Editor’s note: In last month’s Up Front column, we talked about what not to do when it comes to strategic planning. This month, we start a series of three articles that explain what you should be doing to position your organization for the future. The authors are Bruce Griffiths and Bob Powers, experienced management consultants who have done strategic planning for a wide variety of agencies and corporations.
Has strategic planning gone out of vogue? Or, at the very least, has it been relegated to the back burner? Recent distractions have certainly sidetracked strategic conversations. Most notably, what is being called “the great recession” has forced many organizations into reactionary mode, collapsing planning horizons from years to weeks (sometimes to the next payroll period!). Then there are the challenges that come with changes in information and communication technology happening at warp speed. In this environment, taking time for formal strategy planning can seem a luxury, not an essential.
- Of course, every organization does have a strategy of sorts, whether by design or default. Unintentional strategies tend to fall into the following categories:
- The annual budget (what you count is what counts).
- Departmental objectives, goals or priorities (if the
- organization’s leaders won’t tell me, I’ll do my own thing).
- The chief or CEO’s calendar (what he/she pays attention to gets attention).
- Reacting to a competitor/critic’s initiatives (the city
- council wants to put EMS out to bid).
- Organizational inertia (driving by looking in the rear-view mirror).
All of these are reactive and not very motivational for an “elevator talk” designed to energize the workforce. So why resort to these suboptimal options? We think many leaders are disenchanted with strategic planning, believing it is too formulaic and transient. They think of the process as an event that produces a point of view at a moment in time, and then dies under the press of business.
And of course they often are right. Leadership teams can be put through the appropriate process—a clarification of mission/vision/values; a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis; a prioritization of strategic issues; and a choice of key competitive differentiators with a growth path—but, unfortunately, a weekend of strategic reflection is not the heavy lifting required to truly differentiate an organization over time. That takes discipline and commitment to the strategic goals, at all levels, and as expressed by budget priorities.
In the airline industry, there is a dramatic example of this simple truth: Southwest Airlines. If you’ve ever flown Southwest, you know their strategy. Quite simply, it is point-to-point inexpensive air travel (no frills) designed to compete with bus or rail. The founder, Herb Kelleher, made no secret about what they were going to do, but he also built in the discipline and cost structure to persist over time. They fly a single type of aircraft (737s for more efficient training and crew transfer), they never offer meals, they employ sophisticated fuel hedging experts, tickets are offered only through their website (no commissions), and they fly into gates that are generally less expensive. A strategy of growth into major urban areas in North America was tempered with an incredibly disciplined bottom-line focus providing a shareholder return that fueled confidence and future growth.
We’ve used a grand example here to make our point that strategy isn’t passé—it’s simply insufficient. Yes, having a strategy is crucial, but that’s only the first step: The hard part comes later, with actual implementation of that strategy. You have to make sure your strategy is living within your organization.
Despite the size and success of Southwest Airlines, the same need for strategy exists in startup and smaller organizations. In fact, in both building an investment business case and ensuring you are truly competitive, there is an argument that strategic planning—and, yes, strategic thinking—are even more imperative for the smaller organization.
Next month: Reinvigorating your strategic thinking and instilling the discipline to follow through.| Strategy Starts Here Mission: A clear statement, written from the client’s, customer’s or consumer’s perspective, of why the organization exists. Vision: A compelling description of the organization’s preferred future. An exciting vision is part of a good leader’s repertoire. Values: Explicit principles that are behavioral guard rails in realizing mission and vision. For example, every excellent organization at a minimum values quality, service and innovation as it delivers products and/or services. Values, like safety, will occasionally trump the mission. |
