How It Works
There is no denying that strategic planning (aka strategy planning) involves complex issues. But finding your course and direction doesn’t have to be complicated.
Any strategy planning process involves digesting information and some fairly difficult analysis. Good strategy planning should be simplified, but not simplistic.
The Three Key Questions
The Simplified Strategic Planning process is a step-by-step roadmap for answering the questions at the heart of the matter.
The three key questions:
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO SELL?
TO WHOM ARE YOU GOING TO SELL?
HOW CAN YOU BEAT OR AVOID THE COMPETITION?
The first two questions define the breadth, scope and focus of your business. You must decide what you will do or will not do, and then you must decide who you will serve in the marketplace. These questions help you determine an appropriate focus.
We have found that many companies do not want to be focused and seem to go out of their way to avoid narrowing things down. The leaders of such companies usually can’t stand the idea of not pursuing a sale. Often, when asked the question, What are you going to sell? such leaders answer “Everything we can.” That’s not focus. That’s a pursue-everything approach – that person will also answer “Everyone we can,” to the question, To whom are you going to sell? The problem with the two answers, of course, is that there is a third question that really defines what you are capable of doing.
It’s that third question that brings a sense of realism to your planning process. When you get into the third question and begin examining your competencies, strengths, capabilities and infrastructure, you will really understand the importance of focus. You need to focus on applying your strategic competency and specific capabilities to what to sell to targeted markets. This will allow you to use your resources to gain a sustainable competitive advantage instead of just using them up.
These questions are the heart of the Simplified Strategic Planning model because at each step along the way you will be working towards answering them. As you do you will learn and grow. And as you learn and grow, you will create a well-considered plan. In the end, you will have a strategy that works and gives specific answers those three questions.
Simplified Strategic Planning Process Structure
Preliminary to beginning the process is the appointment of the team and the scheduling of the sessions. The team should be the top management team, those reporting to the CEO who represent all areas of activity at the company.
At the broadest level, the Simplified Strategic Planning process is a series of structured meetings in which you start by gathering some basic data and facts about your external and internal situation. Then, you try and build a consensus about some assumptions for the future, including opportunities, threats and scenarios. After you’ve researched the necessary facts and developed assumptions, you sit down and review them with your team and make sure everyone understands and agrees. This is one of the key parts of any strategic planning process because the information and assumptions shape all further discussion about strategy.
From there, you will go on to develop your strategy (course and direction). Then you define goals and objectives and get into the questions of:
How do we get there?
How much is it going to cost?
When do we arrive?
Who is responsible?
Who will be involved?
The Simplified Strategic Planning process covers nine items in three meetings. The first meeting is two days, the second is three days and the third meeting is two days and you will do the following:
Gather information,
Assess capabilities,
Make assumptions,
Make strategic assessments of present and potential market segments,
Develop core business strategy, competitive strategy, development strategy and financial strategy,
Establish goals and objectives,
Develop action plans to turn your objectives into results,
Finalize action plans after considering resource requirements and availability,
Schedule reviews of progress.
The point of the Simplified Strategic Planning process is to make the plan manageable. If you want to create a beautifully-bound 700-page bookend that everyone has and no one uses, you’ll probably need a lot more meetings. But if you want to create a plan – a real, workable plan that everyone can relate to quickly, – the Simplified Strategic Planning process is for you.
It starts with situation analysis – understanding your current situation and what your assumptions might be going forward.
Then there is strategy formulation – making decisions based on those inputs.
Finally, there is implementation planning – taking your decisions and driving them home in the organization to get results.
Remember the whole reason to do this is to get results. Implementation must be specific because when it is not it will inevitably fail. The Simplified Strategic Planning process leads to specific implementation of a strategy.
Time Required to use the process at your company
In total, the Simplified Strategic Planning process works out to about 24 hours of meetings, spread out over the year so that it won’t interfere with your day-to-day business.
Sound Strategy + Effective Implementation = Solid Success
