Strategic Planning bringing the future forward

Inspiring Business Performance

I n fo rmat ive gu ides on indust ry bes t p rac t ice

Introduction

Most organisations would claim to have some form of business strategy in place.

However, many a strategy is confined to the boardroom; it is not for communication

to the rest of the organisation but instead, to be placed on file and retrieved only if

shareholders ask to see it. To be truly effective a business strategy has to be consistently

deployed throughout the entire organisation, and used to direct the business decision

making process. In devising a strategy for any organisation it is important to understand

what the strategic challenges are, and how they are created, accepted and deployed

throughout the organisation. A robust Strategic Planning Process is essential to ensure

that decisions made today will be aligned with the future needs of the business – growth,

improvement and new technologies – and that the organisation and its people will be

ready and able to cope with whatever challenges lie ahead.

An effective Strategic Planning Process that really does allow you to bring forward a view of the future, is one which will allow the top-down messages to be deployed effectively throughout the organisation; it will have a five to 10 year horizon, allow business gaps to be identified early and thus enable effective and timely decision making.

So Strategic Planning needs to be designated as a core business process and as such can only be effectively designed, mapped and deployed when the business is ‘in control’. Being ‘in control’ is not merely a description of the condition of the organisation but a recognised industry standard, measured by a set of specific criteria. An organisation which is ‘in control’ is one which is deemed to have reached the top of ‘Phase 1’ of the Oliver Wight maturity map. In order to do so the organisation will have eliminated the occurrence of unplanned events and resultant fire fighting, allowing the leadership team to divert its attention from worrying about the short-term, to planning for the future, leaving the zero to three month ‘execution window’ in the hands of the company’s managers.

It is vital too, to link Strategic Business Objectives (SBOs) to the company’s strategic plan and thus develop a measurement hierarchy, through which a link to the ‘soft management’ needs can be determined – for team-based measures for example.

Integrated Business Planning (advanced S&OP) provides the means through which the strategy can be deployed to direct the business decision making process, linking the other three core processes – Product, Demand and Supply – to the Strategic Planning Process. These core processes should be properly mapped so they can be communicated, sustained and improved, and the appropriate education provided, so their use and maintenance do not become the exclusive domain of a handful of individuals, on whom the organisation may consequently become overly dependent.

And it is not just the core business processes which need to be taken account of. Often overlooked by organisations, the so-called supporting functions and processes of Human Resources (HR), Information Technology (IT) Quality Assurance (QA) and so on, should be integrated with the core processes and driven by the business strategy.

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By Lloyd Snowdon

Managing Partner

Oliver Wight EAME

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Strategic Planning Gaining control of the organisation

Until the organisation is ‘in control’, it is impossible to develop and deploy an effective strategic planning process; that is to say, one which engages and involves every level of the organisation and allows the establishment of a meaningful measurements hierarchy. As figure 1, below shows, being ‘in control’ is defined as being at the top of Phase 1 of the Oliver Wight maturity map. This demonstrates a

The Oliver Wight Maturity MapOliver Wight categorises the maturity of all organisations in one of four ‘phases’. The Oliver Wight ‘Class A’ standard is indicated by the red arrow, close to the top of Phase 2. Before it can claim to be in control, an organisation has to reach the top of Phase 1 (indicated by the grey arrow). Being ‘in control’ enables the leadership team to delegate leadership qualities as well as management skills; freeing it to focus on the future of the business. Figure 1: Maturity Map

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sustainable performance of 95 percent against the organisation’s specified key performance indicators (KPIs), and signifies that unplanned events and fire fighting have been eliminated.

Strategic Planning provides a five to 10 year horizon for future challenges and is hence, a fundamental part of the organisation’s top-down company messages.

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The Oliver Wight Integrated Business ModelThis model is used by many of the world’s best known organisations. Strategic Planning and Management is the overarching top-down process feeding the five-step Integrated Business Planning (IBP) process. The starburst at the centre of the IBP process represents the deployment of the messages from the Strategic Planning Process, which are then compared to the bottom-up messages in the Integrated Reconciliation Review (step 4 of the IBP process), to determine business gaps and enable effective decision-making.

A properly devised Strategic Planning Process comprises some eight stages. As it is deployed, each stage should engage progressively more people, from more levels within the organisation. In so doing, it is vital that each

and every individual is made to feel they are able to contribute to the future success of the organisation in order to firmly establish understanding, buy in and ownership among the entire workforce.

Figure 2: Oliver Wight Integrated Business Model

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The eight stages of Strategic Planning

Stage 1: Information gathering

Stage 2: Vision and mission

Stage 3: Developing the strategic plan

Nothing can happen until the head of the organisation (for the sake of simplicity, we’ll refer to them as the CEO) has set out a clear vision and mission for the business. This of course cannot be achieved in a vacuum; it must be in the context of the market. Therefore stage one is to gather information, so the CEO can understand the trends and challenges – government, economy, markets, customers and consumers – they are likely to experience over the next five to 10 years; plus the expectations of consumers, customers shareholders and, where it applies, of the parent company or of

Research complete, the CEO is able to develop meaningful mission and vision statements. However these are not a fait accompli but ‘straw man’ documents to be shared with the

Having bought into the vision and mission, the leadership team then has to ‘bring it to life’, brainstorming ideas (typically in a workshop environment and again, using LIA) to produce an ‘Expanded Vision’ and to develop the Strategic Plan and supporting Strategic Business Objectives (SBOs). The resultant document provides clarity – in words and numbers – for the next layer in the organisation, on what the next five to 10 years will look like. Importantly, however this document should not describe the journey; that is the role of those involved in the next stage of the process. For example, the Strategic Plan should identify changes to the Value Proposition or

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‘Corporate’. All this data and information needs to be properly organised, documented and analysed in the context of the organisation’s current capabilities and how those capabilities will influence what needs to be done over the next five to 10 years, to deliver the CEO’s dream for the business.

In building as comprehensive a picture as possible, it is useful to seek an independent perspective at this stage and CEOs typically engage the help of external consultants and solicit the views of their peers.

CEO’s direct reports – i.e. the leadership team – to seek their contribution and buy-in; ideally using ‘leadership in action’ (LIA) to identify any silent sceptics among the leadership team.

Competitive Priorities, whilst the SBO’s will be simple statements on what needs to done in order for the strategies to succeed; e.g. “Grow the business by 30% in the next five years”.

It is vital too that at this stage, the CEO and leadership team identify the Values and Guiding Principles to be deployed to enable the next layers in the organisation to develop the culture and environment required to support the Strategic Plan and SBO’s.

The outputs from Stages 1, 2 and 3 combine to establish the Business Model (Figure 3 overleaf)

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Stage 4a: The driving strategiesNow the members of the leadership team, each head a Driving Strategy Team, formed with selected personnel from the next level in the organisation, to develop the specific strategies (roadmaps) for the delivery of the Business Model within their own area of responsibility. Again the LIA process is a useful tool to ensure buy-in.

Each of these Driving Strategy Teams use the Business Model and SBO’s to develop the strategies they will deploy to achieve what is required for the five to 10 year period of the Strategic Plan based on the direction provided.

The teams also define between four and six logical Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for each SBO, against which achievement of the SBO is measured.

Normally, there are four driving strategies: Marketing; Product & Service; Operations and Finance. And it is in this order that the strategies are usually determined, because one feeds the other, in this sequence. Ultimately, Finance will say whether the plans are affordable; and if they are not, the process needs to be repeated until a financially attractive set of strategies are produced.

The business model This model defines the future for the organisation, and the core strategies explain how this will be achieved. The Vision and Mission statements need to be constructed from a known and understood definition, these therefore need to be clearly defined and communicated. The Expanded Vision should be no more than a page, which defines the Vision statement in more detail and provides the material for a memorable ‘Strap Line’ or ‘Tag Line’ that the organisation can adopt for its strategy.

Figure 3: Business model

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Stage 4b: The supporting strategies

Once the driving strategies have been determined it is the turn of the support functions (HR, IT, QA and so on) to play their part: to develop their own strategies

The strategic directionThis is a simplified strategic planning process with the Business Model providing the initial understanding of the direction required. Each level in the organisation takes its information from the one above, but on the understanding that any information it receives can be challenged or modified; this ensures ownership at every level. Also at this stage, each of the Driving Strategy Teams should be encouraged to continually share its developments, to ensure nothing is overlooked or forgotten.

or roadmaps, to be integrated in support of the newly-defined strategic direction of the organisation as shown in figure 4 below.

Figure 4: The strategic direction

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Stage 6: Projects and tasks

With the Strategies (roadmaps) and Tactics (programmes) defined and agreed, it is then possible for managers to develop the Actions (projects and tasks) required in the current budget year. As with all the previous stages it

is important to involve representatives from the next layer down in the organisation, in order to maximise ownership and understanding of what is required.

Stages 5a and 5b: Tactical programmes

The baton now passes to senior managers and the next layer of management in the organisation to repeat stage 4 but based on a two to three year, rather than five year horizon.

This creates the tactics or programme of work required over the next two to three years to achieve the strategies or roadmaps.

Involvement and ownershipThis shows the flow of information from the Strategic Plan via the strategy teams (roadmaps) through to the tactical teams (programmes), and how the CSFs are developed for each SBO. These CSFs define the 18 to 24 strategic imperatives to be reviewed in the Management Business Review step of the IBP process. Wherever possible, the CSFs break down the SBOs into five separate annual ‘portions’ to clearly communicate the results required for each year of the strategic plan.

Figure 5: Involvement and ownership

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Stage 8: Continual deployment and review

With the deployment process complete, it is essential to constantly deploy the outputs from the strategic planning process through the IBP process, via the starburst shown in figure 2. The deployed strategy provides the top-down information for IBP, whilst the three Core Processes (Product/service, Demand and Supply), provide the corresponding bottom-up results. Together these feed the monthly Integrated Reconciliation Review – Step 4 – of the IBP process.

In addition to integrating the monthly review of the Strategic Plan into the IBP process, there are two additional reviews included as part of the Strategic Planning process; the Diagnostic Review and an informal Reflection Review. The business environment is constantly evolving and unforeseen changes will occur. Therefore, the

Strategic Plan needs to be continually reviewed to ensure it remains relevant to the organisation under the prevailing circumstances.

The Diagnostic Review focuses on one specific SBO after nine months to thoroughly analyse performance and whether the strategic assumptions used to create it are still valid. It can be any SBO but a thorough review is essential.

The informal Reflection Review usually involves two members of the Leadership Team who discuss their own thoughts on any given SBO. If they find that their new information or informal analysis has some merit, they will raise it with the rest of the Leadership Team, which may then authorise a Diagnostic Review if required.

Stage 7: The deployment process

The previous six stages will develop an enormous amount of information which needs to be deployed throughout the length and breadth of the organisation. In stage 7, a deployment process is developed, which ensures a cascade of this information down through the business, so each individual understands and is aligned behind the five year strategic plan, and company mission and vision. Existing corporate communication frameworks can be harnessed for the cascade process,

and the critical mass of personnel already involved in the production and development of the information, should be employed for its delivery; this ensures the greatest possible understanding and commitment throughout the organisation, as well as facilitating valuable peer-to-peer discussion. By the end of stage 7 each employee should understand their role in the strategic plan and have clear targets and objectives.

Establishing a measurements hierarchy

A measurements hierarchy (as shown in figure 6) can now be developed using the SBOs and CSFs defined via the Strategic Planning Process to create the KPIs for the business, and for these KPIs to be related to each and every layer in the organisation. Using the example SBO, ‘Grow the business by

30 percent in five years’, this model demonstrates the detail of thought required, to develop an effective measurements hierarchy. The supporting strategies (HR, IT, QA etc) can use then this information to develop their structure in support of the SBOs, ensuring they are fully integrated.

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Strategy deploymentThis model builds on the concept that there are sequential Driving Strategies – Marketing; Product; Operations and Finance. The SBO is expressed on the top line and then the possible Strategies (Roadmaps) identified, and these derive the annual CSFs. The next level down develops the supporting Tactics (Programmes) for the next two to three years and hence the first layer of KPIs. Finally, the model shows the Actions (Projects or Tasks) and lower level KPIs. Once completed Marketing provides this information to ‘Product’, which then develops its structure to support the SBO, before passing it on to Operations and finally, Finance.

Measurements hierarchyThis shows the four to six SBOs anticipated from a typical Strategic Planning Process; the three to four CSFs in support of each SBO goal; and the pyramid of KPIs beneath related to each organisational level. Where the KPI pyramids overlap the measures should be tested to ensure they do not compete; if they do, team-based measures should be introduced.

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Figure 7: Strategy deployment

Figure 6: Measurements hierachy

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In conclusion

This final model (figure 7) shows how IBP (advanced S&OP) integrates the five or 10 year strategy with the short-term and how it provides the five-step process to enable reconciliation of the top-down with the bottom-up. It is important to recognise that IBP uses the output from the Strategic Planning Processes and deploys it on a monthly basis; IBP itself, does not create the Strategy.

Neither does IBP manage the short-term execution window, usually defined as zero to three months. But it does ‘dip into’ those processes which manage the short-term, on a monthly basis to understand what the month-to-month changes might be, looking out over a four to 24 month rolling horizon.

The yellow arrow shown arching from the top right of the diagram down to the bottom left is the arrow “Bringing the Future Forward”. It represents how people throughout the organisation need to understand the strategic direction of the business to make effective and well-informed decisions today, which will have a positive effect tomorrow. If they do not share

the same view of the future, it is very difficult for teams to make decisions which are aligned with each other and the business Strategy. A well-deployed Strategic Plan ensures that this is the case.

It is important that the organisation is decompressed and different horizons assigned at different levels. A decompressed organisation is an empowered organisation and it enables the Values and Guiding Principles required for developing the culture and environment of the organisation to be established much more quickly and effectively.

In conclusion, implementing a truly effective Strategic Planning Process is a substantial challenge; it is one which requires great commitment, detailed analysis and much hard work. However, the rewards are great. Once deployed, it forever establishes an integrated structure, which allows the short-term to be managed in parallel with the future. And it ensures the CEO is no longer condemned to fire fighting and managing the short-term needs of the business.

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About Oliver Wight

Oliver Wight has a 40 year track record of delivering business improvement to some

of the world’s best-known organisations. We believe that sustainable improvement can

only be made through your own people. So unlike other consultancy firms, we transfer

our knowledge to you, which means you can achieve performance levels and financial

results that last.

At the leading edge of management thinking and practice, our Integrated Business Planning (IBP) model lies at the heart of our clients’ journey to outstanding business performance. Oliver Wight originated Sales and Operations Planning in the 1980s and IBP can most simply be described as advanced S&OP; evolving from its production planning roots over 40 years into

the fully integrated management and supply chain collaboration process it is today. IBP allows the senior executive to plan and manage the entire organisation over a 24 month horizon, aligning tactical and strategic plans each month and allocating critical resources to satisfy customers in the most profitable way.

Inspiring Business Performance

The information contained is proprietary to Oliver Wight International and may not be modified, reproduced, distributed or utilised in any manner in whole or in part, without the express prior written permission of Oliver Wight International.

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