This lecture by Dr Ian Mackechnie is an excellent presentation on strategic management. It is part of the modules that are offered by the MBA at www.stamfordonline.com.my.
Most advice on strategic planning begins with a set of steps such as these:
1. Start by defining your Vision or your primary goal,
2. Next frame your Mission and Purpose
3. Then do a SWOT analysis (assess your strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats)
4. And finish up by building out a set of strategic initiatives.
A very important element missing from this list is reviewing the progress with a focus on outcomes. The outcome is the ultimate goal you with to achieve and is the reason why organizations engage in strategic planning. In order to remain focused on the outcome, one must consider the time remaining and what value the initiative will add to the outcome.
For years Robert Bradford, strategic planning expert, focused on four variables in the Simplified Strategic Planning Process– value, probability, management effort and financial risk when assessing strategic opportunities. However, recently he decided to include a secondary analysis of opportunities, undertaken when reviewing opportunity screening worksheets.
The purpose of this screen is to enable your team to quickly sort out the opportunities with the greatest strategic potential for your organization. Start by asking the team to rate each opportunity on two dimensions – resource requirements and strategic impact on the organization. This process helps management prioritize initiatives and justify saying “no” to those that impede the strategic progress.
In evaluating initiatives, the no-brainers are those with high impact and low resource requirements. The tricky discussions – and often the most strategically dangerous issues – occur in the middle level zone – opportunities with moderate impact and/or moderate resource requirements. These opportunities can mire your strategic level resources in initiatives that produce only incremental improvements in your organization’s performance, while more fundamental, truly strategic opportunities are starved for resources because they are “too difficult”.
Article Quote:
“This screening is particularly useful when you are evaluating far more opportunities than your team can realistically handle (in my experience, from three to ten strategic opportunities, depending on the team and its resources). ”
Evaluating strategic initiatives with this process creates better focus on those initiatives that provide the greatest strategic potential for the organization. The company will be in a better position if it can accomplish a few key initiatives well than to work on several with no real results.
This article reveals results from a study conducted by the Spears School of Business highlighting the competitive advantages companies gain in hiring competitors’ key employees. The study analyzed the effect of key employee mobility on competitors outcomes. Employees learn processes and have indepth information about their current employers that becomes very valuable to prospective employers.
Article Quote:
“The loss of a key employee can hinder performance, even in superior organizations that have established advantageous routines via strategic initiatives that set them apart from their competitors, because the lost employees bring strategic knowledge with them to the hiring firm.”
Finding the right employees and perhaps more important, being able to keep them, is an important strategic management challenge for businesses today. Offering competitive wages is not the only driver to consider when trying to keep key employees.
Flexibility, personal growth, and performance satisfaction must also be considered when looking to the HR side of the business equation. Strategic planning technology may assist management by highlighting employee performance to help focus recognition to your key employees.