Focus on Leadership: Strategic Planning in a Turbulent Environment

What are the implications when hard work and operational activities fail to produce the performance the company used to achieve? What do you need to do to bring back superior performance? The answer is strategic transformation of your business.

Faced with rapid environment changes and increasing complexities, many leaderships have already jumped on the band wagon of strategic planning forerunning the more accustomed planning tools such as SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) and PESTLE (political, economical, social, technological, legal, environmental) for a strategic dashboard of their present and potential profitability.

Some organizations as in non-profit voluntary organizations, government services, museums, etc whose core functions are internally focused on providing services rather than short term profitability and profitable growth are cruising on a stable and repetitive environment continuum. In most other organizations such as food and beverage, fast moving consumer goods, manufacturing, technology and health care, senior leadership pay homage to strategic transformation to intensify market attractiveness and competitiveness of their products and services.

Prior to developing any strategy for any parts of your business however, the fundamental key success formula for a successful transformation is to ensure your strategy is aligned with environment and management capability is aligned with strategy.

Capability → Strategy → Environment

(Diagram Resource: Institute of Management Consultants Singapore)

Developing management capability to align with new opportunities that enhance future growth is pivotal to support both short term and long term growth plans of the organization. Designing management capability involves analyzing the capability profile and integrating the main components with a strong focus and commitment on closing any capability gaps.

Build Management Capability. The implementation of a robust management capability (structure, process and systems, key managers) aligned with the dynamic market environment will turn losers into winners. Companies need to go beyond their complacencies and rational thinking even when they are already successful otherwise they would lose their competitive advantage in a dynamic environment.

  • Key managers and Teams: Do you have a shared vision and goals? Have you set a strong foundation for cross-functional teamwork? Is there clearly defined independence and interdependency between cross-functional teams? Is the focus on overall strategy or on day-to-day activities?
  • Culture: Is there proper planning, measurement methodologies and accountability? Are your people empowered in their jobs? Are innovation, learning and development actively incorporated into the culture?
  • Systems and Processes: Are cross functional core processes driving strategic and operational performance? Is the structure optimized for short and long-term performance.
  • Structure: Is your organization structure fluid and horizontal with redesigned core processes?

Even large, very established and strait-laced firms are reengineering their structures and processes, reviving their mission, vision and building a culture that innovation could flourish. Employees are encouraged to resist complacency and not stifle creativity. Organizations with innovative cultures retain their people better as they create more opportunities for people because of their growth and because of the environment that comes with innovation. Structures are set up internally to provide opportunities to contribute, to recognize and reward fresh ideas, develop new insights and a culture that becomes strategically responsive to match the environment and levels of turbulences their industries are facing.

Giant Microsoft shapes and pulls the industry with renewed business models and innovative products. Each year, Chief Software Architect Bill Gates escapes to a hideaway on his traditional ‘Think Weeks’ to ponder Microsoft’s next leap forward. Any Microsoft employee can submit a written proposal for a new product or service for him to consider during the days he is there. Gates ensures that Microsoft remains at the forefront of innovation in the software industry. If he likes an idea, he will return to the company’s headquarters and launch a new initiative around it. Now few bosses these days devote that kind of energy to innovation and it is not surprising therefore that Microsoft continues to retain the swiftness of a startup when it comes to introducing new products and improving old ones.

Innovation: The Next Corporate Buzzword

In an unpredictable and changing environment of emerging demand and supply, rising customer expectations and increasing substitute services and products, organizations come face-to-face with the reality that conventional service era is over and customer service innovation is the cornerstone of long term productivity and financial effectiveness.

Service innovation is a great change or a turnaround of the technology, operational and support networks in the service system designed to satisfy the needs, wants and aspirations of your customers.

What customers perceive and accept as their expected value for service and products deserving of their business and loyalty actually represents a totally new ball game now for leaders. CEOs, managers, heads of departments and process team leaders by virtue of their assigned ownership and responsibility have to assume multiple roles as the strategist, shaper, motivator, nurturer and fixer in strategically reinventing or reengineering their products and services offerings.

Senior management should start planning, define stretch goals, build and implement strategic actions to shape and effectively manage the environment before they are shocked into changing, losing market share to competitors and bleeding money. The crunch time should start now to build a strategically responsive culture at the corporate, business and functional levels across the spectrums of marketing, manufacturing, distribution and customer service.

It has never been as crucial as now for leadership to accept the new ball game, manage and lead with dynamic fresh perspectives, and ready to take bold breakthrough actions and changes or they gradually lose their market attractiveness to competitors. And my friend couldn’t have said it better with ‘to cease to grow is to perish’.

Feeling inspired to comment or share your thoughts, register for FREE basic membership and join the FORUM. Read the next issue on ‘Service Innovation’ for exciting and valuable best practices and ideas on innovation in your management, culture, and structure that would benefit your people and create value for your customers. For more information about implementing strategic plans for your business, email us at consultus@ethosconnect.com.

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