2/9/2014 The role of a strategic planner. Head of strategic planning.

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THE ROLE OFTHE STRATEGIC PLANNER.

Head of strategic planning responsibilities.

By Ruth Tearle.

What is the role of a strategic planner or of strategy departments? Strategicplanning departments may consist of one person, or larger teams comprisingpermanent employees and external consultants. Depending on the focus of theorganization, and the number of resources available, the head of strategicplanning or the internal strategist will perform some of the following roles.

Research

Strategic planners provide up to date research to the leadership of thecompany in the following fields.

External environmental trends. This includes information on political,social, economic, technological and industry trends that may impact onthe organization.

Business trends. This includes information on the strategies being

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Research

Education

Provider of strategic tools

Facilitator

Systems integrator and coordinator

Monitoring of strategy

Muse to the CEO or chairman

Qualities of a strategic planner

How companies select this person.

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adopted by global organizations. It may include benchmarking or bestpractices.

Market research. This includes research on changing customer needsand expectations. This may consist of formal research outsourced tomarket research companies.

Industry trend analysis. This involves analyzing changes within thebroader industry the organization operates within. This includesresearching new alliances, new market entrants, new products andservices, and changes to distribution channels and manufacturingtechniques.

Customer research. This involves finding out how existing customersview the organization. This may include monitoring social networking andconsumer complaints websites to identify comments customers aremaking about the organization, or surveying existing customers todetermine what they perceive the organization's strengths andweaknesses are.

Competitor research. Many strategy departments set up a competitordatabase. They track competitor strategies. Sometimes they compilecomprehensive information on their competitors in the following areas:finance, marketing, human resources, production/manufacturing,distribution, promotion, culture, structures, alliances, technologies

Strategists also keep up to date with new ways of doing strategyitself. This may include techniques such as participative and creativeways of doing strategic planning that result in buy-in from stakeholders,and formal methodologies such as the balanced score card. Thisincludes balancing IQ, EQ and SQ to ensure people are excited andinspired while they develop new powerful strategies.

The head of strategic planning may divide the strategic research listed above,amongst different members of his/her team.

Education

A prime role of any strategy department is to educate leadership in bothstrategic planning and strategic thinking. Strategists use a number ofapproaches to educate their leadership. These include:

Formal training courses and workshops.

Organizing monthly education sessions. Getting guest speakers in oncea month to present information on new trends that might affect theorganization.

Circulating newsletters to SBU heads, divisional and departmentalleaders on strategy, strategy implementation and related topics.

Speaking at workshops and conferences organized by different divisionsin the organization.

Circulating interesting articles.

Informing them of interesting websites.

Organizing conferences in house.

Sending key people on external training courses.

Provider of strategic tools

The strategist provides the CEO, heads of SBU's, divisions and regions

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The CEO's

Step by Step Guide to developinga Strategic Plan

with tools designed to make iteasier for them to developpowerful strategic plans togetherwith their teams.

Facilitator

Often organizations review theirstrategic plans at a three-dayworkshop. The head of strategic planning often has the role oforganizing the strategy review session and ensuring that SBUs ordivisions then develop strategic plans aligned to the organization's newstrategic plans. Strategic planners often hire external facilitators whoare independent of company politics to facilitate these sessions. Thesefacilitators help:

The leadership team to think outside of the box.

The organization to develop its strategic plan.

To communicate the organization's plan to the rest of theorganization.

SBU’s/divisions to develop their strategic plans which are alignedto the organization's plan

To communicate the SBU/divisions plans.

Identify and manage the changes needed to support the newstrategic plan.

The head of strategic planning, then uses the same workshop tools tofacilitate strategy sessions at the SBU and divisional levels. This helpsto promote alignment between SBU and divisional strategies and thecorporate strategic plan.

The strategic planner also keeps up to date with the latest tools andtechniques of doing strategic planning, and provides these tools to theleadership of the organization and its SBUs, divisions, and regions.

Systems integrator and coordinator

Like a spider weaving a web, the head of strategic planning has toensure that the organizations systems, structure and culture are allaligned to the organization's strategic plan and values. This means thatevery system and employee pull in the same direction.

The head of strategic planning works closely together with the financedepartment and the OD/change management/HR departments to ensurethat all planning and measurement systems use the same language andterminology. This means that staff members will input their goals andobjectives once only - and these goals and objectives will be applied totheir strategic planning, budgeting, performance management, andreporting systems.

The head of strategic planning also analyses all the strategic plans inthe organization to ensure that no duplication occurs between differentregions, divisions and departments. The head of strategic planningchecks for aspects of the strategy that are being neglected, because

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they fall between divisions or SBU's. These will be turned into projectsthat cut across different SBU's and divisions.

The head of strategic planning will also ensures that all new projectsare designed and implemented in a way that supports the organization'sstrategies and values.

Monitoring of strategy

The head of strategic planning and his team of strategic planners oftenworks with change management specialists to ensure that both thecontent and the spirit of the strategic plan are being implemented.Where barriers occur, the strategic planners helps teams to removethese barriers. This may necessitate a change in structures andsystems.

Muse to the CEO or chairman

The head of strategic planning is often called upon to do special, oneoff feasibility studies and research into areas that fall outside of themandate of the divisions or SBU's. He and his team of strategists oftenassist the CEO/chairman to make confidential strategic decisions. Theyact as a high level personal assistants to the chairman/CEO. Often theyalso act as internal consultants to the leaders of the different divisionsand regions.

Qualities of a strategic planner

The ideal planner would have the following qualities:

Credibility and trust - the ability to work at all levels in theorganization.

A wide range of knowledge - preferably someone with experiencein 3-4 different areas or the organization.

A formal generalist business qualification such as an MBA, or ageneral management experience.

The ability to do very unstructured work.

The ability to work with teams of people both inside and outsidethe organization. This includes the ability to work with peopleacross all departments and with external alliance partners.

Self confidence balanced by humility. People are often jealous ofthe profile the strategist gets, and this person will have tomanage this.

Facilitation skills.

Strong rational, emotional and spiritual intelligence.

A willingness and desire to continuously learn about newtechniques and acquire new knowledge.

A love of innovation and new ways of doing things.

A sense of humour and a sense of fun.

How companies select this person.

Initially organizations try to select someone who has all above qualities.

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The first person in this job has the additional role of setting up thefunction and selling the concept to leaders of SBU's and divisions. Ashead of strategic planning, he/she often has to prove the worth of thefunction to the organization.

Having set up the position, many companies use the strategy division asa training ground for developing talented staff. The strategic planningdepartment gives strategic planners a broad overview of different partsof the organization. People with talent are moved into the strategydepartment for a few years. After that they are often asked to head upsome of the new projects that emerged from their strategies.

Many heads of strategic planning, are often promoted into generalmanagement or CEO roles because of their depth of experience andability to operate at a strategic level.

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The CEO's step-by-step guide to developing a strategic plan.Astep-by-step guide to strategic planning for the CEO. Use it todevelop a strategic plan that you would be proud to present toyour board of directors. Or use it to develop a common vision toguide your organization.

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Prepare for your strategy workshop: Plan the process or groupdynamics.The way in which people work with one another duringa workshop affects the results of your strategic planningworkshop. This guide shows you how plan the group dynamics orprocess of your workshop.

Prepare for your strategy workshop: Plan the time you need. Howthe group size and strategy content affects the time you needfor your strategy workshop. How to calculate the time you needfor team based strategic planning.

Prepare for your strategy workshop. Collect strategicinformation.This guide shows you what strategic information youneed to collect before a strategy workshop.

Prepare for your strategic planning workshop. Pre-strategyinterviews.Prevent politics from sabotaging your workshop. Getbuy-in from delegates and creative input from important

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customers. Use our pre-strategy interview questions.

Strategy planning process. Select delegates for a strategyworkshop. Choosing who to involve is an important part of anystrategy planning process. Use this article to guide you inselecting delegates for a strategic planning workshop.

Organize the logistics for a strategy workshop. What can gowrong?How to avoid common logistical problems that preventdelegates from focusing on strategy during a strategy workshop.

Manage delegates' expectations before a strategy workshop.Howto manage delegates expectations before a strategy workshop sothat delegates don't waste time arguing about the agenda andare prepared to do strategic rather than operational thinking.

How to write a strategic plan that you can present to yourparent company or board of directors. For CEOs, ManagingDirectors and strategists.

How to evaluate a strategic plan. The four elements a strategicplanner uses to evaluate a strategic plan.

The CEO's guide to implementing a strategy. Once you'vedeveloped a strategic plan, this is a practical guide for a CEO onhow to implement it.

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When to do strategic planning. How do you know if you need todo strategic planning.

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What makes strategy fail. How to ensure your strategy is morethan just a 'pretence'.

Formulate a strategic plan. How to get a team to develop apowerful strategic plan.

What are vision and values Two powerful tools to guide aleadership team. Vision - the end result of strategic planning.

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