Annual strategic planning.\u00a0 We have all been there – hours, sometimes days, sequestered in a room with fellow executives, evaluating budgets line by line, setting business goals based on stakeholder expectations, and prioritizing limited resources. Time is spent on questions like “what type of growth do we need to hit our numbers?” and “where can we cut expenses to improve our margins?.” Setting these goals can be a challenge, but hitting them is an ever bigger challenge.\u00a0 Whether you are a start up moving from product-market fit to the growth stage for the first time, or a more mature company searching for incremental revenue, strategic planning is a never-ending challenge. Yet, despite the time invested and good intentions, the strategic planning process almost never actually results in a viable plan. For the lucky few that walk away with a plan, it will most likely not lead to the growth they set out to achieve. Here are the major reasons why strategic plans fail:<\/p>\n
In most organizations entering a high growth stage, there are multiple ways to achieve growth and the traditional strategic plan often tries to address them all. Executives think that doing more is better, but the truth is that not all growth is created equal. The best kind of growth, especially for young companies entering a high growth phase, is efficient growth – driving maximum impact in the shortest time with the least amount of incremental investment. Doing this successfully requires an organization to rely on its existing strengths and fully utilize available resources to do more of what is currently working. The organization also needs to have the discipline and courage to stop doing what is not working, even if it deviates from long-held organizational beliefs, executive biases, and the latest industry trends.<\/p>\n
CEOs get so busy managing growth expectations among external stakeholders that they lose sight of the importance of doing the same internally. They assume organizational objectives are clear and that fellow executives are in full alignment. However, frequently sitting elbow to elbow at a conference table does not mean you are always talking about the big picture. Often times these same executives cannot even articulate a consistent vision. Why? Because a singular vision doesn’t exist. Over and over, we hear executives in young, high growth companies claim that they don’t have time for creating formal vision\/mission\/values, that their time is better spent on actually growing the business. The problem is that without a common understanding of top priorities at the executive level, teams throughout the organization will inevitably start to work toward different goals. This results in lost productivity and an overall lack of progress as teams waste time competing for the same limited resources. A well-communicated, consistent vision, that articulates an organization\u2019s priorities, solves this problem by ensuring everyone is focused on the same 2-3 strategic projects that will lead to efficient growth<\/em>.<\/p>\n Successful plans for growth need to be quantifiable, measurable, and assignable. Teams that march to a top line revenue goal without detailed shared ownership and understanding of a detailed plan that answers “how” struggle to move the organization forward.\u00a0 Strategic plans need to be broken down into well-defined goals. Each goal should have a clear executive owner and the leadership team as a whole should have a shared methodology (and a consistent yard stick) to track progress. Progress should be reported consistently and discussed often.<\/p>\n With discipline around tracking, organizations should quickly be able to discern what is and is not working. Even the most well-thought out, detailed growth plans will be challenged and likely need to be modified in order to remain effective as new learnings and dynamics emerge. The key is recognizing when it is time to pivot and maintaining the ability (and courage) to do so.<\/p>\n To avoid these major pitfalls, the traditional strategic planning process needs to evolve to address the specific needs and challenges that a high growth organization faces. At Mosaic, we refer to this new process as growth action planning. Unlike the strategic planning process that most are accustomed to, growth action planning focuses exclusively on driving efficient growth – maximum impact in the shortest time with the least amount of incremental investment – while also surfacing and addressing critical organizational alignment issues. Our growth action plans are FAST (focused, agile, scalable, trackable) so you can deliver the quick wins that your organization needs and the investors like to see.<\/p>\n\n
There is a lack of accountability at the highest levels<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
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The organization is not prepared to be agile<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n