What is strategic planning?

Strategic planning is a process of pro-active

planning for the future we want to create for our

business

Why strategic planning?

Primarily for 2 reasons …

1. To plan our business’ future strategy

2. To get everyone in our business on board

about our business’ future strategy – we want

to share a common vision

How do we plan our business’

future strategy?

We sit around a table for 2 to 3 days and we

follow a specific process of conversation that

helps us develop the strategic plan of our

business

What are the conversations

about?

1. The 1st strategic conversation is about the

bigger picture of our business

2. The next conversation is about the

lighthouse, the direction that guides our business into the future

3. Then we have a conversation about the

current place our business is at right now

4. And then we talk about mapping the road we take to get from where we are now to the lighthouse, where we want to be

Our bigger pictureconversations

We do a PEST analysis and look at the

Political, Economical, Social and

Technological environment that surrounds our

business

We also do a CC analysis and look at our

Customers and our Competition

In these conversation we try to understand the

larger environment that surrounds our

business

The golden thread…

Now that we understand the

bigger picture of our business,

we can look forward to the future of

our business, the lighthouse

Our lighthouse conversation

We talk about 1 specific thing

in our lighthouse

conversation

What is the *vision we want

to pursue for our business?

The golden thread…

Now that we understand the *vision of our

business, we look at the current place of our

business

Our current place conversations

We talk about 4 specific things in our current

place conversations…

What are the: 1 *strengths, 2 *weaknesses,

3 *opportunities and 4 *threats of our

business?

The golden thread…

Since we now understand the current place

of our business, we can map the road that will

take us from here (the current place) to where we

want to be (the lighthouse)

Our road map conversations

We talk about 6 specific things in our road map

conversations

1. What is the *mission of our business?

2. What are the *values of our business?

3. What are the *strategic paths we want to

take to get us to the lighthouse?

Our road map conversations

4. How will we work our *weaknesses into

strengths?

5. How will we grow our *opportunities?

6. How will we minimise our *threats?

How do we get everyone else now

on board?

1. All the other teams in our business also sit

around their tables 2 hours a week for 6weeks

2. They also have specific conversations to develop operational plans for the strategic plan

3. Their conversations are less strategic and more operational

4. They primarily answer this question, “How can we operationalise what the big guys strategised?”

Diagrammatically it looks like this

What are the intended results?

1. Everyone shares a common vision

2. A nice looking documented strategic plan for the

business

3. Nice looking documented operational plans for

every business and their departments and teams

4. Individuals that understand what their function is

in the team or department they work with

5. Teams that understand what their function is in

achieving departmental goals

6. Departments that understand what their function

is in achieving business goals

What are the unintended results?

1. More focus on the following levels

a. Corporate

b. Leadership

c. Teams

d. Individual

2. Better and more synergistic team work

3. Happier people working in our business

4. A business that knows its place in this world

Why use a external Facilitator?

1. Well, he’s neutral – he doesn’t take sides

2. He takes care of the process of getting the

strategy developed and implemented

3. He referees the process, something a player

engaged in the process can’t do effectively

4. He allows all the players to play, because

none of the players need to referee

Why use Dust consulting?

1. We have been doing this for 20 years, or more

2. We understand the business context of South Africa

3. We truly have a heart to walk the extra mile

4. We believe in you and what you do in your business

5. We draw from cutting edge knowledge and expertise

6. We have a proven, well designed process

7. And, we are nice people to do business with

Without vision people perish