How do you assess your process for strategic planning and know if it is on track or as optimized as it might be? The analysis this week, and over the next three segments article series, should help you to objectively evaluate your planning process and identify potential issues and risks that may exist in your organization’s current planning world. How would you answer these questions?
1. Did you conduct a current-state analysis of your organization’s ecosystem as part of your planning process?
We are looking for a “yes” here. The odds are, you scratched your head and wondered “What is the point of doing a current-state analysis when we are planning our go-forward strategy?” At best, you might have answered with a “qualified” yes. Don’t be embarrassed if that is the case, but do consider adopting a new approach to your planning that includes the critical component of current-state analysis.
The current-state analysis phase of corporate strategic planning involves gaining a “business truth” of where the organization is today so that it is possible to plan effectively for moving from the current reality to the desired results. This integrated set of foundational activities is designed to accomplish the following:
Tack down where the organization is today, reviewing:
- The organization’s vision statement
- The organization’s mission statement
- The current strategic plan and goal attainment percentage
- In the case of divisions or subsidiaries, reviewing the current alignment of strategic goals
- The organization’s hierarchy
- Key executive and management job descriptions
- Organization’s core competencies
- Key executive and management leadership competencies
- The organization’s cultural heuristics
Additionally:
- Assess operations and the decision process within the enterprise “ecosystem”
- Consider all functional areas that are involved in developing and delivering value to the marketplace
- Identify potential paths to achieving the desired end outcomes
To accomplish an understanding both the business ecosystem and eco-cycle in the most effective manner, an internal assessment of the organization must review organizational assets, organizational hierarchies, resources, people, culture, systems, partnerships, suppliers, business process, financial model and numerous other factors. Likewise, an external assessment looks at the marketplace for the organization, competitors, social aspects, the regulatory environment, technology and economic cycles.
For more information, see the article “The Critical Step of Current-state Analysis & Review in Strategic Planning“.
2. Were all strategic goal “candidates” systematically prioritized to ensure that the “right” goals were selected?
Hopefully, you were able to answer “yes” to this question. Applying a systematic prioritization method as part of the strategic planning process serves as a filter and a compass, helping to separate “wants” / “wishes” from actual corporate “needs” and provides direction to strategic planning. We are forced to make tough decisions that open one door and close another. Weighty strategic decisions can be made easier if we apply a decision “triage” to help structure the cognitive process we must complete.
But how do we separate requirements from “desirements” in the business world fairly and consistently? Sometimes budgetary constraints drive us to adopt a strategy of eliminating options that are not actually requirements for our business, at least not at this time. For that first round of elimination, we need a litmus test of sorts. More to the point, what we need is a decision process to help us filter the wants from the needs.
One simple technique to consider is the calculation of Relative Valuation (RV) for each candidate key outcome identified in the early stages of planning. For more information, see the article “Prioritizing Organizational Wants Versus Needs – How To Tell The Difference“.
Join us again next week as we continue the discussion.
To View Part 1 of this Series, Click Here
To View Part 2 of this Series, Click Here
To View Part 3 of this Series, Click Here
To View Part 4 of this Series, Click Here
To View Part 5 of this Series, Click Here
To View Part 6 of this Series, Click Here
To View Part 7 of this Series, Click Here
To View Part 8 of this Series, Click Here