Redoing a Strategic Plan can be Painful - Here's Why it is Worth it.
I am the head of my company and about to re-do my annual business strategy. It can be a painful process, and I often wonder if it’s really worth it...
Yes it is!
Business and industry is constantly evolving. Today, change happens at quicker rates than ever. Regular reviews of your business strategy prepares the company to pivot if needed, and sets it up to thrive.
It is also an opportunity for a CEO to gather their leadership team and take time out of the business to spend time ON the business. They would be looking for missed opportunities that were not capitalised on through the last period, or new possibilities that have emerged and should be addressed in the next period.
Aside from this, we know that best practice companies and leaders set aside time to plan and bring their leadership team together.
What are some best practices in strategic planning? What elements do I need to consider in setting a strategy that ensures my business can grow successfully and sustainably without pain?
Keep reading...
A usual approach to Strategic Planning
Visage Growth Partners views many organisations where the annual strategic planning session involves tweaking a plan that has been developed one or more years ago.
Too often, CEO’s look to expedite the planning process by using the previous year’s plan, adding a few percent to the sales, gross profit, or net profit outcomes of the previous year, and they then have their next financial year’s plan! With this approach, the business keeps progressing along the same path but may not evolve to its fullest potential.
“Staying the journey” as set in the previous strategic plan, MAY be the most appropriate strategy. And just because it is the end of the financial year, does not mean a total overhaul of a strategy is needed. This time of the year is however an opportune time for a CEO to gather their leadership team together to take time OUT of the business, to spend time ON the business.
What is a strategic planning process?
In extremely simple terms, a strategic planning process should consider three questions:
where is our business at now?
where it could get to?, and
how will it get there?
The “where is our business at now” question is often seen as having little significance and is often skipped over. If done correctly, it provides a powerful method of engaging a leadership team and establishes a launching pad to consider key strategic actions and possibilities.
Gathering the “where is out business at now” information
With a focus on assessing where a business is at now, Visage Growth Partners suggests companies gather key pieces of information and data that can be reviewed by the leadership team as context for shaping a winning and sustainable Strategic Plan.
You may wish to gather information to enhance leadership team engagement. Best practices suggest that team members are allocated certain pieces of information that include company financial performance data, industry dynamics and metrics, competitor information, market trend analysis, customer feedback data. You can see Visage Growth Partners “pick list” of information in the link to the following post. https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6549638207133360128
This information should be used to paint a comprehensive picture as to the external and internal environments the business is facing. It assists the business to determine the its strategic initiatives for the long and near term. And it should be made available to the leadership team PRIOR to the session so that they can consider key questions such as:
What are the tailwinds we should take advantage of?
What are the risks we need to mitigate or just be mindful of?
What learnings have we gleaned from our prior year’s performance?
What do we do with these learnings?
How are we resourced to support the growth of our business into the next period?
Collaboration in Strategic Planning
In revising and recalibrating their Strategic Plan, best practice organisations involve their whole leadership team, as opposed to the CEO or Business Owner doing it themselves. Whilst this takes more time, a collaborative approach ensures widespread ownership of the strategic plan, and also taps into the collective intelligence of the group.
Many companies elect to have an external party facilitate a strategic planning session. If correctly facilitated, the leadership team will feel engaged, empowered, and will contribute a diverse set of perspectives and experiences that will deliver a better outcome.
A simply understood, easy-to-use Strategic Plan
Ultimately, an organisation should be seeking to create a Strategic Plan that is simple, easily understood by all in the business, and can be a point of reference throughout the year. The strategic plan will be wasted if it is a document presented and referred to on a one-off basis. Best practice businesses, find simple and practical ways to bring their strategic plans to life. Visage Growth Partner’s clients bring certain elements of their strategic plans to the fore daily (!!) as part of their huddles routine. The aim is that a strategic plan becomes a living breathing document that the whole company has access to.
Whilst this article has focused largely on the “where are we at now” component of the strategic planning process, ongoing collaboration is suggested in determining what a business’ strategic targets should be, and what actions they must undertake to meet these targets. With the correct facilitation, the outcomes of this planning process will set the business up with clear targets and supporting priorities that staff across the business can relate to and understand. It should empower and inspire the business to achieve great outcomes in the near and long term.
Grow your business without the pain
For more information about growing your business without pain, contact Visage Growth Partners. We demystify growth! www.visagegrowthpartners.com
How healthy is your business?
Be sure to take advantage of our free business health assessment on our website, www.visagegrowthpartners.com.au. Filling in the assessment survey takes about 10 minutes, and you'll receive access to your assessment output as well as a no-obligation assessment report from Visage Growth Partners.