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It’s a jungle out there, and the only way to succeed in business is to understand what your company does well, and then to build your business around these strengths, or core competencies.
Strategic planning takes time away from running your day to day operations, but in order to maximize your business’ potential, it’s important to set aside the time to do it.
Holding a strategic planning session is a critical part of running a successful business, and requires investment from all levels of your organization Here’s how to hold a strategic planning session.
Get your team together in a conference or meeting room with plenty of large flip-chart style pads, masking tape and thick markers. Reduce interruptions and make the experience more pleasant by having water, coffee, soft drinks and snacks on hand. Reserve a half-day to one day of time, depending on the complexity of your business and the number of people on your team.
Work through the following exercises:
I. Review Your Position
1. Develop a list of organizational capabilities by product and service
What does your company do? How do you do it? What makes it possible to acquire materials? What are the most important knowledge, skills, technologies, and processes that underlie your services?
2. Develop an understanding of your core competencies
What are the things that you do better than anyone else? Are the most important things you do when delivering your product or service the same as your core competencies? Click here for an article on core competency
3. Review your mission
Your company’s mission should be in sync with management’s ideology, and your core competencies. If it’s not, it may not be a sustainable mission.
4. Review the products and services of your business
What skills and resources are needed to provide them? Are they the same as your core competencies?
5. Review your goals
Your strategic plan should include short-term and long-term goals. Good goals are SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely (i.e. have a deadline).
II. Plan Your Advance
1. Apply core competency tests to current and potential lines of business
Do your current lines of business leverage your core competencies? Have you evaluated your expansion opportunities when considering your core competencies? Are there opportunities you are missing? In particular, consider how your core competencies may allow you to enter new markets, or add value that competitors will find difficult to imitate.
2. Consider options for improvement
After you’ve defined your core competencies, it’s important to consider where you can build additional strength. What capabilities can you easily add to increase synergy? What skills or technologies will provide advantages that will not simply satisfy, but delight, your customers?
3. Determine critical success factors
What are the factors that are going to make or break your business? Some critical success factors (CSF) to consider are recruiting dedicated staff and developing a superior product to your competitors. After you define your CSFs, monitor your progress closely.
III. Implement Your Plan
1. Incorporate changes into the strategic plan
Once areas of improvement are determined, they can be incorporated into the strategic plan and SMART goals can be set.
2. Incorporate core competency development into the corporate culture
Is your business open to development and change? If you haven’t run a core competency-driven business, it will take time for all levels of staff to adjust to this kind of thinking. Some positive results will happen quickly, but others, like permanent changes in corporate culture, take a long time. Be patient!
Developing a business strategy that leverages your core competencies can yield big returns for both you and your customers. Take the time for regular strategic planning sessions and develop a corporate culture that recognizes and continuously builds on its strengths. |
