What Every Executive Should Know About Strategic Planning – Part 12

This week’s article is the final segment of this 12-part series.  We will cover a few final questions to help you self-evaluate your own organization’s strategic planning effectiveness.

So let us continue. How would you answer the following?

10.  Do performance measurements for employees and officers of the company define accountabilities that tie back to the measurement of plan goals?

Hopefully you answered “yes” to this question.  If not, keep in mind that as with good job descriptions and well-aligned job accountabilities, a strategic planning process must address performance measurements that support plan goals and execution while tying back to incentives.  While this is crucial to do, it adds a level of complexity to planning that is to often overlooked.

11.  Were the organization’s core values and culture considered when defining the plan’s underlying execution tactics?

The preferred answer is “yes”, of course!  These are essential ingredients that must considered when formulating strategy.

Core values are broadly shared values of the company that are evidenced in the corporate culture and the general work ethic of the employees.  Some refer to core values as a shared “value system”, meaning a group shares a common set of cultural and moral beliefs.  Strong core values benefit the strategic planning effort and would generally be classified as an accelerator towards goal achievement.  The exception to this generalization is in the case of a negative culture that is out of step with the organization’s leadership values.  In that situation, core values become an inhibitor and must be changed over time to facilitate strategy achievement.  In such circumstances, the strategic planning process would need to address transition strategies for changing corporate core values.

12.  Are all plan outcomes / goals related in some tangible way to creating value for the customers and markets served by your organization?

If you answered “yes”, you can pat yourself on the back.  Congratulations!

When strategic investment is focused too inwardly, customer value creation can slip into second place in priority, behind overhead reduction plans and similar initiatives. For forward-thinking executives, this creates an internal struggle about managing this dichotomy and maintaining balance between internally focused overhead reduction strategy goals on one side and those related to the creation of customer value on the other.

13.  Does your strategic plan include detailed operational plans to support the execution of all goals defined in the corporate strategy?

Preferred answer – “yes”.  An effective planning approach should be a bifurcated process allowing for the organization to plan strategically at the enterprise level and then operationally at the business unit /divisional / departmental level – with each component supporting the other. Failing the expand the planning effort far enough to reach all the way down through the organizational layers and to extend beyond the enterprise boundaries is an all to common problem with planning efforts and processes.

14.  Are the supporting initiatives of your plan goals adjusted to account for seasonal peaks and valleys?

A “yes” answer here is preferred. In addition to attenuating the many competing priorities of the business to the realities of financial budgets, the planning process must take into account the relevant business economic cycles within the business.  Economic cycles will positively or negatively affect market conditions, access to capital, energy, focus and many other factors that will otherwise inhibit or accelerate goal achievement.  While operating budgets are annual in nature, eco-cycles are more sporadic and usually are seasonal to the business.

15. Does your organization have a strategic planning office or formal strategy governance structure?

The preferred answer to this question is, of course, “yes”.  While there may be any number of ways to administer the execution of the corporate planning process and overall execution of the strategy, rest assured that is everyone is left in charge, no one will be in charge.

So That’s It

How did your planning process fare in this evaluation? Here is a bonus question that can help you to ultimately decide the effectiveness of your planning process.

“Is the process your organization follows effective and repeatable in consistently defining meaningful goals that get achieved as expected when the plan is followed?”

Join again next week for a new article on strategic planning.

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

To View Part 9 of this Series, Click Here

To View Part 10 in this series, Click Here

To View Part 11 in this series, Click Here

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