STRATEGIC PLANNING IN THE FASTER PACED SHIFT-AGE
![The-Strategic-Planning-Process[1]](https://leadershipstrategypapers.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/The-Strategic-Planning-Process1-300x236.jpg)
The ground is shifting under our feet
Traditionally, organization planning was carried out once a year by the senior team through a strategic planning session where past performance was assessed and long/short term targets were determined. Once the annual goals and budgets were approved, operating plans for departmental; staffing, organizing, controlling, directing, and coordinating began.
- you may need a corporate exorcism
While the fundamentals of planning remain true , the traditional pattern of a once a year effort is out of sync with current realities. Strategic planning in the “shift-age” demands: shorter time lines, more stakeholder interaction, stringent process-disciplines, and measurements that focus on leading indicators as well as lagging indicators. Strategic planning in the shift-age must accommodate:
- the speed at which markets evolve
- brand equity issues/opportunities
- alignmentwith the organization’s “statement of purpose” (the master brand or tag line)
- a broader range of stakeholder participation
- technology innovations
- compliance with constraint theory (setting investment priorities)
- cash position
- less experienced employees
- an increase in strategic alliances
- Funding partner expectations (debt and equity)
A shift-age compliant strategic planning example
Step #1 The warm up:
Begin every strategic thinking session by revisiting your Statement of purpose (the corporate north star) and your Cultural-values (the organization’s timeless foundation). These two dimensions represent the “takeoff runway” for a successful planning flight. Crash and burn is certain if the team slips off the runway before a strategic map gets off the ground.
Step #2 Setting the stage:
Imagine a giant cavern between your organization’s current reality and your vision of the organization’s preferred future. The strategic plan you are about to build must bridge the performance gap.
Step #3 Focusing a vision of the preferred future:
The role of a corporate vision (in contrast to a strategic plan) is to entice people out of their “today box”. To become an energy source, the CEO and senior team will have to run far down the beach (well beyond the organization’s current capacity) and plant the vision flag. It must be inspiring, and compelling, (worth moving towards in spite of the odds)
John Kennedy’s vision of landing a man on the moon within ten years is what launched the Apollo mission and kept it going for ten years –in spite of seemingly insurmountable odds. Keep the corporate vision “far out”—if the vision flag is planted too close, it will become another business plan discipline—not the energy generator that a corporate vision is supposed to be.
Step# 4 Assessing the “today side” of your performance gap:
The “Partner Chain”: conduct a quick review of the accomplishments & failures of last term’s strategic plan. Champions report on each link in the chain…assessing performance, needs, cost, and capacity to add-value moving forward.
A “Partner Chain”
- Customers
- Internal partners (all employees)
- External partners (contractors and suppliers)
- Funding partners (debt and equity)
Review financial results:
- Revenue
- Expenses
- Cash position
Process owners report on the performance of each strategic process :
(Basic strategic processes…organizations may have more than the foundational four)
- Getting and retaining customers
- Serving customers
- Organization support
- Forward thinking
Determine and assess key underpinnings:
- Identify positive and negative events (two separate lists) that would a huge impact if they were to happen.
- Prioritize both lists in two dimensions: 1. severity of impact 2. probability of occurrence
Review industry trends
- Market growth/decline
- competition and market share
- technology shifts
- Government implications
Step #5 Creating and documenting a strategic plan:
- Use key constraint theory to make investment decisions based on getting the biggest bang for the buck (in the shift-age, timing and cash position rule)
- How far across the performance gap (chasm between what is and your “far out” vision flag) will you go during the next term?
- What will have change for each strategic process to meet the corporate target
- Make the strategy decisions
- Establish leading indicators for the organization as a whole and for each strategic process
- Assign accountability and time lines for the documentation and approval of operating plans