‘Designing Strategies’ Newsletter
May – June, 2016 Volume 13 – Issue 71
One of my favorite comic strips is ‘Dilbert’ by Scott Adams. Day to day, Dilbert represents corporate America in a way that has never been done before in a syndicated comic strip. My take on the strip is Dilbert represents Generation X, dealing with management in a corporate world run by Baby Boomers. He has all kinds of opinions, most of which are ignored by his supervisors. Of course he would have an opinion on strategic planning and how effective it is – or isn’t.
He is frustrated on a daily basis by his superior, Pointy-haired Boss, and coworkers. Dilbert is often drawn with no mouth because he feels somewhat powerless in a business environment ruled by the Baby Boomer generation leadership.
The company leadership, from Dilbert’s perspective, is made up of stupid and totally inept Boomers. Nothing they do seems focused on strategies to improve the company. Directives on company policies and projects make no sense at all, at least to Dilbert. As a firm believer in the value of strategic planning for businesses both large and small, one Dilbert strip from earlier this Spring really hit home with me.
The Dilbert Strategic Planning Scenario:
Dilbert, Pointy-haired Boss and Alice (the chick with the triangle hair) are seated along one side of a conference table in a planning meeting. My first thought was: “Hooray, they get it! They are working on planning for the future of their company.” Well, almost.
Pointy-haired Boss started things off with: “Before we make our business plan for the coming year, let’s see how well we stayed on plan last year.”
He followed up on this seemingly appropriate statement on their past year’s corporate planning efforts. He noted that they had done nothing at all that was in their plan. This seemed to be a recurring result when it came to company planning – implementation never happened.
Dilbert chimed in, with a most logical question: “Why don’t we skip it this year?”
To which Pointy-haired Boss responded it would be ‘irrational’ not to have a plan.
For most of us, having a plan in place that you have no intention of implementing is irrational. But, Dilbert’s suggestion that they just not have a plan has an irrational side to it as well. How about if they do a plan this year and break the habit of not implementing it? Just because a company is doing something incorrectly doesn’t mean they should just stop doing it. Change course. Do something differently. Do something positive. Don’t just quit.
All of Dilbert’s questions seem to get irrational responses like the one noted above. Questions like: ‘Why not skip planning this year since we don’t follow the plan anyway?’ get leadership responses like: “Oh, not having a plan makes no sense.” Not implementing a plan to move your business toward your vision of success is what does not make sense. What also makes no sense is not taking strategic planning seriously for your company, regardless of the size of the company’s size.
Anything worth achieving starts with a plan. A strategic plan is not the be all and end all of success for any small business. It takes time and effort to develop the plan. It takes strategic thinking year round. And it takes diligence and focus to implement the plan; moving your company in the direction it wants and needs to go. Making a useful plan involves having an awareness of what is happening in the world around you at all times. It involves an understanding of how those influences can affect your industry and your business.
Planning without this important perspective can truly be a huge waste of your time and resources. The idea is to avoid being blindsided by some unexpected change that can present major hurdles and challenges along the path to your company’s growth and success. This is where the strategic thinking part comes into play. The world is constantly changing. It changes in ways that can either provide opportunities for your small business, or throw up barriers that can slow you down or totally block your way. An annual environmental scan keeps your firm abreast of changes that can affect how you do business.
Developing a solid plan also requires a planning team to determine goals and prioritize them – the ‘What we most need to do.’ phase. Next comes clearly stating objectives related to each goal – the ‘Why are we doing this? ‘What do we need to accomplish?’ phase. Once those broad concepts are identified and checked against the company Vision and Mission, it is time to move on to setting strategies and tactics that outline the ‘Exactly how we are going to accomplish all of this?’ phase. This section is laid out through a series of detailed strategies and tactics, set to fulfill the plans identified as critical goals and objectives.
Big surprise! At this point you are only halfway through your planning process – assuming you are serious about moving your company toward success, that is. You now have a plan. You may refer to it as a business plan or a strategic plan. They aren’t really the same thing, but at this point, let’s not nitpick. Your plan might be several pages long or longer if you have a larger business. The length of your plan is not what matters. What matters are the clarity, focus and direction that have been laid out clearly in the plan.
A Work Plan or Operational Plan comes next. This is where the planning and implementation phases need to be really S-M-A-R-T. Resources – staffing, equipment, funding, and technology – need to be assigned to each strategy and tactic. Who will do the necessary work? How will they do it? When does it need to be completed? What will it all cost?
Your planning team now moves into oversight and observation mode and the company ‘worker bees’ take over to make it all happen. Evaluate your plan progress throughout the year. Knowing when a project is behind schedule or just no longer viable are both important. Progress – or lack of progress – of the plan needs attention. Slowing down a process can leave important parts of your plan floundering or bring them to a dead stop. Whether you review progress monthly or quarterly, don’t be like the Dilbert team and not bother looking at it until your next planning meeting comes up.
Be rational and realistic about your planning. It will pay off in a big way for your company in its quest to attain the Vision set when the company began. If this whole planning process seems overwhelming, we can help you make it more underwhelming. Bringing in outside help to get you started with a planning process that can move your company forward in a big way can pay for itself over a very short time period. A very wise investment, for sure, don’t you think? I would like to think even Dilbert would agree that investing in the success of your small business makes sense.
VISUALIZE – ANALYZE – STRATEGIZE
Your Company’s Path to Growth and Success!
The ‘Designing Strategies’ e-newsletter is brought to you compliments of Terri L Maurer, owner of Maurer Consulting Group. MCG is a strategic marketing and management consultancy working with small businesses to put their companies on track, focused on a clear path to growth and success.
In addition to working directly with small businesses, Terri is a well-known author, publisher, trainer and keynote speaker. For help putting your firm on track, contact Terri to discuss which barriers are preventing your firm from moving forward in a strategic manner. She can be reached by telephone at: 330.283.3999 (cell) or via email . For more information on MGC services, visit our web site.
