a Masters level course in Strategic Management.
If, on the other hand, you see an externally facilitated strategic planning session as an opportunity for the management team to get together, to bond and swap “war-stories” in a team-building environment, then by all means spend your money. However, for the majority of businesses and business owners who indeed know what their business is, who their competitors are, and what the upside market potential is, outsourcing this imminently doable, in-house, job can be a waste of precious resources.
On the other hand, where consultants are extremely useful are: (1) where
business parameters are vague, (2) when little to no expertise exists internally to facilitate or accomplish strategic planning, (3) where “turfism” reins supreme amongst senior management, or (4) where the business or organization is so complex that throwing a net over the entire operation or Strategic Business Unit (SBU) is next to impossible. In these and other similar instances, it is money well spent to have your strategic planning outsourced with your input and
involvement. This last point, i.e. your input and involvement, is critical to successful strategic planning.
Whomever you bring in to facilitate the process will have an idea of what your organization is about, but will not know the whole picture. Consultants will often convey that they know much more than they actually do about your business. Many are so smooth and polished that you will find it difficult not to defer to them – after all, they are the experts, or are they? Regardless of what you have been
A Guide To Strategic Planning
contracting with – “university degrees and professional certification do not an expert make”.
On the other hand, before I receive hate mail from qualified strategic planners, often individuals with advanced degrees, certifications, and business training are able to structure how you think about your challenges. Sometimes you are so close to the problem that it is not possible for you to step back and take an objective look. This is the advantage of external involvement. Ok, now, back to DIY strategic planning.
Assuming you know your business, your market and other aspects of your business environment, strategic planning in-house is imminently doable. The list below numbered one through eight is common to nearly every strategic plan (or should be). You can name the phases differently if you like, i.e., vision = strategic direction, for instance. Strategic planning is a fairly linear process. It is designed that way to ascertain whether a given set of actions will yield measurable, traceable results. Without some linearity, tracing results to actions and on up would be difficult. When you are in your planning process, do not make the mistake of being rigidly linear or unbendingly inflexible. Yes, it is important to maintain your focus on your vision and mission, but if your objectives or strategies are not resulting in movement toward your vision or mission over a period of time, then you will need to at least think about re-thinking your approach.
First, begin by assembling key individuals who will contribute to the plan. Write up an agenda using the following headings. Use brainstorming techniques and discussions to elicit ideas from all contributors. Write down everything without pre-judging contributions in order to demonstrate valuation of input. As a group, choose the best, clear statements which describe how your business relates to the heading. Keep the statements as short and poignant as possible. Move onto the next heading. Do not allow individuals who have "been there done that" to short circuit or derail your process. Strategic planning is a critical business activity. Organizations that do not do this business process well run the risk of under-performing, or in extreme cases, failing.
A Guide To Strategic Planning
In the main, the following list of strategic headings will assist as a guide for you throughout your planning process.
1. Vision – organizationally, a simple statement of where you want to be and
what you will look like when you arrive in three to five years.
2. Mission – a simple statement of what it is you do (make it specific and yet
flexible enough to capture your core competencies and reach your stretch targets)
3. Objectives – simple, short statements (a few) that are specific; measurable;
aggressive yet attainable; realistic and reachable, and time-limited (usually beginning with the word “to”) that will have direct correlative impacts on your vision.
4. Strategies – macro-approaches to achieving your objectives. For instance, a
non-profit society may have the following strategies aligned with a single objective:
Objective: To house 10% more abandoned teen mothers over the next five years
Strategy 1: Fund-raise by developing five more events this year than last Strategy 2: Begin planning and designing phases this year
Strategy 3: Lobby government agencies to cost-share staffing for three more houses
Strategy 4: Add a Board member with significant project development experience
Strategy 5: Lobby the United Way and other macro-agencies for contributions
5. Tactics (action planning) –
Strategy 1: Fund-raise by developing five more charity events this year
Tactic 1: Meet with existing society managers and volunteers to brainstorm
Tactic 2: Develop telephone soliciting campaign
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6. Implementation (execution) – take deliberate action on each item identified
on your tactics list. Keep on coordinating, managing, and taking action until you begin to see desired results. This is the most difficult phase and often the one that organizations fall short on. Do not give up too early as success is quite often just a little further down the road than most people are willing to travel. Also, if you see you are not getting anywhere with your actions-tactics, you may wish to add, augment, or change approaches. Give it time though and do not shift gears too soon. Always make sure you continuously scan your business environment and monitor whether your tactics are achieving your desired results.
7. Performance assessment – assessing if your actions are getting the results
you want. In addition to continuously monitoring your actions, you will want to devise performance measures (commonly called metrics) to ascertain if your strategies are yielding successes. Your performance measures will need to correspond and be at least strongly correlated (r =.5 to 1.0) so there is a strong linkage between actions and outcomes. Clearly, the efficacy of performance measures will be directly related to your organization’s success.
8. Refinements, updates, adjustments – this process should be done on both
a discontinuous and continuous basis (e.g., frequently monitored and at least once per year thorough review). You may need to adjust your overall strategies or even objectives if your organization is not achieving its goals.
One of the largest potential reasons of strategic failure is to arrogantly or dismissively neglect to revisit your vision and mission. If any or all of your objectives, strategies or tactics are not contributing to the achievement of your overall vision and/or mission, then you need to rethink either your vision or your strategic objectives or process.
So there you have it. Not so difficult, is it. If you follow these simple steps and rules, you will be well on your way to creating your own strategic plan.
Remember, strategic planning can be much simpler than it is made out to be. Some of the most profitable companies and most highly effective organizations have strategic plans that state simply what business they are in and how they plan on going after and creating success, i.e. shareholder or stakeholder value.
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One last word -whether you are small, medium, or large organization make sure you develop a strategic plan that is right for your organization. Do not create a generic, meaningless document that no one ever reads. Use it, refer to it often, and above all measure your success with and adjust your course in accordance to it.
Finally, remember; if you fail to plan you have effectively planned to fail. Good luck!
A Guide To Strategic Planning
The Vision
Are You Working On Your Business Or In Your Business
Art Consoli
My good friend, Lenny Tumbarello, www.WeTooCanDo.com, gave me the idea for this article. It seems an associate of his sort of criticized him for working “IN” his business. He wanted Lenny to work “ON” his business. This fellow felt Lenny might be spending too much time doing things that could have been “outsourced” for a small cost - thereby freeing Lenny up to focus on the bigger picture, the stuff that would make his business bigger.
I am very familiar with this concept. And I think it’s a valid thought process to go through. But you know, I think it’s often misapplied and overrated!
In fact I think it may be a big part of what has allowed third world countries to grab a big piece of our economic engine - so big a piece, for so long a time that I worry how and if we are going to get it back.
I know Lenny. He made his success in the fast food business - he owned a few stores in Texas. He learned early on that the best way to teach a person how to clean the bathrooms - among other things - was to clean one with the new guy observing and then watch as that fellow cleaned the other one. Lenny did this with each new employee and when he saw an attitude that indicted the new guy didn’t respect the importance of cleaning the bathroom right - Lenny fired him. Right then.
Lenny knows that before he can properly train and accurately evaluate his employees he has to master the job he wants done.
And I agree. I spent six months learning how to work on boats and motors at a marine service shop when I was considering becoming a boat dealer.
When I was COO of a precision parts manufacturing business that made parts for the auto industry, I spent a lot of time in the Detroit area and I learned a lot about the Big Three and the major OEMs. I thought a great deal about the
often-A Guide To Strategic Planning
expressed criticism that the companies were no longer being run by “car” guys; that they were being run by financial types.
I agreed.
Yes, top management had become more focused on quarterly earnings than the quality and market acceptance of the products. But I missed the point that management was working “ON” the business; nobody in the executive tower was working “IN” the business. Revenues and profits went up (for awhile) as the companies became financing giants and diversified into many non-related businesses but the contributions to both went down from the production of cars and trucks - the core businesses.
Seems to me the automakers problems were providing a wide-screen, HDV picture of what happens when decision makers change their focus from working “IN” the business to working “ON” the business. When they do, they can’t tell when their business is failing until it’s - maybe - too late.
Lenny’s start in the food service business reminded me of a book I just read, “Heat” by Bill Buford. Bill, a writer for The New Yorker, wanted to learn how to prepare food like a master chef in the finest Italian restaurant in New York. He was accepted as a kitchen slave in Babbo’s owned by Mario Batali and over a period of several years, worked his way up. At the book’s end Bill, having quit his job at the magazine, had just completed the last step of his education.
Graduation was symbolically defined when Mario offered to back Bill in his own restaurant.
The last step of working “IN” the restaurant business? Bill spent six months as an apprentice in a butcher shop in a small village in Italy learning how to judge, buy and carve beef and pigs.
I think when we run past the working “in” part of our businesses we wind up lowering our standards. When we lower our standards we make it easier for those
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Certainly think about how to make your business better. Of course make sound economic decisions about where in your business to spend your time and when to buy somebody else’s time. But there is only one way to know if something is the best and that is to have participated in its creation. Without such participation all you have are the words and actions someone else provides.
Did you know that at one time - before it fell from grace - every Disney
employee, from the people at the top to the lowliest janitor, everyone - had to spend a day in costume walking around the park?
A Guide To Strategic Planning
Visioning - Three Reasons to Incorporate It Into Your
Strategic Thinking
Chris Ogden
One of the seminal but perhaps least referenced books on strategy is Henry Mintzberg’s “The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning”. As the title suggests, the book’s central theme concerns the limitations of strategy and strategic planning. Unless these limitations are understood, strategists and planners are doomed to repeat many of the errors of the past.
Anyone who has read the book could be forgiven for concluding that even to embark on a strategy project is a sure way to court disillusionment or even disaster. Despite its apparent academic approach – for example, there are 27 pages of citations - the book is readable and persuasive, and contains many golden gems of strategic insight, from the World War I trenches of Passchendaele to Sam Steinberg’s idiosyncratic but successful approaches to supermarket
development in 1950’s Canada.
Recently, I re-read two of the most significant chapters of this book, dealing with the pitfalls and fallacies of strategic planning.
Mintzberg dissects the pitfalls of strategy-making exercises and then goes on to present the three fundamental fallacies: the fallacy of formalization, the fallacy of detachment and the fallacy of predetermination. This discussion takes up 40% of the entire book, illustrating the importance that Mintzberg attaches to
understanding and managing the things that can go wrong with strategy. One idea that emerges from these chapters is that creating a vision has a much better track record than creating a strategic plan. The reason has to do with many of the limitations of strategy setting: strategies tend, ultimately to be constraining, and require agreement in detail by a large collective. In practice, this can paralyze action. Vision, Mintzberg says, can prove a greater incentive to action than a plan that is more formally constrained.
A Guide To Strategic Planning
However, Mintzberg’s concept of vision is one that “emerges from the head of single leader, rather than having to be agreed by upon collectively by a group of senior managers and planners”. This concept of vision sounds dated.
Indeed, the very act of creating a vision can be the unifying force that inspires a core team over the many years during which the vision is being pursued.
Visions are not the same as strategies. Visions ought to have a much longer term bias. I have found that companies talk of horizons of no more than 3-5 years when strategy is discussed and dismiss longer term thinking as being of little value. Yet it is this longer-term, visionary thinking – conceived over at least a 10 year horizon – that is often essential in enabling many of the solutions to a company’s future to be realised.
Why visioning is important to your strategic thinking
There are three reasons why such long term thinking is both profitable and necessary.
1. A vision inspires and motivates
The first reason is one touched on by Mintzberg: a vision, if well done, inspires and motivates people to pursue a goal. A vision that helps people understand what they are striving for as well as the broad changes that are needed to bring it about is a powerful force.
This power to motivate and inspire is important because all strategic plans will, once they are in execution, suffer at some point from lack of focus and
commitment. The motivational power of the vision is a strong force that strategy leaders can rely upon to re-invigorate the team and the organisation when everyone’s resolve begins to falter.
2. A vision provides a language
Second, creating a vision means that those involved develop a distinct language that enables them to talk about the future they aspire to. This language – the specific words and phrases - describes the important concepts embodied in the vision. For example, in the mid-'90s a high-street UK bank wanted to develop a 10-year vision for money transmission – what a comprehensive banking service
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would look like for the movement of both retail and wholesale funds between, and to customers and financial institutions, and how to achieve it.
At the time, the Internet and electronic payment schemes were only being talked about. Nevertheless, these technology developments were suggesting that, to be effective in the business of managing money transfers, new long-term shifts in capability would be necessary. Many of these capabilities related to technologies that had not then been invented, such as those for Internet security.
One of the key benefits of the visioning exercise was that the core team involved developed a new language for discussing this future world. The significance of this came home to me some time later. The new language meant, for example, that participants, meeting in a corridor a year later, could easily and quickly slip into conversation about, say, a new security initiative that was to be part of the vision. The language captured the important features of the new world, and without it, staff in parts of the bank that had not been part of the visioning process found it difficult to contribute effectively.
3. Vision enables large scale change
Thirdly, strategic plans frequently underestimate the effort and timescale involved in making big change. When the goal being aimed at necessitates major change, a vision provides a framework that makes the individual steps more
understandable and manageable. Organisations can manage the changes over long-enough time periods that enable staff get to grips with what is needed. In the example referred to above, the vision suggested that large-scale shifts in the skills of the bank would be required. In today’s world, where financial institutions must grapple with complex technology issues such as security and identity fraud, it’s clear that the focus, 10 years ago, on understanding “what we need to become good at” proved to be critical. Only by imagining the world that was coming could the deep skills needed today be gradually put in place. Visioning is not a substitute for detailed planning. It is a key approach that is
A Guide To Strategic Planning
That Vision Thing - Strategic Thinking for any Business
Terry Bass
Whether you are a small business owner just starting a new business or a newly hired CEO of a major corporation, you both have something in common --- that “vision thing”.
An idea of creating or recreating a company. There is a feeling of excitement, of opportunities and possibilities, no matter how practical you may be it’s a new beginning and the sky is the limit.
So you have a vision. You see yourself down the road envisioning an organization much different than the one today. It is bigger, it is better and you are fulfilled in making it so. It is your vision, your dream, your possibility.
And then comes the work and the meetings and the setbacks and before you know it the vision is on the back burner. Your day is handling details, crisis, and all sorts of stuff that get in your way. You started out jumping out of bed full of ideas, empowered to take on the day and now it’s a bit more difficult to crawl out of bed. You may peek open an eye to see if the monster’s that you know are going to get you at work are now in your bedroom.
What happened?
Quite simply, you put the “vision thing” in the desk drawer, maybe even locked it away. You make business plans that plan on 5 – 7% growth next year. You deal with the issues of the day and the work on your desk/counter and the only satisfaction you get is if your (figurative or literal) inbox/stuff to do is at least no higher at the end of the day as when you started. .
Is that really where you want to be?
Or would you rather be excited again? Would you like to wake up the day full of possibilities? Do you wish to look at what you do, whether your own business or your own career and be proud and happy for what you do?
A Guide To Strategic Planning
Well, bring back that “vision thing”. Take it out and dust it off. Or what the heck make a new one.
Your vision is where you want your business and yourself to be. Your vision is a destination, a place of where you want to go. Your vision is that sunny beach sipping margaritas or climbing in the Rockies or a whole plethora of
visualizations! Your vision is what turns you on and gets you excited.
It doesn’t matter whether you have your own business or not, whether you want your own business or not. Having an idea, a dream of where you want to go creates motivation and exciting possibilities.
Obviously, taking that vision and creating a strategic plan, action steps to ensure you achieve your vision is vitally important. A wise saying first line is Vision
without action is a daydream.
But take that first step; create a vision of where YOU want to be. Get excited again. And then do what you need to do to make it a reality. It’ll make the day and your life a lot more enjoyable!
A Guide To Strategic Planning
The Secret to Success in Business Planning…plan your work
and work your plan.
Terry Hill
Running your own business is a highly rewarding, but often a risky endeavour. As with anything else, increasing your chances of success begins with preparation. And when it comes to transforming your dream into reality, the key to
successfully jump starting your business is simple: plan the work and work the plan.
Whether you’re just getting a new business off the ground, expanding the business you have, or purchasing a business, devote plenty of time to planning:
o
Begin with a discovery process to confirm the viability of your venture.o
Do your homework.o
Uncover fundamental objectives, insights, opportunities and risks.o
Research the market.o
Examine your offering, market conditions, trends, and the competition.o
Excavate potential problems.o
Outline your goals and objectives.o
Compile the business intelligence you need to create a solid foundation of actionable information to chart your present and future direction.The next logical step is to develop a plan—a strategic business plan that functions as a living document to define your objectives, guide your business, and take you from Point A(where you are today) to Point Z (where you’d like to be). But
remember—a strategic plan is about more than securing funding—it’s essential to jump starting your business. And once you’ve written your business plan, follow it up with an action plan that spells out your short and long-term objectives and how you’ll achieve them.
Just remember this—there is no underestimating the power of planning. As the former CEO of Octel and Lucent Technologies notes, “People usually plan their vacations more carefully than they plan their careers. I’m a compulsive planner, but there were times when I had no idea what I was doing.”
A Guide To Strategic Planning
Even when you have no idea what you’re doing, developing and implementing a plan improves your chances of achieving your goals. This article outlines the fundamental components of crafting a strategic plan to take your business to the next level.
What is a strategic plan?
Strategic planning is the process by which the key stakeholders (you and your partners) in an organization envision its future and develop the procedures and operations that will enable you to achieve that vision.
A strategic business plan serves two purposes. First it’s an internal document that defines your goals, strategies, and tactics. Second, it’s a tool for raising capital. However, you need a plan, whether you’re looking for capital or not. Without a plan you won’t know where you’re going and you have no way to benchmark or track your progress.
With a strategic plan you have a road map that enables you to look ahead, allocate resources, focus on key points and prepare for problems and opportunities.
A well-articulated strategic business plan clearly outlines your vision, goals, priorities, strategies, products, services, and financing needs. It also provides relevant information about your company, your management team, and short- and long-term objectives. Highlighting both the positive and negative aspects of your business opportunity, your strategic plan should look ahead from three to five years.
How do I write a business plan?
As they say, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. Likewise, there’s more than one way to write a business plan. Formats, outlines, and lengths vary. But they all tend to share a generally accepted format and certain standard components.
A Guide To Strategic Planning
Your plan must be clearly written, logically organized, and convincingly worded. It should target a specific audience. It should outline the details of financing,
competition, strengths, weaknesses, and forecasted financial performance. As a rule of thumb, when writing your plan, include the following components:
o
Cover letter—write a cover letter to introduce you and your business plan to your audience.o
Title page—include a title page that details the content of your plan, your name, address, phone number, names and positions of the executive team, date and contact information.o
Table of contents—add a table of contents to make it easy for readers to find information.o
Statement of purpose—include a clearly stated explanation of your company’s goals and how you’ll achieve them. For example, your statement of purpose may be “to provide quality, reliable landscaping services for less in the Phoenix metropolitan area”. Describe your value proposition, whether it’s price, convenience, service or another attribute, how much capital you’ll need, and how you’ll repay it.o
Executive summary—this is the most important part of your business plan. Include a brief summary that highlights the major points of your plan. Provide background on your business, the market, your value proposition, key team members, projected ROI (Return on Investment), internal rate of return, and current and potential risks.o
Market information—describe your target market(s). Substantiate statements with facts and supporting detail. Include market research on initial and future markets, key market segments, past growth rates, anticipated trends and changes.o
Company—describe your company, its type, history, legal structure, industry, market, principals, and revenue size and growth rate.o
Product/service description—describe your offering, relevant business benefits, stage of development, how your product/services will satisfy a real business need and enable you to compete.A Guide To Strategic Planning
o
Management team—include detailed information on the core members of your team—the people who will run the company, as well as seniorpartners, attorneys, financial and business advisors. Include names, titles, experience, skills, responsibilities and compensation.
o
Potential risk factors—include an assessment of the risks facing the company. Describe the worst-case scenario and anything that could go wrong today and in the future. Offer strategies for overcoming risk.o
Execution/action plan—describe how you’ll translate your business plan into actionable results down to the finest detail. Describe how you will obtain licenses to do business, open an establishment, get products on the shelf, hire employees, and forge partnerships. Describe productionschedules, delivery processes, and customer service policies in order to set operational benchmarks to measure progress.
o
Financial information—Include a section that projects future revenues and profits three to five years out. Base this information on best-case, worst– case and most likely-case scenarios. Summarize financial data like cash flow, income statements, balance sheets, banking relationships, terms and rates of loans, financing plans and working capital requirements.o
Legal preparation—includes corporate bylaws, patents and trademarks, licenses to do business, employment agreements, and customer contracts. Anticipate the legal and documentary setup your business will require. Writing a business plan can seem like a daunting task. However, there are many resources available to help you prepare a sound plan. You can find books in your local bookstore, software programs and templates online and in local computer/software stores or you can work with a consulting firm, a nearby Small Business Development Centre or a local business school.No time like the present to start to plan your work and work your plan. Happy planning…
A Guide To Strategic Planning
What Does Strategy Mean To You - The Unspoken Secret?
Chris Ogden
Most effective strategy processes begin with a stock-take: a review and
assessment of the organization’s current products, markets and customers. This is an essential first step to kicking off a good strategy-setting exercise.
Yet no strategy process that I have come across conducts an even more crucial preliminary activity – even before the one described above. This is to ask what the sponsor of the strategy process thinks of when he or she thinks about strategy. What, in effect, does strategy mean to you?
Everyone leading or facilitating a strategy review should ask this question. The answers may amaze you. And they may make the sponsor quite uncomfortable. The reason is that most people in business have a very different idea of what strategy really means. Unless a facilitator unpacks the organization’s perception about what a strategy means to them, then success is unlikely. It becomes impossible to determine what must be delivered.
For some executives, a strategy will be the way they hope to increase the share price over the next year. For others, it will mean sorting out which take-over candidates it should approach. One of my clients saw strategy as determining how to negotiate a management buy-out from the majority shareholder. Still others will see strategy in a purer light: what is the long term future that we can envision for the company, and what is the best route to get there?
None of these different perceptions of strategy is wrong. They are the sponsor’s genuinely held beliefs. But each represents a starting point in the sponsor’s mind about why a strategy was seen to be required. And a facilitator of strategy needs to understand these at the start.
A Guide To Strategic Planning
As well as understanding what has precipitated the need for strategy, we need to unpick what the sponsor sees as its essential components. Is its emphasis a vision, and if so what is the timescale?
Is the focus more towards medium or short-term action – more of a tactical plan in fact? Does it need to focus more on people and the internal culture? Or is the driving issue to do with fast-changing markets?
One organization I worked with realised after the strategy was complete that the real objective was to educate the Board and executive team.
The unspoken secret in all strategy-setting exercises is that strategy means different things to different people. Each different understanding of strategy is valid, because each organization and its strategy team are different. But these different views of strategy mean that quite radically different approaches to strategy development need to be taken.
A Guide To Strategic Planning
Where Will You Be In 2-5 Years?
David A. Goldsmith and Lorrie Goldsmith
Often caught up in day to day operations, especially true for management in small to mid-sized companies, it's easy to let strategic planning rest on a back burner, if it's addressed at all. Lack of strategic planning is often due to three factors.
1) time constraints,
2) limited knowledge of strategic planning and its process, 3) little or no understanding of the external marketplace.
Because strategic planning is your company's future, it's important to carve out time from the present to secure your business' place down the road.
Two years ago I was asked to participate in an evaluation of a assessment tool that would help a President of a firm strategically decide what might be the future of her company. At that time, the company was primarily founded in what was then a huge market of outplacement services. Her company offered everything from orientation of downsizing, resume building, executive placement and personal network development.
Candidly, the president noticed a new product with benefits stronger than other in the market already possessed. The product by definition was contrary to her market niche enabling and assisting companies in the hiring and retention process by up to 70%.. By establishing a relationship with the developer, strategically the company was positioning itself for servicing both sides of the business puzzle--downsizing as well as hiring and retention.
Little did she know that we would have such a shift in unemployment. Today, that same company has made the shift to what is now a major focus of what they offer. A strategic analysis of the future opened markets and most likely will enhance is profitability in years to come.
A Guide To Strategic Planning
Take another example of a company that ships over 1000 FedEx packages a day and a similar amount of UPS packages with 85% of their business being
conducted outside of their own regional markets both wholesale and retail. The firm, based in the "electronics" age, focuses on the repair of most electronic components such as VCR's, camcorders and TV's, in addition to electronics that are related to autos. With the advancement from electronics to computers, this company has only varied is strategic position by entering into another even more competitive very "slim-margined" computer repair business.
As companies, such as Best Buy, started to offer their own internal repairs, the repair business found that it was cherry picked on what items or problems to service. Undeniably, the referral company now would take the most profitable and easy work and outsource the more complicated items. More time and skill is needed for an even slimmer market.
This company is facing the dilemma of what will their company look like in years to come. Its now easier and cheaper to throw out a 2-3 year old VCR than to repair it. Camcorders and TV's not much better as a repair item as well as most other electronic or even computerized items.
The first company made a proactive, calculated move that's paying off to at least open the door to what may arrive as new opportunities where the second made a choice that is leaving the company less competitive and reactive.
When looking at your company strategically, it might benefit management to evaluate core strengths and question what opportunities may arrive. Follow and read trend publications and do not follow the heard. In the early 1900's, when transportation was changing, the train industry had the opportunity to purchase and control both air and auto industries. However, they saw themselves in the rail business instead of the transportation industry, and they regrettably lost out on one of the greatest business opportunities ever.
A Guide To Strategic Planning
Strategic Planning - Why Should A Business Owner Bother
Taking The Time To Have One?
Terry Bass
I just don’t have time!
This is the overwhelming reason especially for the small business owner why they can’t create their own strategic plan. Not knowing how runs a distant second. So why should a business owner take the time to create a strategic plan? It depends on answering these two questions.
1. Where do you want you and your business to go?
2. Are you heading there now? The first question is usually pretty easy, although often a bit vague. We know we want the company to make money, increase revenue, all that. But what is the destination, whether it’s in 5, 10 or 20 years? Where do you want you and your business to end up? What is your vision of where you want to be? We often have some idea, but are we working towards that? Which leads to the second question.
The answer to the second question for the vast majority of businesses (if you’re being honest) is “kind of, but not really”. A typical, even successful business owner is often adjusting their business model to increase and improve business, so that’s where the “kind of” comes in, but are you making decision’s based on where you want your business to be long term? And that’s why there’s a “not really” in the answer.
Business planning is usually looking at short term gains, certainly important to do that, but not necessarily recognizing any long term vision. We hope the things we are doing will get us there, but focusing on the now or near term is how the vast majority of small business owners operate.
A Guide To Strategic Planning
Think of taking an extended road trip. You know where you are now and where you want to go. You have a general idea of how to get there, so you just hop in your car and go. Will you arrive at your destination? Maybe, maybe not. The odds aren’t good. Even if you do, it is pretty certain that you will have spent a great deal of time getting lost, side-tracked, frustrated, spending more money and time getting there then was necessary. Doesn't sound like a very intelligent why of taking a road trip, does it? Especially when taking a little time and effort in
creating a roadmap for how to get there is the alternative. It also makes the road trip more enjoyable and less stressful for all concerned.
And that is exactly what a strategic plan does for any organization.
First you create your vision. Where do you want you and your business to be in 5 (or 10 or whenever) years? What does it look like, composed of, feel like? You now have a clear destination of where you want to go.
And then you look at your market, your internal resources, what you have and what you need to achieve that vision. What activity you and your organization need to adjust, change or just do in order to accomplish your goals. You have now created an unambiguous roadmap of the things you need to do to get to your destination.
So when you have an effective strategic plan, you connect that long term idea, hope or dream of what you want to accomplish and create activities and goals for you and your business that are clear, focused and exciting.
An effective strategic plan, besides ensuring your business is headed in the direction you want it to go, provides significant ancillary benefits.
1. Decision making becomes easier. When you are focused on the end result, making decisions becomes much easier. By asking yourself whether this is going to help you achieve your vision or not, the answers become clearer.
A Guide To Strategic Planning
2. Less stress/fewer crises. Part of an effective strategic plan is to anticipate and explore challenges that may crop up, like the market or internal problems. By reviewing them thru a strategic plan, you either have the answer when the issue appears or you have taken steps in advance that resolve the problem before it ever comes up.
You aren’t going to eliminate ALL surprises or crises. It just won’t happen. But what would it be worth to you to eliminate half of them or 75% or 90% of them? Is it worth your time?
3. Excitement. We all get excited when we are working towards some goal that we wish to achieve. Clear direction brings people together to work together as a team. By having a clear vision where we are headed can excite the organization instead of just showing up for work to “get stuff done”.
Driving the organization, your business to your definition of success is the
responsibility of the head of that organization. And creating and implementing an effective Strategic Plan is a fundamental tool toward doing that.
So do you want to take your “dream” and turn it into the reality, a destination to take you and your business to where you want to go or do you want to just cross your fingers and hope for the best?
A Guide To Strategic Planning
The Execution
Your Strategy Is Wrong, But That's Ok!
Chris Ogden
Strategy is going through another of its periodic difficult times. A recent commentator has remarked how the how the life gets sucked out of a meeting when someone declares that the company needs to do some serious strategic thinking. Last year, under half of executives surveyed by McKinsey said they were satisfied with their company’s approach to strategy.
Perhaps we expect too much from strategy processes. I always tell clients that the one thing they and I can be sure of is that the strategy they produce will not be perfect – it may not even be right. I say this to be deliberately provocative. My follow-up message is that, because none of us is blessed with prescience, this awareness helps us focus on strategy’s implications. Their strategy has one absolutely critical thing going for it: the team that produced it has worked through all the issues and have agreed to it. They have a deep understanding of how they arrived at the strategy. It’s therefore one that they can execute, and - as is likely - adjust as circumstances dictate.
Executing strategy is as important as developing strategy. Execution is where the sometimes uncertain ideas debated in a strategy forum get tested. Discovering that some of these ideas do not turn out quite as expected should not be a cause for alarm. It should be the signpost that the organisation can become more mature about strategy – that can, if it chooses, move towards being a strategic learning organization.
Of course, there a balance to be struck. Poorly executed strategies will always produce strategies that will never work. A good strategic planning process is essential. But believing that the strategy that the team has laboured on for so long is unblemished is dangerous. The team needs to begin the execution phase with a “confident scepticism” stance. The learning that the team has gone
A Guide To Strategic Planning
Your Action Plan… and how to execute it
Terry Hill
Creating a strategic business plan is a great first step. However, if your business plan gathers dust on a shelf, its value is lost. This is where the action plan comes in. An action plan can help you stay organized, coordinate your activities, and keep your projects on schedule.
The action plan specifically outlines the steps or tasks that are necessary to achieve objectives. It includes a schedule with deadlines for significant actions, resources necessary to achieve objectives, and methods to measure these objectives. Preparing action plans addresses potential problem areas, considers the cross-functional impact of the actions, and ultimately increases productivity. It’s the place where the rubber meets the road—the catalyst that transforms your business plan into actionable results.
Your action plan sets priorities and describes the specifics of implementing your business plan. The key components of your action plan are long-term and short-term objectives. Define your long-short-term objectives and then set short-short-term objectives—baby steps—that break the larger goal down into easy-to-achieve chunks. Review these mini-goals every three to six months, and keep checking to see if you’re meeting your objectives.
Use your action plan to define how you’ll operate your business on a day-to-day basis. Address issues such as how and when you’ll manage research and
development, hire employees, serve customers, market your offering, publicize your company, and work with partners and vendors.
Your action plan should get down to legal brass tacks as well. Providing detailed information about legal preparation and documents is a must. Describe how you’ll obtain trademarks and licenses, rent space or create a home office; order, install, and maintain equipment; purchase and inventory supplies; market your business, and distribute products and services. In other words, your action plan turns your business plan into a game plan that makes it real.
A Guide To Strategic Planning
How do you execute your action plan?
You’ve established your vision, created a business plan, secured funding, and outlined your action plan. Now it’s time to act. So, how do you execute your action plan?
Once you’ve identified your long-and short-term objectives, you’re ready to execute using the baby-steps approach that increments the entire process. Want to execute your action plan in the simplest, most success-prone manner?
Try this:
o
Create an action plan based on your business plan.o
Review the action plan with your team and solicit feedback.o
Agree on a strategy and a direction.o
Review your long-and short-term objectives.o
Break the objectives down into manageable components.o
Identify required tasks and prioritize them.o
Begin executing against these goals, taking incremental, baby steps.o
Break large tasks down into manageable short-term efforts. As each smaller goal is reached, you’ll experience a sense of accomplishment and generate momentum and confidence.A Guide To Strategic Planning
Developing a Business Strategy is Simple - Executing is a
Different Story
Nick McCormick
Starting is overrated. Have you ever heard someone say, “If I could only just get started, everything would fall into place?” Guess what? It doesn’t! It’s easy to start. Just like it’s easy to join a gym or a weight loss program, it’s relatively easy to get started on creating a business strategy. It’s easy to hire a consulting company to help out. There are hundreds, if not thousands, that would be eager to assist. It’s the implementing, though, that is the difficult part- the day in, day out execution of tasks necessary to achieve the end goal.
Consultants are aware of this. After all, that’s why they are consultants. They don’t like to execute either. It’s much easier to tell people what to do and move on. In fact, most count on the fact that you won’t implement successfully, so they can come back and tell you what to do again next year.
Most companies don’t have difficulty coming up with a business strategy. In fact some enjoy the exercise so much they take months to complete it! Unfortunately, after the initial announcement about the new strategy, and when it comes time to implement, senior management is through. They wash their hands of the activity and are not heard from again. The effort loses its momentum and dies on a vine. Former CEO of GE, Jack Welch, had it right when he said, “Experts talk as if strategy is high brained scientific methodology… Strategy is simple… Pick a general direction and implement like hell… Ponder less. Do More. Jack also claims it should take days, not months, to come up with a strategy.
So, the next time you revisit your business strategy, do your homework. Do a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis on your
company and on the competition. Come up with your winning strategy, and then put the A-Team in place to execute it and hold your management team
accountable for ensuring its success. Spend the majority of your time, money, and effort implementing.