Planning Training

Overview

This section covers both strategic planning and business planning. Both generally consist of 3 stages:

• analysis
• options and choice
• execution

The differences between the two forms of planning may be summarized as:

• time focus - strategic planning will usually look further into the future; it is about the development of a future position that yields sustainable competitive advantage. The strategy sets the direction for the organisation. Business planning tends to focus more on the immediate future and the detailed implementation of the strategy.
• investment v operations - a strategic plan commits an organisation to a particular direction and this normally requires investment / capital expenditure. Such expenditure is often stranded - ie it cannot be retrieved should the strategy prove to be unsuccessful. Business planning usually focuses more on operational expenditure and minor capital expenditure. A business plan will focus on cashflow and profitability, a strategic plan on shareholder value.
• breadth - the stakes are high in strategic planning. Strategic decisions often require enormous investment and organisational change. One is often 'betting' (because nothing is certain) the entire organisation; placing a losing bet may mean the end of the organisation. To reduce risk (and to maximize opportunity) many factors need to be taken into account - factors which in the short-term may have little impact but which over a several-years period could transform an industry.

These are differences of degree and clearly any business planner needs to have strategic perspective; the business plan is one of the steps towards the strategic objectives. Thus, business planning workshops may contain many strategic considerations and models - it all depends on what your organisation requires. All commercial-awareness.com courses are bespoke and the overviews that you will see on this website are simply suggestions to provide a flavour of what might be covered.

Practical Tools

The emphasis in all commercial-awareness.com courses is on equipping your colleagues with practical knowledge and skills. Whilst models such as the Ansoff matrix, Porter's Five Forces and Value Chain Analysis are all valuable in helping one to ask the right questions, there is still a disconnect between translating insights into action.

I have synthesised a number of different techniques and created an approach called action mapping. The major benefits of the approach are that it provides:

• an holistic, big picture perspective of a business that can be used at any level – organisation, department, team, individual – with each perspective being consistent with the others
• a link between the strategic and everyday individual actions
• a clear indication of the critical success factors – including intangibles – relationships, skills, culture, attitudes (hard to measure but usually the primary drivers)
• insight into relationships between performance drivers (reducing ‘silo’ thinking)
• a list of assumptions, obstacles, resources required, responsibilities etc
• a simple way to represent and present ideas and plans
• a framework for discussion
• a focus on action
• a visual overview

Action mapping can involve several people, moving from idea generation through to implementation. In most programmes, an action map is developed alongside other activities and topics:

• the strategic perspective – how your customers’ businesses many change in the future and the implications of such changes
• customer focus and culture
• scope creep
• understanding customer perceptions and expectations – the neuroscience behind how customers evaluate projects
• how personal interactions (internally and between customers and staff) drive performance and how to influence outcomes
• innovation – in every area, not just technical
• finance – not so much on the financial statements but rather on value management. For instance, the long-term benefits of bringing in projects early or justifying investment in training, relationships or culture.

Strategic Planning

Below is a fairly comprehensive overview of some of the topics that may be covered in a commercial-awareness.com strategy workshop. However, you may find the mindmap summary sufficient - click to enlarge.

Understanding the Future

Strategic Analysis – the Macro-environment

The macro-environment consists of forces that are beyond the control of even the largest organisations in the world. For those who interpret these forces correctly, they offer immense opportunities – for those who don’t, disaster awaits.

“If you do not know how to ask the right question, you discover nothing”
W Edwards Deming
• the macro-environment – PESTLE analysis
• identifying trends, opportunities and issues
• scenario analysis and planning (based on the work of Arie de Geus at Shell!)
• creating “future memory” and preparedness to gain first-mover advantages
• developing a “learning organisation” – embedding strategic foresight in the organisation

Strategic Analysis – Industry

A critical strategic question is: where shall we compete? Many other players are involved in the game - current and potential future competitors, suppliers and, of course, customers.

• Porter’s Industry Analysis – understanding how firms compete and the impact on profitability of:
• barriers to entry and exit
• substitutes
• potential entrants
• competitive rivalry
• competitive advantage – gaining and sustaining
• customer focus – the link between brand, culture and competitive advantage

Strategic Analysis – Markets

This session examines competitors and how the segmentation perspective an organisation adopts can lead to success or failure:

• the art-science of segmentation
• identifying “attractive” segments
• positioning within markets
• competitive analysis
• why everyone is in ‘marketing’

The Organisation

“It is important that top managers view the firm as a portfolio of competencies, for they must ask, “Given our particular portfolio of competencies, what opportunities are we uniquely positioned to exploit?”
Hamel & Prahalad Having gained an understanding of the wider environment and the industries in which the organisation operates, the next stage is to consider your organisation – what resources are available; how can the bundle of knowledge, skills, reputation, relationships, equipment etc be utilised to gain sustainable competitive advantage.

• Porter’s Value Chain – analysing how your organisation delivers value to the customer
• “Core Competencies” – gateways to the future
• Strategic Fit – culture

Sustainable Competitive Advantage

“Some managers think, ‘The world is changing, things are going faster - so I’ve got to move faster. Having a strategy seems to slow me down.’ I argue no, no, no - having a strategy actually speeds you up."
Professor Michael Porter Porter identified three viable options for sustainable success. This session explores (and questions) these approaches, encompassing topics such as branding and culture. The investment implications of each are examined.

• thinking behind “Blue Ocean” strategies
• lowest cost
• differentiation
• focus
• understanding “business models”

Brand and Culture

“Whenever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision”
Peter Drucker Brand and culture are the foundations of sustainable competitive advantage. They are difficult to copy and they enable organisations to escape the shackles of existing product-market combinations – in other words to adapt to the future competitive environment. A brand is how the phone is answered, the tone of voice in an email to a customer or the response when mistakes are made. And clearly, each of these is driven by culture – brand and culture are two sides of the same coin.

Techniques for Developing Strategy

"However lean and fit an organisation, it still needs a brain. But the brain we have in mind is not the brain of the CEO or strategic planner. Instead it is an amalgamation of the collective intelligence and imagination of managers and employees throughout the company, who must possess an enlarged view of what it means to be 'strategic'." Hamel & Prahalad A reminder that the strategic process is not a linear sequence; it is an iterative process. Strategy can often be perceived as esoteric and removed from what managers do on a daily basis; this is a mistake. In this session, participants will use a number of practical techniques that convert strategy into specific tasks:

• understanding goals
• action mapping – identifying performance drivers, issues
• leveraging and developing core competencies
• next actions – a systematic approach
• the strategic staircase

Making it Happen

Here participants consider how to translate strategy into action, whilst integrating measurement into implementation.

Strategic Implementation – Balanced Scorecard

"Organisations today need a language for communicating strategy... Success comes from having strategy become everyone's everyday job."
Kaplan & Norton The Balanced Scorecard is a framework for:

• communicating strategy throughout the organisation
• making strategy part of everyone’s everyday job
• aligning individual and organisational goals
• measuring and controlling the real performance drivers, including intangibles
• delivering shareholder value

Strategic Leadership

“Most leadership strategies are doomed to failure from the outset. The traditional model of change -- change that is led from the top -- has a less-than-impressive track record. When I look at efforts to create change over the past 10 years, I have to say that there's enough evidence of success to say that change is possible and enough evidence of failure to say that it isn't likely.”
Peter SengeSuccessful strategists recognise that effective implementation depends on people:

• culture and values
• leadership behaviours
• winning hearts and minds
• creating a “sense of urgency”

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Course Outlines

Strategic Perspective and Planning

Course Outline from Singapore Workshop

Business Planning

Here is an example of a typical commercial-awareness.com business planning workshop. It is a practical and participatory course that will help managers to create comprehensive, yet concise, persuasive business plans that integrate with your organisation’s overall strategy. The course moves from an analysis of the wider environment to identifying attractive markets and defining the marketing approach. Marketing - by which I mean the way an organisation attracts and services customers - is crtical. Without customers, there is no organisation.

Traditional financial elements are combined with a consideration of intangible key performance drivers and how these will be managed, leveraged and developed. Finally, we consider how the plan will be communicated and embedded so that its implementation is a part of everyone’s every day job

Outline of a Typical Business Planning Workshop

Introduction

"Strategy making needs to function beyond the boxes to encourage the informal learning that produces new perspectives and new combinations … Once managers understand this, they can avoid other costly misadventures caused by applying formal techniques, without judgement and intuition, to problem solving.”
Henry Mintzberg
• an iterative process
• the strategic context
• business plan format

Issues

• internal
• macro environment
• industry analysis

Markets & Customers

• attractiveness
• segmentation
• buying criteria
• competitors and suppliers

"The marketing concept, if it is to work at all, has to be understood and practised by all executives in a firm"
Malcolm McDonald

The Marketing Mix - 7Ps

• product
• place
• promotion
• price
• people
• processes
• packaging

Resource Analysis

• people
• physical assets
• intangibles (brand, knowledge, relationships etc)
• financial

SWOT

• summary of the competitive position

Financial Aspects

• P&L
• Balance Sheet
• Cashflow

Measurement & Control

• identifying Critical Success Factors and Key Performance Indicators
• financial and non-financial measures
• managing and measuring intangibles – scorecards
• timing

"Organisations today need a language for communicating strategy ... Success comes from having strategy become everyone's everyday job."
Kaplan & Norton

Communicating the plan

• to senior management
• to staff
• embedding in daily habits

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Course Outline

Business Planning