12 Steps to a Great Strategic Plan

This book will help your company grow profitably for decades You are reading this book because you want to help your company become the best it can be. This book was specifically written to help you do that. It takes you from the historic ways enterprises have been managed to a new, exciting way to plan for future success. It will show you and your executives how to craft a Plan each year that substantially improves the probability of success for initiatives your company undertakes. Some companies do not make written plans, some do. Many companies that make plans use Goals and Objectives as a starting point. We did too. However, in decades of starting, running, buying and consulting for companies, I have concluded that the best tool for insuring that these companies were successful was to go beyond Goals and Objectives to having a comprehensive, well-documented Plan. That Plan was to be done annually, developed by the entire team of executives and supported by employees. This book is your guide to help you and your team(s) develop a robust, yet easy to execute Plan that will make your company the best it can be for decades. Early in my career my teams and I looked to find ways to improve our department’s results. Along the way we were introduced to Goals and Objective. I thought it was a great tool. And for starters it was. But as my teams and I grew and took on additional responsibilities, we became aware of the good and not-so-good about Goals and Objectives. We noticed things that were confusing and others that were missing. So, we started to reformat it to account for its deficiencies. There were several – • There always was confusion over what an objective was. By definition, “An objective is a specific aim or goal that a person or organization plans to achieve.” Merriam-Webster So, what is the difference between a goal and an objective? It is confusing! • There was not enough buy-in by team members since many of these goals were either directed by management or suggested by someone in the inner circle with few input(s) from other executives. Some were pet projects of one or a few individuals. These were not always the best goals for the company to adopt. • We quickly found that goals were not getting completed on time. The main reason was no one person was responsible. Not having a single leader allowed there to be confusion, delays and resets. At the end, if the project was not completed in a timely fashion there was finger pointing, disavowal and deflection. • Often the goals were written in a way that no one could determine if they were completed. Yes, we tried to make the goals SMART* but that was also challenging and many times the goals still turned out to be nebulous. Thus, we needed more quantitative methods for measuring performance. • Another deficiency was the way progress was monitored. Usually, progress was scrutinized periodically but not consistently or maybe not until the goal was supposed to be completed. We determined that shorter time frames for reviewing progress were necessary. • Completion dates were occasionally missing. • There was no reward for those that extended themselves to adopt a goal. So, why should they do it? • Lastly, these goals and objectives programs seemed to end or die after one cycle. Thus, one and done. We wanted to overcome these deficiencies and make the process easier and more robust. Over the years we have experimented with different approaches for significantly improving the process. We’re pretty sure we have accomplished it! You will see that from the anecdotes of real-life experiences retold in this book. Now your company can benefit from these innovations. They are encapsulated in this straightforward, explicit guide for constructing a great Plan. It has all the elements needed to overcome the deficiencies noted above. Once done, it can be repeated causing your organization to get better year after year making it the best it can be for decades. ** SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound