Questions and Answers

Questions and Answers

Is it OK to skip a year of the annual Strategic Plan review meetings?

To be of maximum benefit, the Simplified Strategic Planning process requires full commitment, broad participation and excellent input. It also requires establishing discipline and appropriate habits within the organization. The repetitive nature of the implementation schedule creates that discipline and assures that the planning process will be fully integrated into manager’s day-to-day responsibilities. Holding the required meetings is a strong signal that Strategic Planning has management’s full commitment. We do not normally recommend deviating from the recommended schedule, which includes a formal update to the strategic plan on an annual basis. There may be occasion when a yearly business cycle does not match up well with the implementation schedule for the company’s Strategic Objectives. For example, if most of the objectives had completion dates a year and a half from the last annual meeting, then delaying the annual review until a time closer to their completion might make sense. Companies also consider delaying the annual meeting because they feel that "not much has changed" in one year. You should avoid this rationale. While your instincts may be correct, it is only through the careful analysis prescribed by the Strategic Planning process that you will assure yourself that you have "touched all the bases" and that your instinct, in fact was correct.

We get confused when formulating Expand versus Maintain strategies. They seem very similar.

The actual difference in the initiatives you identify to support Maintain or Expand strategies may be very subtle. One reason is that there are frequently no clear lines in the Strategic Planning process but rather a series of continuums. That is why it is difficult to know precisely when an Expand strategy may evolve into a Maintain or vice versa. It is also why the management team’s instincts are so valuable and that the process should never be approached in a purely mechanistic way. The major difference in an Expand versus a Maintain strategy may be more in the expected results rather than the individual strategic initiatives. In choosing an Expand strategy a company is saying that their expectation for that particular segment is for significant growth in market share versus the competition. They expect to grow significantly beyond the market’s growth and they are prepared to commit whatever resources are required to achieve it. In a Maintain strategy, while the company is also prepared to commit significant resources, the expectation is that growth will be limited to the market’s growth.

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Center for Simplified Strategic Planning, Inc.
2219 Packard - Suite 13
Ann Arbor, MI 48104

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