THE
MANAGEMENT
PRACTICE

Business Strategy and Planning

"There is no point in having the best, most able and committed people if there is no strategy to give them direction".

Having a plan and articulating it to those involved is the cornerstone of effective leadership. This may seem obvious but it is surprising just how many organisations believe that their business plan is just something for the bank or the board or the shareholders.

Planning takes time and is an activity that is easily put off when operational issues take priority. It is true that many successful organisations manage without a strategic plan. Short-term goals are set and everyone gets on with their job. This approach is fine but it is not a very effective way of operating because it fails to maximize the contribution of all of the people involved. Their successful performance could be even better.

We are not advocating the old ideas of planning, where we would have taken a historical look at performance and events and extrapolate the future position. We all know that the world is not like that and that we are living in a fast moving environment where what happened before is no indicator of what is to come.

The sort of planning that we are advocating is about setting goals for the business, about painting on a broad canvas, a view of our aspirations for the business. To consider for instance what we desire for our customers, the markets that we want to do business in and the environment that we wish to work in.

Our approach is to start with the top team, then to work with all levels so that there is ownership of the plan and commitment to acheivement from the whole organisation.