Strategic planning and Strategic Execution are the core processes for guiding stakeholders on their responsibility for moving a company towards its most important goal. Done virtually, or in person, Group50’s inclusive Strategic Planning and strategic execution methodologies provide alignment throughout the entire organization. Our playbook is based on Group50’s “Business Hierarchy of Needs®“ framework. Every business does all 29 elements of the Business Hierarchy of Needs® and our playbook is designed to align every element to the company’s Most Important Goal and its supporting strategies and tactics.
Each level shown below provides insight into the steps we take with a senior leadership team and/or board of directors in developing a strategic plan, a change management program and an implementation roadmap. 
Prior to starting this process, consider acquiring a copy of “Strategy Realized – The Business Hierarchy of Needs®” which will provide you with details for the elements below which will make the process much easier to communicate to your strategic planning steering groups. You can get it at: www.strategyrealized.com, or Amazon.com
Strategy, Planning and Awareness
Level 1 –
Task:
- Strategic planning process preparation based on the Level 1 – Data Analysis and Planning framework in Group50’s Business Hierarchy of Needs®
- Create strategic planning steering committees consisting of 4 groups
- Overall strategic planning steering committee
- Three strategic planning groups: Market Facing, Technology, Value Added Activities
Description:
- The start of a strategic planning process requires a framework focused on understanding the current state performance to the company’s strategy and its performance in the marketplace and operations.
Customer Knowledge and Awareness –
Task:
- Create primary customer profiles including their Most Important Goals (MIG)
- Create objectives for each customer/marketplace/channel of distribution
- Identify key issues each customer has with your business
- Develop a profile of the future of the markets you serve including growth projections and technology impacts
- Create a customer risk matrix
Strategy Review –
Task:
- Data Request for current strategy and supporting documents
- Interviews with key stakeholders
- SWOT Analysis of current state
- Review of KPI performance to current strategy
- Evaluate current strategic execution process
- Determine if the company is at an inflection point
- Identify current operating gaps
- Review organizational and cultural gaps
- Review and plan to level one of Group50’s Business Hierarchy of Needs
Define MIG (Most Important Goal) –
Task:
- Work with stakeholders to define the “future state” and the MIG
Description:
- The MIG is defined as the one goal or objective that is most important to the company. The entire strategy is built around the MIG and the strategy can only have one i.e. growth, enterprise value, cashflow, transformation, etc.
Mission, Vision, Values –
Task:
- Revisit current Mission statement, Vision and Values to check for appropriate fit to the future state
Leadership Traits PEST Analysis –
Task:
- Define the traits that you want all leaders to exhibit in the form of phrases
- Conduct a PEST Analysis: (PEST Analysis is a simple and widely used tool that helps you analyze the Political, Economic, Socio-Cultural, and Technological changes in your business environment)
Review of Industry 5.0 Objectives –
Task:
- Human interaction
- Waste elimination
- Automation and technology
Governance –
Task:
- Define the governance model for the company that will be required for its future state based on PEST analysis
Business Levers –
Task:
- Define the power alleys in the company and those things that can be leveraged to create a strategic advantage in the marketplace
Value Proposition –
Task:
- Define the company’s value proposition to the market place and utilize it as the litmus test for the Five Forces Analysis
Five Forces Analysis –
Task:
- Conduct a Five Forces analysis on the marketplace, products, services and competitors (Porter’s Five Forces Framework is a method for analyzing competition of a business) – utilize market data such as NPD and other industry reports
Technology Analysis –
Task:
- Conduct a business technology effective assessment
- Identify industry trends in how technology is supporting – differentiating competitors in your served markets
- Determine the OMNI channel needs of your industry
- Identify technology gaps that will required to support the future state business model for served markets
- Define how Blockchain, IoT, Cobotics, human feedback change the operational performance of the business
Description:
- Technology is one of the key differentiators in today’s marketplaces. An effective strategic plan requires that current state technology gaps be addressed and that the future state technology needs are fully understood so that a technology roadmap is created and it is clearly understood by leadership how that will impact operational structure
Where to Play –
Task:
- Conduct “white space” analysis to identify unserved markets and new products and services.
- Design “Where to Play” strategies with a focus on markets, distribution channels and competitors based on opportunities defined in the Five Forces analysis
Description:
- “Where to Play” provides guidance to the strategy teams on how the company is going to go to market over its strategic horizon in support of the defined MIG
How To Win –
Task:
- Design market, product and service strategies to support the “Where To Play” direction
- Create product and service roadmaps to support “Where to Play”
- Identify Industry 5.0 applications that apply to the company’s future state
- Do a Lean business analysis
- Conduct a SWOT analysis for each functional area that focuses on Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats related to “Where to Play” and “How to Win” requirements: Finance, Operations, IS/IT, HR, Supply Chain, and others.
- Conduct a SWOT analysis on all market facing activities related to “Where to Play” and “How to Win”: Marketing, Sales, Channels of Distribution, eCom, OMNI Channel, Customer Service, Product Development, R&D
Description:
- “How to Win” is designed to create operational strategies and tactics that support the result of the “Where to Play” activity
- Group50’s approach to Industry 5.0 is to focus on optimizing the future state at the intersection of People, Process, Technology and Cobotics
Strategic and Operating Gaps –
Task:
- Identify strategic and operating gaps from completed analyses (SWOT, Five Forces, PEST, Lean Business) and create a solution roadmap for gaps that need to be resolved in order to meet strategic objectives
Description:
- Identifying strategic and operating gaps is a critical activity. This effort needs to be focused on leveraging the intersection of people, process and technology with heavy emphasis on technology.
Functional Strategies –
Task:
- Define functional strategies that support the business strategies for the company’s Most Important Goal
- Determine that strategies fully support the “Where to Play” and “How to Win” framework
- Create tactics that support closing strategic and operating gaps
- Define strategic and tactical KPI’s that will measure performance to goals and objectives
- Define $’s and resources required to support the business strategy
- Analyze current technology backbone and define information flows and technologies required to support future state
- Define the organizational strategy/structure required to support the business strategy, including leadership requirements over the strategy timeline
Strategic Plan Approval –
Task:
- Finalize strategic plan and approve
Change Management
Level 2 –
Task:
- Preparing the organization for implementing the strategic plan based on the Level 2 – Knowledge and Change Management framework in Group50’s Business Hierarchy of Needs®
Description:
- 90% of companies are unsuccessful in implementing their strategic plans. The most critical steps in creating strategic value are to create an organization that is optimized for the future state and to actively monitor and manage the defined strategies, tactics and KPI’s.
Organizational Design-Structure –
Task:
- Review the strategic plan and build an organizational structure roadmap that defines the evolution of the structure as the strategic plan progresses and achieves its future state.
- Organization and team design.
- Focus teams for Agile configurations.
Description:
- https://www.group50.com/strategy-5-0-defining-the-appropriate-organization-design-for-a-digital-future
- Behavioral Traits Assessment.
- Focused development plans.
Learning Maps – Skill Development –
Task:
- Review the organizational design and define the skills/learning maps required to support the success of the future state. Create skills/learning maps and begin the process of defining how to develop them for each organization.
- Development of behavioral competency sets that support culture and business strategies
Description:
Talent Optimization –
Task:
- Utilize various tools to identify the needs of the individuals and teams, how they work together and what the team skill sets will need to be. Utilize the results of this analysis to create the model for hiring people in specific roles, corresponding to the future state build plan.
Description:
- Alignment of talent plans and business goals using talent mapping, behavioral traits assessments, focused development plans.
Cascading Objectives –
Task:
- Define supporting tactics along with appropriate KPI’s that are cascaded throughout the organization at all levels
- Create a strategic execution dashboard that will become the review mechanism for management review.
- Consider a cloud based strategic execution software such as Cascade or StrategyWorks for monitoring and managing strategic value creation
Description:
- Alignment of talent plans and business goals using talent mapping, behavioral traits assessments, focused development plans.
Continuous Feedback –
Task:
- Set-up a system / process for routinely providing feedback to employees regarding performance against objectives
Accountability –
Task:
- Set-up a system / process for tying performance to objectives with routine written reviews, compensation, bonuses, stock allocations, etc.
Hiring Practices –
Task:
- Create a system that outlines the best practices for the needs of your future hiring needs. Don’t forget the role that social media plays in hiring. Build them in concert with the Talent Optimization plan
- Develop an engagement and retention strategy.
Description:
- Improves the ROI of talent acquisition process through job success formulas and pre-hiring assessments based on the strategic needs of the company
Compensation Practices –
Task:
- Do an audit of the age groups in the company and the likely target age groups in the strategic future
- Design a compensation structure that is most attractive to those age groups, their skill bands and their geography: base pay, bonus, equity, family leave, PTO, benefits, work from home or other arrangements
- Tie compensation improvements to performance to objectives, both personal and corporate. Consider a blend of corporate performance, performance to individual objectives related to strategy and personal development objectives.
- Design other compensation equivalent programs that support
- Competitive space definition
- Performance based Compensation
Description:
- Long x Short Term Comp Balance
- Fixed x Variable Balance
Succession Planning –
Task:
- Align compensation and performance incentives with the company’s strategic objectives
- Organization Planning for the future Identification of high potential individuals
Description:
- Executive potential assessment
- Focused development plans
Change Management –
Task:
- Create a communication program for launching the new strategy
- Create a change management program
- Define the strategic review cadence – Use Agile methods to create monthly review sprints that keep the organization involved.
Description:
- Change management is another critical aspect of successful strategic execution.
- Without it, all other efforts will fail.
Implementation
Implementation:
- Realizing a “Culture of Strategic Execution” based on the Level 3 — Implementation framework in Group50’s Business Hierarchy of Needs ®
Oversight:
- Develop a future state oversight group that is responsible for “ALL” strategic initiates including, change management, continuous improvement, transformation, and execution of the company’s strategy.
Technology:
- Identify ways to leverage the existing technology backbone to improve productivity.
- Build all organizational and business process projects with a focus on full utilization of the future state technology backbone.
Cobotics:
- Identify ways to leverage the existing technology backbone to improve productivity. Evaluate programs for business process automation (BPA) and robotic process automation (RPA).
Process Reengineering:
- Develop best practices guidelines for all strategic initiatives.
- Develop an implementation roadmap which include project charters and timelines
Continuous Improvement:
- Utilize Continuous Improvement and Six Sigma tools, Value Stream Mapping, Kaizen and other appropriate tools for process refinement and improvement.
- Utilize the DMAIC process for continuous improvement of processes with a focus on the company’s MIG.
Measurement:
- Create a measurement system that will provide data on improvement performance and include the reporting of results as part of the management review process.
We hope you find this useful. Group50 consultants are strategic planning subject matter experts. The following link about our strategic planning 5.0™ practice will provide you more insight.
You may also find our series of articles on Anti-Strategy of interest because they outline what happens when a company doesn’t have a corporate strategy that everyone is aligned.
If you would like a pdf of this playbook, please request it here. If you would like to discuss our how we can support your strategic planning and strategic execution processes, please feel free to call us at +1(626) 644-9746 or request more information here.