Creating a Successful Future for a Young Private Chain

Background

Our client, a lean private chain with a 5-year foundation, was determined to expand aggressively in the market. Although the management team members all agreed that forward planning was necessary, no one really had the know-how to do it. Moreover, the management team was always busy handling daily routine and fire-fighting work.

The top management of this corporation acknowledged the need for systematically formulating a blueprint for the future, and commissioned High Impact Management Consulting Limited to facilitate the Strategic Planning exercise.

The Methodology

Unlike most well established corporations, mid-sized local enterprises usually lack the data and capability to support the "classic" strategic planning episodes. In addition, visioning the future and projecting the market sentiment for the next 3 to 4 years are beyond the thinking boundary of most operational people. Having noted this characteristic, our consultant put forward a simplified framework which could assist the client to sculpt its long range future and lay detailed action plan for the near term.

The Journey

Without much experience and know-how on strategic planning, the client's management team first had to acquire the basics of strategic planning. A two-day retreat was organized as the kick-off event. During which the consultant not only introduced the concepts and practices of strategic planning, but also engaged the teams in activities that helped heighten the awareness and commitment of the participants towards building a successful future. As the team was "operation-focused" and not used to thinking in the long run, the consultants had also facilitated them to cultivate the strategic mindset of visioning and creating the future.

During the retreat, the management team performed a preliminary analysis on the company's current and future environment, and then drafted its mission statement and strategic goals. This laid the foundation for the strategy planning process.

Meanwhile, the team found that market and competitive data, as well as some necessary internal information, were not readily available. With the assistance of the consultant, the team used some short-cut methods to extract useful information. Blended with the management team's experience and intuition, an internal & external analysis was completed. This systematic analysis set directions for future strategy formulation.

Working backward from the future goals, the team explored the critical strategies to bridge the current and the future gaps. These strategies were then debated and clarified to assure sufficiency and consensus.

By then, a master strategic action plan was emerged, with all major strategic targets and milestones established. Additional sessions were devoted to detail planning for the coming year; and through these sessions the team was able to translate the abstract into practice.

No strategic plan is completed without due consideration of the resource and organizational capabilities. The next step for the team was a careful assessment of these aspects. Each function assessed its own ability in supporting the implementation of the plan. After this phase, an integral plan was born.

In addition, the management team also assessed the competencies of individual team members in meeting the future challenges. Individual development plans for each member were subsequently developed.

Implementation was not easy. Progress monitoring mechanism must be in place to ensure achievement of the desired goals. Regular review meetings were set up, and on top of the agenda were the review of goal attainment and scanning of environmental changes.

The Results

The first 4-year strategic plan for the client was confirmed in around 3 months. This also embodied the detail action plan for the first year. By regularly reviewing the progress of implementation, the client was able to alert itself of possible events that could affect the growth of the business and take appropriate actions. Internal cooperation was also enhanced as a result of the coordinated efforts everyone experienced during the planning process, and the whole organization became more focused and aligned in action.

Lessons Learned

This case reflects many of the challenges mid-sized enterprises facing in future planning. The major insights are:

Turning the management team's focus from daily operation to long-term business development needs both mental shift and technical planning skills.

Bridging the long-term strategies with near term operations is crucial to the successful implementation of the plan.

A progress review mechanism must be instituted to guarantee thorough execution of the plan.