Here are my top five lessons learned when helping organizations prioritize strategic projects.
These have been both in the context of
➤ organic growth (planning for growth over the next 2-3 year horizon) or
➤ M&A (getting ready for a sale or building a plan for post-close strategic growth).
1️⃣ Getting a “B-” for accuracy and an “A+” for execution is better than the other way around.
(I’ve seen 100-page expensive strategic plans with complex models sit on desks for months with hardly any execution)
2️⃣ Don’t leave Strategy to the Strategy team; don’t leave Finance to the Finance (sorry Strategy & Finance)
Long-term strategy and finance initiatives MUST have an internal business sponsor – ideally the P&L owner or General Manager who is held accountable for the delivery of these initiatives
3️⃣ Bold ideas depreciate quickly, if not acted on
Business segments (or sometimes the entire company) often have “open secret” initiatives that nearly everyone agrees should be executed – but that are vetoed by a few naysayers who are uncomfortable with change.
The CEO / GM should hold themselves responsible for bringing these ideas to the forefront in a strategic planning process so that they can be discussed and prioritized.
4️⃣ Your strategic plan will almost always need to change before six months are up. Build in flexibility
External (market / competitive changes) or internal (people, performance) factors are nearly guaranteed to impact the strategic plan built at the beginning of the year.
So don’t hold the plan as sacred.
Instead, build in checkpoints at least every three months, to bring these to the forefront and tweak or pivot the plan as needed.
5️⃣ Darkness is for mushrooms, not the strategy
Sharing the strategy is as important as developing it, and the best-laid plans won’t be executed without engagement and buy-in from the business and functional teams.
Build the organizational muscle around communicating the strategic plan early and often.