Strategic Planning Basics

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.”

-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

How do I achieve my goals?  Where will we be in a year?  If my sales goal is two million dollars, how do I reach that number?  How do I allocate resources?  Planning is the answer.

As a consultant, I have visited struggling organizations only to find that they struggled because they had no direction and absolutely no plan.  I have seen other organizations that have forgotten the basics of a plan.  A goal and a plan to achieve the goal are a must!

I also spent some time in the military where developing a plan for an operation might take weeks or months.  Despite all of this planning, “No battle plan survives contact with the enemy,” as Prussian Army Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltkof said in the 1800s.  The plan changes with the first contact with the enemy because the plan is based upon assumptions and expectations on how the enemy will react to the action.  Planning is about the journey not necessarily the battle. The planning journey prepares the army, by allowing the army to anticipate hurdles, allocate resources and reduce risk.

Most for-profit organizations do not have months or weeks to devote to planning, especially if the plan only survives the first contact with the “customers.”  That’s okay but the planning process is essential because it allows you to determine obstacles you will encounter; pinpoint the help you’ll need from other departments; set a timeline; and, most importantly, define the goal.  A plan should not be blindly followed nor should it be put on a shelf when complete: Planning is a continuous process, so the plan should be altered and updated based on feedback and assessments.

The US ArmyField Manual 5.0 defines planning as follows:

Planning is the art and science of understanding a situation, envisioning a desired future and laying out effective ways of bringing that future about. Planning is both conceptual and detailed.  Conceptual planning includes developing an understanding of the operational environment, framing the problem, defining a desired end state, and developing an operational approach to achieve the desired end state. In contrast, detailed planning translates the broad concept into a complete and practical plan.  Detailed planning generally corresponds to the science of operations and detailed planning works out the scheduling, coordination or technical issues involved with moving, sustaining, administering, and directing forces.

The military planning process is scalable, from the soldier in the field using his or her planning skills all the way up to headquarters and its large planning department.  At your business, someone should be responsible for championing the plan and senior leadership should support the planning process.  To develop the plan, time will need to be set aside for the plan.

Remember the fundamentals of a plan:

·         Define a goal

·         Planning is a continuous process

·         Plans are time-sensitive

·         Keep plans simple

·         Keep them flexible

·         Be bold!

  

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”

-Benjamin Franklin

Let’s plan!  Planning is an art and science so you need to convert your ideas into an actionable plan. 

The conceptual planning or the art of planning is where experience and knowledge of your environment are combined to develop solutions, objectives and assumptions.  Understanding the competitive environment, the capabilities of your team and maintaining relationships with customers and partners will help you plan to achieve your goals.

The science of planning involves using measurements and analysis.  How long does it take to build your product?  How long does shipping take?  What are your organization’s procedures and policies?  This data will provide you with limitations and help you build your schedule based on measured performance. 

I will focus on a blend of conceptual and detailed planning. The following are my steps for strategic planning:

1.   Define your goals.  This is the first and the most important step.  What are you trying to accomplish?  What is your company’s goal?  Clearly define your goals.  If your goal has been assigned to you or to your department, ensure that you completely understand the goal.

2.   Analyze the environment.  What will it take to accomplish your goals?  What are your barriers to success--both internal and external to your organization? Who are the stakeholders?  Who will you collaborate with? Determine the interdependencies that you will rely on to accomplish the goal.What resources might be required?  Have you done a SWOT analysis?  If so, how will you react to threats and opportunities? Maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses? Finally, uncover all of the assumptions about your environment that your planning is based on and make sure they’re valid. 

3.   Develop objectives.  What are your long-term objectives?  What are your short-term objectives?  Do you have milestones?  Deliverables? What resources are required?  As you develop your objectives, create small executable steps, so progress can be easily measured and those executing the objectives are not overwhelmed by the enormity of the task.

4.   Create road maps, general strategies.  This is where the plan comes together; here we create the map or schedule to be followed.How do we accomplish our objectives?  Who accomplishes them?  When will they be complete?  What are the risks associated with the schedule?  Explain the strategy here.

5.    Execute the plan.  Finally, time to execute! You've gone through all of that effort to create the plan-- now use it.  The planning process should have prepared you and your team to meet your goals. 

6.    Review, fix the plan if broken.  What worked in the plan?  What objectives were not met?  Planning is both a continuous and a cyclical activity of the operations process.  Regular reviews of your plan should be established and assessments of the plan accomplished. 

During the planning process, be careful not to forecast events too far into the future.  Too much detail or using too formal of a planning method will delay the plan and complicate the process—and itwon’t improve the end results since planning can never exactly predict future results.  The most important aspect about the planning process is what you learn about yourself while you’re planning. Planning helps anticipate future action and will help you adapt to changes.

Michael James Smyth