Strategic planning: Three tips for 2009 — An online discussion
How is your company addressing the issues highlighted by many respondents to a recent Quarterly survey, including balancing short-term challenges and long-term priorities, employing scenario planning effectively, and boosting the frequency of monitoring progress against plans? Read what others have said, then let us know how you are approaching the strategic planning process this year.
- See the related article, "Strategic planning: Three tips for 2009"
- See the survey results (page 2 of the original article)
- Link to this blog post
As a marketing leader with strong ties into our myriad of customers, as well as across the software development industries I can say that clients are definitively interested in rebalancing their projects and strategic initiatives. But not always to downsize. Many know that the bounce will come, and they are accelerating discussions around innovation, some even spending money. Overall, the current crisis has allowed them to analyze their past approaches, and begin to bring their IT, product, and project spending under control (for some, 90% of the budget was spent “running to stand still”). For these companies that rebalanced, and are tinking long-term, I beleieve they will be well positioned to pick up market share when capital flows more freely again and people can entertain the thought of “more” as opposed to “less”.
Posted 16 July, 04:46 PM by Bruce Baron
The key to Strategy planning is to differentiate the companies offering, in a common market and use the whole chain of processes to support the differentiation. This is with the aim of adding value, (to offer more at less cost) to collectively derive an advantage for the company, which is difficult to duplicate by competitors. Example of McDonald’s, which has profited in the downturn by adding value ( low cost menu) and planning healthy food items( different) meets the strategy of Differentiation .Recession greatly affects the external environment, increasing the focus on analysis and other cost cutting methods.
Posted 26 June, 12:58 AM by Surendra Sharma - India
I agree with the article that the people you involve in the strategic planning process is key. You need the right people to be monitoring the external environment, make decisions, and then implement them.
In uncertain conditions (normal ones as well). It is essential to be able to react quickly.
Posted 7 June, 07:10 AM by Sari Al-Ghoul
There are three significant changes we are bringing to our process
1. Use the downturn to examine below average performers to eliminate positions and see if they have an impact on results before rehiring
2. Shift emphasis to customer facing cost in sales and reduce general marketing efforts
3. Flatten the organization layers
Posted 19 May, 09:20 AM by KURIEN JACOB
I think in the article there is not a sufficient analysis of the planning phases. The is just a quite traditional and obsolete view of the planning work. In planning I look at three integrated stages: the operations planning; the industrial planning; the strategic planning. the three although are and must be fully integrated are addressing different aspects of the company operations. The first is tied to the very short term view of the business results, hence more tied to manage the opex; the second has to do more with the operational improvement of the company, hence facing more with the capex; while the third is more tied to the long and wide range of the business, hence with where and what the company wants to do with the hopefully good financial results it is getting out of the market. The questions that were addressed to the people who were interviewed do not help to understand the real and strategic company behavior but just what at present they are doing.
Posted 24 April, 10:20 AM by Ezio Pacchiardo
The effects of the crisis in my country (Macedonia) have started to become visible several months later than its “official” start elsewhere. I see the reason for such belated blow in the fact that our banks did not have toxic assets, neither had they had the luxury of nurturing various asset bubbles in the past. There was of course a sharp decline of the Stock Exchange, but the Stock Exchange does not influence the lives of the people and businesses as it does in the developed world. Some of our officials and business people started believing that we might be a small safe harbour in these turbulent times. And of course, this proved to be overly optimistic: our real sector started feeling the problems of increasingly cautious customers, dried-up liquidity in the financial system and necessity to increase, rather than decrease costs. How do most managers react? Hiding their heads in the sand like ostriches! Or with denial! Instead of discussions, strategic planing sessions, more frequent monitoring, introducing of different thinking processes, inviting consultants to challenge their usual reasoning behaviour, many of them do the opposite: do not discuss, even not with the Board, nor with the employees and hope that they will remain untouched or not be hurt much. Being a consultant, I hope that the cognitive process that the crisis should be fought with will eventually be developed and that this recognition will not come too late.
Posted 23 April, 06:45 PM by Verica Hadzi Vasileva-Markovska
When the siren of recession rises, it is only normal to tighten budgets, yet recognizing opportunities and investing in them should never be overlooked. This allows an organization to expand its market share and surpass competition reinforcing its market stance when the crisis ceases. A clever strategy, in these tight times would be a selective strategy that enables an organization to capitalize on market opportunities that may be presented. Focus and monitoring are integral parts to such a strategy, performing the dual role of cost as well expenditure radars. Tips that we deployed on the company level to achieve this include:
• External monitoring of all stakeholders trends as well as internal monitoring of expenditure trends and cash flow to revise strategies and base them on verifiable data
• Creating contingency plans, to cope with all future circumstances with participation from different units/entities within the organization to leverage the expertise of all units in one plan
• Top executives invest time planning and meeting with relevant department heads, to benchmark results against plans
Posted 23 April, 10:41 AM by ossama nazmi
In these turbulent times, projects and spending monitoring are important but it seems that the rules of the game are changing and those that understand them better will have an advantage over those who don’t. Business history can give some interesting references but the business environment is much more complex than in the past so not all the answers may be found in business history but try to define a clear vision of how to continue delivering value to clients and stockholders in their new reality may be a good starting point
Posted 21 April, 01:29 PM by Jose Rafael Monsalve
This discussion is great, but misses a big issue – nearly all significant organizations already did ‘strategic planning’ in the run-up to the crisis, but virtually none saw it coming, prepared to avoid it, or had plans in place to cope with it. The unavoidable conclusion seems to be that we still lack any reliable professional tools for strategic planning .. which implies further, that we lack any theory of strategy and performance, just as McKinsey reported in Bringing Discipline to Strategy back in June 2000.
This is hardly encouraging of the hope that firms will discover better strategies as they plan to emerge from or exploit any recovery.
Some further thoughts on this at http://www.strategydynamics.com/strategy-lessons.
Posted 20 April, 08:16 AM by Kim Warren
As a consultant I’ve mostly come across firms that are still focusing on short term numbers and avoiding the strategic image. This is a time, as I think, when businesses need to be more innovative than ever but they are much focusing on the daily short term ratios and seeking praise from market analysts. In a fear that they might lose shareholder and market support they don’t think ahead but tend to fall behind the line. Not realising the fact that investors themselves are willing to take risks for inestments that prove to be worthy. Although big multinational clients still are looking for long term prosperity. But sill a significant gap exists between what is being done and what should be done, at least in my country. Organisations should pursue short term objectives considering the business strategy as a framework to act within and try to balance the risks being faced and the oppurtunities that could be availed with their financial perspectives. This requires being a little more risky but taking the investors and market in complete confidence assuring loyalty, but not expecting it.
Posted 19 April, 11:39 PM by Talha Adnan