COURSE AND DIRECTION - Client Corner

Since you have used the Simplified Strategic Planning process for a number of years, what are the most important benefits your company has realized from the process?

First, we understand better who we are and how we fit into the larger universe of our industry. That was somewhat new for our company. Before we formalized our planning in this way, I don't know if we ever looked at it as though we were competing with anybody.

Second, the process has helped our senior management team become vested in what they were doing. Rather than simply playing "follow the leader", they became leaders themselves.

Have you found any specific part of the process to be especially effective for devising your long-term strategy?

The entire market and competitive research activities that we undertake between the first and second meetings are always very meaningful for us. Even after six cycles of the process, we still discover critical information about our competitors each year. Our business doesn't often change quickly. It's the subtle evolution of the market that can be very meaningful for our planning.

The Perceived Opportunities exercise is also an important part of the process each year. We encourage the team to be creative in how they view our options. We actually have a "Stupid Idea Award" to challenge the team to think outside the box. Then the screening process allows us to narrow our focus very quickly.

How has Simplified Strategic Planning changed your company?

Our company is over 40 years old. We used some other approaches to strategic planning in the past, some in formalized ways similar to SSP. We usually got some significant results. It's like going on a diet, any diet: if you measure anything, you will usually lose some weight! We have seen the most consistent return on our time and dollars invested with Simplified Strategic Planning. We have learned a lot about our business in the last 6 years and, knowing what we know now, we would not pick the other processes that we used before SSP.

The other processes that we used had structured meeting agendas, but did not require significant market research or detailed implementation planning. When we finished a plan, we always believed that everything was going to get done in 2 weeks. This was, of course, completely unrealistic. The structure of the implementation components of SSP really has taught us a lesson about getting things done.

How has the process changed for you and the team in subsequent cycles of the process?

We did change things as we went on. Just learning the process is one thing — knowing the cookbook and the recipes. In the early cycles, we spent some time debating the meaning and motivation of the exercises and discussions. Before the meetings, I used to hand out a sheet with process terminology and the agenda so that everyone would come to the meeting with a heightened sense of what we needed to accomplish. This is no longer necessary.

Also, in the early years, we used to plot the action plan progress on a big poster board. We listed the objectives, the teams and the due dates. We staged it like a big race — who's ahead, who's behind. Peer pressure is a powerful motivator! We are able to handle implementation with a more low-key approach now that everyone understands the action plan scheduling process and the importance of staying the course.

The monthly action plan review meetings are absolutely critical to making progress as the annual implementation cycle unfolds. Without the appropriate ongoing attention to accountability, it is so easy to let these projects slip. One very useful tip: Don't just use the monthly meetings to review the status of the project plans. We always make sure that we choose specific dates for all action plan activities for the next 30 days.

Any closing thoughts for our readers?

Yes. Not every strategy that we have developed has turned out to be a good one! But for the most part, we have been able to keep our focus and keep moving forward. It was a big challenge gaining momentum, but we are now on track to accomplishing most of our long-term goals.

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