Shake The Dust Off Strategic Planning

Strategic planning is a bit like smoking... In the old days it was something that cool people got into habit of doing - it was quite sophisticated, if not that useful or good for you.


The task of strategic planning old-style is - thankfully - on its way out ...


Not quite "gone", but going are the tomes of crusty strategic plan documents, spiral-bound and gathering dust. Going are the long winded market analyses, competitor analyses, environmental analyses, swot analyses, gap analyses and whatever-else analyses that do little to help move business forward.


By way of history, back in the 50s and 60's strategic planning became a tool to support market share growth. Those were the days when mass-marketing was born, thanks to the broad uptake of television, and post-war consumers wanting to "buy stuff". This was also the era of corporate growth where big companies soaked up portfolios of non-related businesses and product lines to supposedly diversify their risk.


So back in the old days strategic planning was designed for the big-guns, and it was all about analysing industries and markets. Businesses and even products were eloquently defined as "cash cows" (to milk), "stars" (to invest in) and "dogs" (divest). And a lot of analysis was undertaken to figure out which was which. This stuff was still being taught in the 90's.


For some weird reason, strategic planning for smaller businesses largely followed the same format. Lots of analysis and "interesting information" with little vision and forward thinking.


In addition, setting budgets and sales forecasts was largely about adding a predictable 10%ish to last years result.


But a lot has changed in the last couple of decades, and business in the modern world is fast and unpredictable. Mega companies like Google didn't even exist ten years ago. Ditto for clever New Zealand businesses like TradeMe and the likes of Digitalmax (online photo processing).


You can bet these new companies did not emerge from some formal strategic planning exercise.
With the need for modern businesses to be fleet footed and clever, the old model of strategic planning with its lengthy descriptions of "how things are now", is way past its use-by date.


...So where-to now for strategic planning?


This article does NOT mean to suggest business planning is dead - far from it. Planning is ever more important today, to sift through the multitude of ideas and opportunities and focus on the few priorities that will turn a vision into reality.


Business planning now-days needs to be fast and focused, with one eye on the future (where are we taking this business?) and one eye on the immediate (what can we do right now to start making that future a reality?).


Using the following 6 tips you can prepare a strategic plan with vision, in just a few hours...

1. Set aside a good couple or three hours. The beginning of the calendar year (now) or financial year end is a good time to review and refocus for the year ahead.
   
   
2. Define your business mission. The "mission" affirms why your business exists. Sometimes this can get muddled as new product lines are added and new markets tapped - all the more reason to revisit and redefine.
   
   
3. Dream out loud and describe your vision. The "vision" is about where you see your business in the future. Describe what you wish for, what you're aiming towards and what sort of business you want to create. But avoid getting caught in the vision statement trap. It's critical the wider team buy-in to a vision but don't waste even a minute agonizing (or worse - having the whole team agonizing) over some flowery "shared vision" statement. Instead, spend that time and energy on how to make it actually happen.
   
   
4. Keep your vision and business plan customer focused. Remember if you are not serving someone, you're not doing business.
   
   
5. Identify and deal with the big issues helping or hindering the vision.
   
   
6. When it comes to action plans, less is more. Ensure you have only 1-3 priorities to implement. A page-long to-do list will only serve to overwhelm you into doing nothing.

So to sum up, strategic planning the traditional way does little more than describe what has already happened. Not very useful in a world that keeps changing!


Planning these days must facilitate business managers to take their enterprises forward into the unpredictable future.


Copyright Virginia Watson. Virginia runs The Marketing Department in New Zealand, helping businesses with business & marketing strategy (and related services).