You all know the saying that any path is fine as long as you don’t know where you are going. And it’s certainly true when it comes to achieving company goals. If you don’t have set, written, well-communicated, and measured goals, there’s a very high chance you’ll never reach them. Hence the importance of having a quantifiable, measurable and well-communicated strategic plan.
road map
Strategic planning is like creating a map for an exciting journey. A map helps you stay on course, but it’s not so strict that you can’t see a side road on the way. Every year in the fall, I plan where I am, where I want to go, and how I want to get there. Throughout the year, my plan becomes my guide as I make business decisions and find new opportunities. It helps me decide if the new opportunities and choices I encounter will bring me closer to my goals or are detours to avoid. It is critical to review your plan at least annually to accommodate new technological developments, customer requests, the economy, emerging trends, and your own interests.
key components
1. SWOT – The first step is to determine where you are by doing a SWOT analysis – identify your internal Strengths and Weaknesses and your external Opportunities and Threats. Make a grid and fill in the blanks. Use two columns and two sections. Internally analyze human, financial, technological, cultural resources, etc. Externally examines the economy, political/regulatory, social/demographic, technology, competition, etc.
2. Vision, Mission, and Values: Create a short statement that quickly and easily describes your purpose (Mission) and your ultimate future (Vision). Who are your customers, what makes you different, how would your customers describe you, what do you offer, how are you unique, how will you be tomorrow? Here’s a quick template to follow: “ABC Company’s purpose is to _________________ so that the company and our stakeholders benefit from _____________________________. This quickly establishes who you are, why you exist, and what benefits are realized as a result of your business. You can get smart later, put it on paper for now. Now list the guiding principles that underpin the behaviors you expect from yourself and others to achieve results. Trust, honesty, creative solutions, integrity, customer service, etc., are examples of guiding principles.
3. Objectives – Identify the key objectives that need to be set to achieve your vision, mission, and goals for the year. State them in specific, quantifiable, and measurable terms. They need to be ambitious, but realistic. Focus on “what not how”. Your list will grow, but narrow it down to the top 4-5 critical items to move your business forward this year.
4. Action planning: now we will see the “how”. For each goal, create a detailed action plan for how you will achieve this goal. For each target state:
– Desired results: what needs to happen or what benefit will occur
-Potential obstacles/barriers: what could get in your way or impede progress
-Support: what resources, people, tools do you have or need
5. Implementation process – what steps need to be taken – indicate who will do what and by when. I do a quick monthly review to see what’s on target, what’s falling behind, what follow-up is needed, etc. This gives me a visual update and reminds me of my goals and how I’m progressing.
6. Evaluate and measure – how you will know you have successfully achieved the objectives (this is why each one should be stated so that it is specific, quantifiable and measurable). As you get more sophisticated, a set of balanced scorecard measures is an ideal way to track, measure, and communicate your progress, but for now just determine how each objective will be measured.
This sounds like a lot of work, but if you map out each goal, you’ll have a clear idea of where you’re going, how to get there, and you’ll achieve your goals faster by avoiding unnecessary and costly detours.
The simplicity of these steps and descriptions belies the difficulty of this task. I have facilitated many senior management teams that are struggling to get even the first two steps done. However, if you set aside some quiet time with your key colleagues and valued advisors, this doesn’t have to be a monumental task. Once you have it in place, the yearly review, review, and update process becomes not only much easier, but also highly beneficial. You come out of this exercise with a sense of direction and satisfaction about how you will achieve your business objectives with the assurance of avoiding at least some unnecessary and costly detours.