Re-invent Competitiveness through Strategic Planning

Imagine you have secured a job as the CEO of a high profile company.  Your brief is to reinvigorate the struggling organization that has not been spared by the forces of change.  The contract is renewable after 3 years and will purely be dependent on performance. But, even before you are confirmed, you are required to demonstrate your suitability. You will do this by presenting your plan of action that will guide activities. What would be your causes of action?

Allow me to share the causes of action, if it were me. Soon after taking over the leadership, I will within the shortest time possible, endeavor to understand the new organization. The very initial engagement is to find out exactly what the organization does. Who is who and where? What is the state of affairs? This will happen through an initial meeting with the departmental heads, followed by one with the rest of the staff.

During the meetings, nobody will be antagonized. Indeed, they will all be assured that it is business as usual, as my office continues appreciating the new roles and environment as well. At the same time, employees will be encouraged to freely offer suggestions that would help in addressing any issues requiring immediate attention. That said, it will now be easy settling down to business.

The next cause of action is to evaluate the existing organizational strategy, if any. How do things work? What is the organization’s reason for existence? How does the organization achieve its mandate? What is the organizational structure if any? Are the people aligned as appropriate? The answers to these questions may not be easy to obtain, especially from the people working immediately under me. Most likely, people will reveal only what they want to, while at the same time ensuring to safeguard their spheres of influence.

Hiring the services of an experienced independent consultant will be a convenient option. He/she will be expected to help in formulating or redefining the strategic plan, if it exists. During the preparation process, the consultant will be expected to conduct an initial organizational-wide survey, which will shed light on the existing culture. This is more so with regard to employee engagement.

Notably, organizational culture should be a key consideration for any executive in today’s volatile business environment, now subject to globally competitive dynamics. This culture refers to the way people handle change, teamwork, leadership and other business driving attributes. Challenges in such attributes, directly impact on organizational competitiveness. This is eventually reflected on service delivery, thus customer acquisition/retention and finally profitability as well as growth.

Further, it will be anticipated that the consultant will bring out the strategic issues that either drive or stall the organization’s progress.  What is it that the organization needs to be doing, but is not doing? More still, what is it not doing that it should be doing?

All these questions are not in vain. They will eventually form a good basis of the strategy formulation process. It is well known that organizations venture into strategy formulation exercises, which produce blueprints that never see the light of the day. The fact that strategy development process is most often followed by elaborate launching processes is soon forgotten.  That will definitely not happen in this organization. Why? Everybody will have been involved, thus becoming part of the entire process. Indeed, the wishes of every employee will have been considered, and put into contemplation.

The next agenda will be to conceive the idea of a strategic plan workshop.  Within 3 months, the senior team leaders will assemble for this exercise in a venue preferably out of town. This is because everybody will be expected to participate without distractions. During the strategy workshop, we shall re-evaluate the company mission, vision, guiding values and all other related matters that bring out the organization’s distinctiveness. Once satisfied with the outcome, we shall get back to work, aiming to apply each and every aspect of the strategic plan. We will in particular ensure successful achievement of organizational goals, carefully crafted in the workshop.

This will happen through cascading the strategic plan requirements to each and every one of the different departments. The job roles as well as quantitative and qualitative performance measures of each individual employee will inevitably be aligned to the strategic plan. In fact, this strategic plan will form the basis of quantifiable performance. The same will now be subject to performance contracts for each and every one of the organizational employees.

However, the launching of the strategic plan implementation will be preceded by some activities, which may not be pleasant to all. This is in realization that for the strategy to work successively there will be demand for certain skills and attitudes. The envisaged value system may also lead to rejection of some of the organizational members, who may not fit in the new structure. These ones may not escape the attrition process, even though all efforts will be put in place to empower employees with the necessary skills.

Alongside, it is important to realize that today’s CEOs do not necessarily have to be endowed with technical organizational or industry expertise. The key competence for today’s CEO is people skills or more specifically, the power of influence. Added to this is reasonable appreciation of the performance expectations of each and every organizational department.

Organizational leadership is ideally about monitoring the organizational activities, from an advantaged position and continually making amends as and when necessary. In our case, we will create a strategy map after formulation of the strategic plan.  This map will provide the helicopter view of the organization. It will help in ensuring that the organization is continually on course as desired.

You will notice that there have been no attempts of bringing the organizational history into perspective. Further, there has been no contemplation of finding out why the organization is where is in the current situation. Firstly, the important matters will where necessary come up during the formulation of the strategic plan. Secondly, too much baggage of organizational history could be distractive. On this, it may perhaps help to embrace some wise counsel from Jonathan Ciano, the CEO of Uchumi Supermarkets. He has wide ranging experience in resuscitation of troubled organizations. “The past may sometimes not be of help in situations that you are focusing on the future,” he asserts.

Meanwhile, the organization in consideration may benefit from another initiative. A demand driven tool of taming the forces of competition has recently been conceived. We have branded the same as innovative business growth/market navigation strategy. The solution helps to ensure that the strategic plan is never filed away as commonly happens in Together with his senior team, organizations.

Instead, the strategic plan needs to effectively drive the organization’s competitive actions, while at the same time keeping the competition in check. How? That will happen through successfully identifying any gaps worth being exploited, and at the same time, forestalling threats, long before they impact negatively on organizational direction.

These plans of action will always suffice in SMEs and Corporate entities of whatever size or nature. The actions are universal and will also apply to non-profit oriented organizations. They are also applicable to churches, government ministries and county governments too.

Ideally, the business theory applies across board only differing in magnitude. Undoubtedly, the CEO Job will immediately be confirmed. It will also be renewed after 3 years. Is the strategic plan of your business driving competitiveness as envisaged? If not, it may now be possible to discern the pitfalls and respond appropriately.

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