Strategic Planning
Click here for a printer-friendly version Businesses need a clear strategy and set of objectives that can summarised in one or two sentences.
It’s unfortunately true that most senior executives cannot articulate the objective, scope, advantage and direction of their business in a simple and concise statement. And yet a simple and concise strategy statement that everyone can understand and internalise becomes the benchmark for making difficult decisions and the guiding light that aligns people in the organisation.
Ultimately, strategic planning is about creating a plan that addresses the big issues facing an organisation and that provides a road map for the future.
There has been much written about strategy, and many models, including Michael Porter’s renowned work Porters 5 Forces, The McKinsey 7S model, the Boston Consulting Group matrix to name three of the better known ones. Ultimately is about creating a plan that addresses the big issues facing an organisation and that provides a road map for the future. We find particularly in the mining industry that at subsidiary and site level a large part of traditional planning, which is around brand positioning, marketing and distribution, is not the key focus because of the commodity nature of the businesses, and therefore some of the great planning methodologies are not appropriate.
We also find that many companies in the industry see strategy over a 1-3 year time frame, rather than the longer term of 5 years and more, and so most of the planning undertaken is operational rather than strategic.
“The value of rhetoric should not be underestimated. A 35 word statement can have a substantial impact on a company’s success. Words do lead to action. Spending the time to develop a few words that truly capture your strategy and that will energise and empower your people will raise the long term financial performance of your organisation” according to Colliss and Rukstad, HBR April 2008.
It is also very important to articulate the corporate values of the organisation, ie what we believe in and how we will behave. In the end behaviour is the major determinant of culture, and few organisations achieve their corporate objectives without a positive corporate culture.
