Strategic Planning—Doing it Right

Source: The Marcus Perspective

Bruce Marcus says to ignore traditional advice on strategic planning, i.e., first develop a mission statement, then determine strengths and weaknesses. He says first analyze your market. Unless they are formulated in terms of the market, mission statements and lists of strengths and weaknesses are useless.

Marcus gives the following guide to strategic planning:

1. Understand the market. What kinds and sizes of businesses are in it? What problems do they have? Which segments are growing, declining, or stagnating? How does this relate to your firm’s experience and skills? How is your competition serving this market? What marketing initiatives best reach this market?
2. What do you need to do to serve this market? Replace people? Train people?
3. What do your firm and your partners want? Are the goals realistic? Are they worth the effort needed to reach them?
4. In defining your strategies, ask the following:
   1. What administrative changes must be made?
   2. Must the firm restructure to meet the needs of this market?
   3. What new skills are needed?
   4. What portion of the practice is devoted to stagnant industries? What should be done about that?
   5. What should the firm do to exploit opportunities in emerging industries?
   6. What specific markets will be targeted?
   7. What marketing initiatives will be used to reach those targets?
   8. Should the firm create a role for meeting the needs of those targets?
   9. What are the goals?
   10. What are the specific steps needed to achieve them?
5. How will the firm manage execution of the plan? What is each department’s or person’s role in this—partners, staff, marketing, consultants? How much time and money will be budgeted to implement the plan? How will the implementation be monitored?

It is evident from the above that strategic planning is no cake-walk.

From The Marcus Perspective, http://www.themarcusperspective.typepad.com, Serendipity as a Management Tool, April 26, 2007.