IS YOUR ORGANIZATION TAKING CARE OF ITS FUTURE?

IS YOUR ORGANIZATION TAKING CARE OF ITS FUTURE? It is not a secret, we all know that the level of energy your company invests in planning on a day to day basis does influence the predictability to drive long-term results. Look at Nike, Apple, Starbucks. What do they have in common? They all master the art of strategic planning. Some of them have built a 15 year strategic plan! They are clearly spending significant effort in shaping the future of their companies vs being reactive to the market and adjust themselves as they go. Their strategic plan is clearly defined and attached rock solid to their business plan.

Easy to say right? Agree that the reality of many companies is different as they are struggling to make their numbers and meet their targets. Those may say: Yes but how do I change our mindset so that we find the right balance between REACTING & PLANNING?

I think that it is matter of instilling momentum by taking one little step at the time. One of my CEO used to tell me: Remember it is not a sprint, it is a marathon. Great advice.

SHAPING UP THE FUTURE: Do Nike, Starbucks and Apple wait to perform their strategic planning & budgeting in the last quarter of the year to produce the forecasts for the next year? No for sure.

All starts with the vision and strategies. Make sure that you invest significant time in product and services strategy and in developing a roadmap that will be well articulated. It should be an on-going process as opposed to a quarterly or yearly type of activity.

When building your strategies, consider to strategies that will enable you to build up your revenues progressively as opposed to big chunks of revenues depending on big product launch. When possible breakdown does product strategies and consider to adapt your product or services delivery model in a way that your clients will see constant evolutions and value.

SIMULATING THE FUTURE: To come back to our Planner Gurus Nike, Apple and Starbucks: Do you think that they are managing their revenue forecasts with a span of only 1 to 3 months? Of course not. They make sure that they see as far as possible and adjust the level of accuracy of their planning and forecasts as they get further from today’s date. I usually see a 12 to 18 months rolling forecast at my clients but it depends of the industry. The key here is to attach the revenue chain from product strategy, roadmap, sales, delivery, support while building a revenue simulation model that will enable to refine the assumptions as you go. Some people are not confortable using assumptions but it is much better than being able to forecast or estimate the future state. Right? Summary:

1. Tie your strategic, business and operational plans together. Attach your revenue chain.
2. Find the balance between business plan execution and planning.
3. Change the mindset gradually one action at the time.
4. Develop a cristal clear product or services roadmap that ties into the company strategy.
5. Consider to build a product or services roadmap that will deliver constant and progressive value the the clients (as opposed to bing chunks delivered later)
6. Develop a forecast simulation model that will provide a 12-28 month rolling forecast (at minimum)

hashtag#StrategicPlanning #Budgeting #Forecasting #Vision #Future #Simulation #Rollingforecast

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