Too many Quebec SMEs still don’t have a strategic plan. They’re playing it by ear. They’re letting someone else call the tune. These businesses tend to see strategic planning as a mountain to scale, a long, complex process that they don’t know how to tackle. They may even doubt the point of the effort.
“This is a big mistake,” says Richard Morrisseau. “Strategic planning is extremely beneficial for any business, regardless of its age, maturity or sector of activity. And it can be pretty simple.” It’s your game plan. And without a game plan, how can you motivate others to follow you where you’re heading?
Richard Morrisseau knows a thing or two about this. He’s an FCPA and a partner at the Brigades d’affaires Bluemind, a strategic coaching firm for businesses. An accountant and a strategist, Richard specializes in strategic planning, governance, dashboards, procurement and innovation. He has coached hundreds of SMEs over the course of his career. He is also a regular resource for Evol’s 20-minute webinars.
A strategic plan versus a business plan
Richard Morrisseau starts by pointing out that a strategic plan isn’t a business plan. But the two are often confused.
A business plan is a document that you produce when you want to invest in a project, such as when starting a business, or during an acquisition, a major investment, an expansion, or a construction project. The first goal is to assess the project’s potential profitability. A range of financial metrics are used, such as net present value, return on investment, the payback period, how the project is to be financed, and more. For example, when starting a business, you would detail how you intend to launch, manage and grow your activities. A business plan generally includes a market analysis, a marketing strategy, an operational plan, financial forecasts and financing needs. It will be useful in convincing investors and partners.
In comparison, a strategic plan sets out an organization’s main medium- and long-term orientations: it defines its purpose, vision, values, global objectives, priorities and ways to achieve them. It’s a game plan to ensure the organization is sustainable and delivers on its value propositions to realize its vision. It focuses on the medium term (normally three years) and the general direction for the coming years.
The strategic plan is a roadmap that shows how to get from point A to point B, telling you the routes to take and the bottlenecks to avoid. It follows from a market analysis and situational analysis for the business, and it lets you clearly identify what distinguishes you and why your clients choose you.
The type of strategic planning exercise based on the stage of the business
The type of strategic planning exercise you choose depends on your business’s situation. The effort will vary in length and complexity according to the needs of your organization. A strategic planning exercise is a process that takes place over several weeks. It isn’t a one-time event that lasts two or three days, which is commonly called a planning session.
The process includes two major steps: strategic reflection and strategic planning. Both have sub-steps.
Richard Morrisseau distinguishes five levels of strategic planning: basic, consolidation, transition, expansion and resilience. Let’s look at them one by one.
Basic
As the name suggests, this is the basic level you would choose if your business has been around for only a year or two. You would define its purpose, draft a vision statement and put your values in writing. It’s your business’s DNA.
The term purpose has replaced the traditional term mission, but it still gets at why a business exists, what it does, for whom, and with what goal. It’s a compass that guides day-to-day efforts.
The vision expresses what a business aspires to or what it wants to accomplish in the long term; ideally it is brief and inspiring. For example, Google’s vision when it was created in 1998 was: Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful!
Values represent the desirable behaviour your business encourages, for example, respect, innovation and commitment.
Consolidation
The initial years tend to be a bit chaotic, and then things stabilize somewhat. This is when you should go through the complete strategic planning process. The process validates the DNA and the shareholders’ will and involves a thorough analysis of internal and external environments.
Once you have confirmed your foundations, you can identify the issues and priorities that will underpin your objectives. This will enable you to showcase your strengths and address weaknesses.
Transition
There may come a day when your business faces headwinds, or when something unexpected arises. You will want to check whether you are still on the right track. You can conduct transitional strategic planning to determine how to sail through the storm and reach calmer waters that are more conducive to growth.
Expansion
On the contrary, is the wind at your back for positioning yourself on new markets? For launching a new product? This is when you go back to the drawing board to strategically plan for expansion. Then you want to secure your teams, processes, partners and key assets, to make the most of the opportunity. You will need a solid action plan to deliver on this expansion.
Resilience
Sometimes, despite our best intentions, setbacks are unavoidable: an unfavourable context undermines the business and threatens its survival. Rather than giving up, you need to plan for sunnier days. It’s often in these difficult moments that better strategies are identified: this is a golden opportunity to assert your leadership by equipping your team with a resilience plan. It’s a chance to create a blue ocean strategy, i.e., to develop an unexplored market with tremendous potential.
As Richard Morrisseau points out, there’s a strategic approach for every stage in a business’s life.
Don’t miss this webinar filled with great information and advice
The process varies depending on the type of planning you engage in. In this webinar, Richard Morrisseau presents a complete strategic reflection process, step by step, including the stakeholders, duration and type of exercises to do with your team to gain a clear vision of your business.
If you have a business and want to demystify strategic planning, don’t miss this event with one of the most prominent specialists in the field in Québec.
* * *
Watch the webinar Optimizing strategic planning in 20 minutes (in French):
