Strategic planning with implementation in mind
Digital MarketingPlans come in all shapes and sizes, but the types of plans I have in mind are those whose effective implementation is vital to the ongoing well-being of the organization. The plan could be a marketing plan involving the development of new markets and products; it could be a restructuring to improve flexibility and customer focus or the adoption of a concept like lean thinking. It could be all of these that, together, form the elements of a strategic business plan. The common denominators are that the effective implementation of the plan involves many more people than those who participated in the formulation of the plan and the price of not executing it is high.
The three fundamental reasons for the poor implementation of the strategy are:
- Planning and implementation are seen as two completely separate activities, while the reality is that the seeds of success or failure are sown the moment planners sit down to plan.
- Planners spend a disproportionate amount of time deciding that are going to do instead of dividing their time evenly between that and planning as they are going to do it.
- Very few people are involved in the “how” process: evaluating the feasibility of the plan and its impact on all the organization’s resources.
These break down into the following 13 barriers to good planning:
Planning Barrier No.1 – “The plan did not take into account the new environment in which we were operating.”
If the plan ignores the present or fails to predict the future environment in which the organization will operate, it is doomed from the start.
Planning Barrier #2: “The raison d’être of the plan was never incorporated into the written document”
It is said that 70% of people will change if they have a good reason to. Since plans almost by definition these days involve changes, the logic behind the proposed changes must be explained and justified. It is not enough to say that “this is what we are going to do.” Management has to articulate the discussion that resulted in the proposal for a particular course of action.
Planning Barrier #3: “There was no overarching goal that everyone could identify with”
My company conducts Customer Satisfaction Surveys and one of the key results is a weighted Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI). A division of a large public company posted an average CSI that was satisfactory but masked a major problem: inconsistency. The 24% of customers who rated the provider very highly were offset by the 27% of customers who were dissatisfied with the provider’s performance. The vendor decided to set a general target of a given CSI to replace the contribution margin it had previously used. Although staff found the new performance measure much more relatable than the old one, it would have been even better if the revised goal was to remove customer ratings below an agreed figure in an agreed time frame.
Planning barrier #4: “The plan was just a series of activities: there were no clear results to aim for”
If you were trying to lose weight, you might decide to exercise more, drink less alcohol, and eat more green vegetables. These are activities. I’m sure your campaign will be much more successful if you set a weighted goal to be achieved within 12 months along with monthly targets in between. Corporate plans are no different.
Planning Barrier No.5 – “Those responsible for the execution of the plan were not sufficiently involved in the planning stage”
There is an old adage that the more people plan the battle, the fewer there will be to fight the plan. This strategy not only initiates the transfer of ownership from “planners” to “implementers”, but also results in better planning quality.
Planning Barrier No.6 – “The planners failed to integrate the plan with the current circumstances facing the organization”
Very few planners start out with the luxury of a clean sheet of paper. As a consequence, any plan must address both the present and the future. Womack & Jones in its book “Lean Thinking” tells the story of a company that decided to adopt the concept of “Just in time”: reduce inventories and the size of manufacturing batches. Unfortunately for them, they did not make fundamental changes to their production system which remained as inflexible as before. Manufacturing costs and freight costs skyrocketed due to increased machine downtime and the need to airlift customer orders to meet delivery times.
These six barriers are connected to the first component of any plan which is deciding “this is what we are going to do.” The next stage is to think about the implications of stage 1 of the plan for each function that makes up the organization.
Planning barrier No.7: “Planners did not sufficiently work through the implications of the plan”
For example, what if the plan calls for the development of six new products a year? Such an objective has implications for development, production, marketing, sales, distribution, supply, human resources, and finance. To minimize this problem, you should involve the people with detailed knowledge of these functions at the planning stage.
Planning Barrier #8: “Little time spent planning before moving to implementation”
You might think that with all of its experience, Boeing could design and put into service a new commercial airliner in the originally anticipated time frame. This was certainly not the case with the 787 “Dreamliner”. It was four years late in service mainly due to problems encountered not only when outsourcing the production of many components using new technology, but also in some cases when outsourcing the design. As a senior Boeing executive admitted: “…we put together a global supply chain without thinking about some of the consequences.”
Once the “how are we going to do it” issue has been thought through, the next step is to look at the implications for human resources and finances. These are the two key enabling functions. Without people and money, no plan can be implemented.
Armed with the knowledge of “this is what we want to do” and “this is how we are going to do it”, the next set of questions to ask is whether the organization has the right number of staff with the right experience in the right places. correct to effectively implement the plan.
Planning Barrier No.9 – “Implementation of the plan required changes to the current organizational structure that management was not prepared to make”
Also, is the organizational structure adequate to implement the planned changes? Under the leadership of Lou Gerstner, IBM underwent massive organizational changes in the 1990s, moving from a technology-driven hardware company to a market-driven services company. The “old guard” resisted such changes to the status quo, and the reorganization would not have been successful if Gerstner had not redistributed the “levers of power.”
Planning Barrier No.10 – “Planners underestimated the cost of implementation”
At this stage of the planning process, you will have created a shopping list of the requirements needed to bring your plan to life. New infrastructure, new equipment, new IT systems… not to mention new people for new roles. If you cannot afford to implement the plan in its current form, then you may be able to phase in the investment or extend the implementation period, or you may need to narrow the scope of the plan to bring it within your scope of execution. It’s much better to find out now that you can’t afford the costs of implementing the strategy than to find out six months later.
Planning Barrier No.11 – “There were no clear subsidiary objectives”
It was the Chinese philosopher Lao-tse who said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Likewise, the achievement of the goal will depend on a large number of subsidiary objectives and the strategies to achieve them. It is so important that these objectives are related to “how are we going to do it” instead of “this is what we want to do”. In effect, we plan from the top down but execute from the bottom up.
Every plan must conclude with a initial Action plan. “Initial” is emphasized because action planning is an ongoing exercise. As some actions are completed, others take their place. The last two barriers relate to the transition phase where the focus on strategic planning gives way to one on execution.
Planning Barrier No.12 – “There was no Action program that established the objective of each action, who would be responsible for it and its completion date”
There is one action that is often overlooked and that is to communicate the entirety of the plan to all those who will participate in its execution. If you want to involve your staff, and who doesn’t, you need to explain where the organization is now, where it’s headed. and why and the role of each person to get there.
Planning Barrier #13: “Management underestimated the time required for implementation – we simply didn’t have enough hours in the day to complete the actions we were responsible for by the due date and do our ‘normal work’ at the same time “.
This very real barrier needs to be addressed at the planning stage, not when plan execution begins to spiral out of control. Before agreeing completion dates with those responsible for taking the actions, talk to them, make sure they understand what is involved in taking the action, and arrange for assistance if needed.
The quality of execution depends on the quality of strategic planning. The good news is that as you successfully clear each barrier in sequence, the next barrier and the next become less intimidating.