Business Strategy 10: Step 7 Review & Adopt Strategies or Strategic Plan

This continues our series outlining John M. Bryson’s strategic planning cycle

Strategic Planning for Public or Nonprofit Organizations states “The purpose of step 7 is to gain an official decision to adopt and proceed with the strategies and plan prepared and informally reviewed in step 6. For the proposed plan to be adopted, it must address issues that key decision makers think are important with solutions that appear likely to work.” (p 210)

Purpose of Step 7

Bryson shares characteristics of step 7:

• “Can be quite contentious particularly when formal adoption must take place”
• “Key decision makers & stakeholders must be open to the idea of change”
• “Key decision makers & stakeholders must be offered inducements to gain support”
• “Gear inducements to the decision makers and stakeholders values, interests, and frames of reference
• “They use their own judgment whether or not to support the ideas”
• “Bargaining, negotiation, and invention of items to trade may be necessary to find the right combination of exchanges and inducements”

Process for Reviewing and Adopting Strategies

• “Discuss and evaluate strategies in relation to key stakeholders”
• “Include budgets and budgeting procedures”
• “Verify the best fit among elements of strategies, different strategies, and levels of strategy”
• “Allow for a period of catharsis for the organization to move forward on the change”
• “Recognize completion of the strategy development step as an important decision point”
• “Ensure that key decision makers and planners think carefully about how to manage the adoption process”
• “Provide a sense of closure to the strategic planning process at the end of step 7”
• “Consider the following reasons why a good strategy should not be adopted:
  • The time is not yet right
  • The draft strategies and plans are inadequate or inappropriate
  • The issues the strategies and plans purport to address are simply not real enough or pressing enough
  • The organization cannot handle the magnitude of the proposed changes, and they need to be scaled back
  • The strategies and plans should be taken to some other arena, or the present arena should be redesigned in some way”

Thursday we discuss how to establish an effective organizational vision

Business Strategy 9: Step 6 Formulate Strategies to Manage Issues

This continues our series on John M. Bryson’s strategy change plan to help businesses

John M. Bryson wrote “A strategy  can be defined as a pattern of purposes, policies, programs, actions, decisions, or resource allocations that define what an organization is, what it does and why it does it. Strategies vary by level, function and time frame. Organizations develop strategies to deal with the issues they have identified” (p 46)

Approaches for Strategy Development

Various approaches exist to develop strategy. Dr. Bryson favors either of two:

“The first is a five-part, fairly speedy process based on the work of the Institute of Cultural Affairs:

• Identify practical alternatives and of dreams or visions for resolving the strategic options
• Enumerate the barriers to achieve those alternatives, dreams, or visions
• Develop major proposals for achieving these alternatives, dreams, and visions
  • Indirectly by overcoming barriers
  • Directly solicits proposals from key organizational units or stakeholders
• Act over the next two to three years to implement major proposals
• Create a detailed work program for the next 6-12 months to to implement actions

“The second, a mapping process, can be used when the planning team needs or desires to articulate the relationships among multiple options so as to show how they fit together as part of a pattern:

• List multiple options for addressing each strategic issue, phrasing each option in imperative, action terms
• Link the actions by arrows indicating which option causes or influences the achievement of other options. Each option may be part of more than one chain
• The result is a map of action-to-outcome (cause and effect, means-to-an-end) relationships
• Those options toward the end of the chain of arrows are possible goals or perhaps even mission statements.” (p46-47)

Criteria for an Effective Strategy

An effective strategy should meet several criteria:

• “Technically workable and administratively feasible”
• “Politically acceptable to clients, shareholders, and other stakeholders”
• “Results oriented”
• “Fit the organization’s philosophy and core values”
• “Ethical, moral, and legal”
• “Deal with the strategic issue it was supposed to address”
• “Must create value and profit” (p48)

Tuesday we analyze how to review and adopt the strategies and strategic plan

Business Strategy 8: Step 4 Identify Strategic Issues Facing Organizations

This continues our series highlighting John M. Bryson’s strategic change cycle

John M. Bryson wrote Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations. He says “Together, the first four steps in the Strategy Change Cycle lead to the fifth, the identification of strategic issues. Strategic issues are fundamental policy questions or critical challenges affecting the organization’s mandates, mission and values, product or service level and mix, clients, users, or payers, cost, financing, structure, processes and management.” In short, everything about the organization.

Typical Issues Facing the Organization

“The first four steps of the process are designed to slow things down so that planning team members have enough information and interaction for the needed wisdom to emerge” writes Bryson. The process is designed, in other words, to unfreeze people’s thinking so that knowledge exploration and development may occur.”

“A statement of strategic issue should contain three elements:

• “The issue should be described succinctly, preferably in a single paragraph…”
• “The team should list the factors that make the issue a fundamental challenge…”
• “The planning team should prepare a statement of the consequence of failure to address the issue…”

Process for Identifying Strategic Issues

You may use seven approaches to identify strategic issues:

• Direct approach goes straight from a discussion of mandates, mission, and SWOT to the identification of strategic issues
• Indirect approach begins with brainstorming about different kinds of options before identifying issues
• Goals approach starts with goals and then identifies issues that must be addressed before the goals can be achieved
• Vision of success approach identifies issues that must be addressed before the vision can be achieved
• Oval mapping approach creates a word-and-arrow diagrams in which ideas about actions the organization might take, how it might take them, and why
• Tensions approach argues that any strategic issue always presents four basic tensions
  • Human resource
  • Equity concerns
  • Innovation
  • Change maintenance of tradition and productivity improvement
• Systems analysis approach discerns the best way to frame issues when a system contains complex effects in order for the organization to fully understand it.

Saturday we will examine how to formulate strategies to manage the issues

Business Strategy 7: Step 4 Assess the External & Internal Environments

This continues our series on how John M. Bryson’s strategic change cycle

Bryson shares “a consideration of the ways in which inputs, process, and outputs are linked can help the organization understand what its strategies are and the value proposition that it offers stakeholders. In other words, what story does this linkage tell about the logic model, or value chain, that the organization pursues to convert inputs into outputs that meets its mandates, fulfill its mission, satisfy its stakeholders and create profit.” Bryson advises using a SWOC or SWOT Analysis (he exchanges the T or threat for C or Challenge)

Assess External & Internal Environments

Bryson outlines “The purpose of step 4 in the strategic planning process is to provide information on the strengths and weaknesses of the organization in relation to the opportunities or threats it faces. This information can be used to create ideas for strategic interventions that can shape and guide organizational decision and actions to create value.”

• “Strengths and weaknesses are usually internal and refer to the present capacity of the organization”
• “Opportunities and threats are typically external and refer to future potentials for good or ill”

“These distinctions between internal and external and between present and future are fluid, and people should not worry too much about whether they have made them properly.”

Process for Assessing the Environments

I blogged about SWOT analysis before. Bryson offers the following additional guidelines for assessing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats:

• Keep in mind that the simpler is likely to be better
• Review information gained in steps 1, 2, 3 and other exercises prior to your SWOT
• Use a Snowcard technique to list strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, & threats
• Consider what is going on outside the organization before what is going on inside
• Look for patterns and important actions that might be taken immediately
• Consider institutionalizing  periodic SWOT analyses
• Construct various scenarios in order to help identify SWOTs

“The approach to external and internal environmental assessments…sets the stage for the identification of strategic issues in step 5.”

Thursday we analyze step 5 identify the strategic issues facing the organization

Business Strategy 6: Step 3 Clarify Organizational Mission & Values

This continues our series on John M. Bryson’s strategic change cycle for your business

John M. Bryson wrote Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations. While the book focuses on public and nonprofit organizations, the skills outlined apply equally well to small-businesses. Step 3 clarifies your organizational mission and values. Bryson writes “An organization’s mission, in tandem with its mandates, provides the organization’s most important justification for its existence.” (p 32)

Clarifying Your Mission

“A mission statement is a declaration of organizational purpose. Mission statements vary in length based on their purpose, but they are typically short—nor more than a page, and often not more than a punchy slogan. An organization’s mission and mandates also point the way toward the ultimate organizational end of creating value. Clarity

• “Can eliminate a great deal of unnecessary conflict in an organization”
• “Channels discussion and activity productively”
• “Defines the arenas within which the organization will collaborate or compete”
• “Charts the future course of the organization”
• “Serves as a kind of primary framework that bounds bounds the plausibility and acceptability of arguments”
• “Provide a premise control that constrains thinking, learning and acting and even legitimacy”

“Indeed, it is doubtful whether any organization ever achieved greatness or excellence without a basic consensus among its key stakeholders on an inspiring mission.” (p 38)

Process for Clarifying the Mission

Bryson continues “A mission statement should grow out of discussions aimed at answering the six questions that follow. The mission statement should at least touch on most answers to these questions…Answers to the six questions will also provide the basis for developing a vision of success later in the process:

• Who are we?
• What are the basic social and economic needs we exist to meet or address?
• What do we do to recognize, anticipate, and respond to these needs or problems?
• How should we respond to our clients, owners, or shareholders?
• What are our philosophy, values, or culture?
• What makes us distinctive or unique?” (p114-117)

“Mission may be considered what the organization wants to do.”

Tuesday we explore Step 4 Assess the External and Internal Environments in your business

Business Strategy 5: Step 2 Identify Organizational Mandates

This continues our series on steps that can help you change your business strategy

In step 2 of John M. Bryson’s Strategic Planning Cycle you identify organizational mandates that would affect your strategy. Bryson writes “The formal and informal mandates placed on the organization consists of the various “musts” it confronts—that is, the various requirements, restrictions, expectations, pressures, and constraints it faces. It is surprising how few organizations know precisely what they are (and are not) formally mandated to do.” (p 37)

Why Clarify Organizational Mandates

“Few members of any organization have ever read, for example, the relevant legislations, policies, ordinances, charters, articles, and contracts that outline the organization’s formal mandates. Even when they have read these materials, it is likely that their organization’s strategic plans will fail to address at least some of the formal mandates and that these mandates may be overlooked.” (ibid)

Purpose and Outcomes of Clarifying Mandates

“The purpose of step 2” Bryson writes “is to identify and clarify the nature and meaning of the externally imposed mandates, both formal and informal, affecting the organization.

You seek four outcomes from this step:”

• Identify the organization’s formal and informal mandates, including who is mandating what and with what force
• Interpret what is required as a result of the mandates (leading perhaps to explicit goals or performance indicators)
• Clarify what the mandates forbid (which might also lead to explicit goals or performance indicators)
• Clarify what the mandates do not rule out (the rough boundaries of the unconstrained field of action)

Process of Clarifying Mandates

The process guidelines for step 2 are straightforward:

• Have someone compile a complete list of the formal and informal mandates that apply
• Review the mandates to clarify what is required, what is forbidden, and what is allowed
• Regularly remind organizational members of what the organization is required to do and forbidden to do, to conform with the mandates
• Undertake a regular review of the mandates and discuss which ones seem to be current, which may need to be revised, and which should be dropped

Saturday we analyze how to clarify organizational mission and values

Business Strategy 4: Step 1 Initiate & Agree on a Strategic Planning Process

This continues our series on John M. Bryson’s Strategic Change Cycle for your business
The strategic change cycle outlines a series of steps organizations implement to strategic change. The 10 steps of the change cycle provide a structure for systematic progress. The first step includes initiating and agreeing on the process for strategic planning. Bryson writes “The purpose of the first step is to negotiate agreement among key internal (and perhaps external) decision makers or opinion leaders about the overall strategic planning effort and the key planning steps.”
Tasks that Help You to Initiate and Agree
Bryson identifies the following tasks for you to finish to build agreement:

• “Identify who the  key decision makers are”
• “Identify which persons, groups, units or organizations should to involve in the effort”
• “Conduct a preliminary stakeholder analysis…in order to figure out whom to include in the series of initial agreements”

“Attention to stakeholder concerns is crucial: the key to success in public and nonprofit organizations (and communities) is the satisfaction of key stakeholders…a stakeholder analysis will help the organization decide whether it needs different missions and perhaps different strategies for different stakeholders.”
What the Initial Agreement Should Cover
Bryson continues “The initial agreement should cover

• The purpose of the effort
• The preferred steps in the process
• The form and timing of reports
• The role, functions, and membership of any group or committee empowered  to oversee the effort, such as  strategic planning coordinating committee (SPCC)
• The role, functions, and membership of the strategic planning team
• The commitment of the resources necessary for proceeding with the effort
• Any important limitations on or boundaries for the effort

The Process to Reach Initial Agreement
“The process of reaching an initial agreement is straightforward in concept but often circuitous in practice. It usually proceeds through the following stages:

• Initiating the process
• Introducing the concept of strategic planning
• Developing an understanding of what strategic planning means in practice
• Thinking through the important implications of the process
• Developing a commitment to strategic planning
• Reaching the actual agreement

Thursday we explore step 2 of the “Identify organizational mandates”

Business Strategy: An Overview of Bryson’s Strategy Change Cycle

This continues our series outlining how business strategy can change your business

John M. Bryson authored Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations. While his title suggest that the concepts only apply to public and nonprofit organizations, they may help your business. He writes “How can the leaders and managers of public and nonprofit organizations cope with the challenges that confront their organizations, now and in the years ahead? How should they respond to the increasingly uncertain and interconnected environments in which their organizations operate? How should they respond to dwindling or unpredictable resources: new public expectations or formal man-dates; demographic changes…upheavals in international, national, and local economies?

Benefits of a Strategy Change Cycle

Bryson writes “We can use strategic planning to help us think, act, and learn strategically—to figure out what we should want, why, and how to get it. Think of strategic planning as the organization of hope, as what makes hope reasonable.” (p 32)

“The strategic change cycle may be thought of as a process strategy, processual model of decision making , or activity-based view of strategizing, in which a leadership group manages the main activities in the process but leaves much of the content of individual strategies to others.” (p 32)

“The Strategic Change Cycle becomes a strategic management process—and not just a strategic planning process—to the extent that it is used to link planning and implementation and to manage an organization in a strategic way on an ongoing basis.” (p 31)

Steps of the Strategy Change Cycle

Bryson outlines a thorough and fairly complex cycle:

1. Initiate and agree on a strategic planning process
2. Identify organizational mandates
3. Clarify organizational mission and values
4. Assess the external and internal environments
5. Identify the strategic issues facing the organization
6. Formulate strategies to manage the issues
7. Review and adopt the strategies or strategic plan
8. Establish an effective organizational vision
9. Develop an effective implementation plan
10. Reassess strategies and the strategic planning process

We will explore each step of the cycle and how it applies to your business.

Tuesday we will examine how to initiate and agree on a strategic planning process

Business Strategy 2: Three Hierarchical Levels of Strategy

This continues our series outlining business strategy

Understanding how business strategy differs from operational planning, allows you to draft “the methods you chose to bring about the desired future of your business”. You develop strategy for three different levels of the business: the corporate level, the business unit level, and the departmental/functional level. Quick MBA provides an excellent lesson to help you understand more.

Corporate Level Strategy

“Corporate Strategy”, says Vadim Kotelnikov, defines “the Business you should be in”

“Corporate level strategy fundamentally is concerned with the selection of businesses in with the company should compete and with the development and coordination of that portfolio of businesses” says Quick MBA.

“Corporate level strategy is concerned with:

• Reach
• Competitive contact
• Managing activities and business interrelationships
• Management practices”

Business Unit Strategy

Kotelnikov continues “Business strategy [outlines] the tactics to beat the competition”

Quick MBA adds “A strategic business unit may be a division, product line, or other profit center that can be planned independently from the other business units of the firm.

At the business unit level, the strategic issues are less about the coordination of operating units and more about developing and sustaining a competitive advantage for the goods and services that are produced. At the business level, the strategy formulation phase deals with:

• Positioning the business against rivals
• Anticipating changes in demand and technologies and adjusting the strategy to accommodate them
• Influencing the nature of competition through strategic actions such as vertical integration and through political actions such as lobbying

Functional/Departmental Strategy

“Functional Strategy explains the operational methods to implement the tactics” concludes Vadim Kotelnikov.

“The functional level of the organization is the level of the operating divisions and departments. The strategic issues at the functional level are related to business processes and the value chain. Functional level strategies in marketing, finance, operations, human resources, and the R&D involve the development and coordination of resources through which business unit level strategies can be executed efficiently and effectively.” writes Quick MBA.

Saturday we will outline a strategic planning cycle to help you move the business forward

Business Strategy 1: Thinking Strategy Versus Operations

This begins our series on establishing a business strategy that leads to success

My experiences with many businesses and organizations demonstrates that very few people recognize the difference between strategic and operational planning or implementation. Leaders waste millions of dollars each year implementing operational initiatives with no strategic framework to support it. They thought they were implementing a strategy, but did not. This series will explain the difference, and share proven steps to a strategic cycle.

Definitions

Business Dictionary.com offers the following definitions:

Strategy

1. A method or plan chosen to bring about a desired future, such as achievement of a goal or solution to a problem.
2. The art and science of planning and marshaling resources for their most efficient and effective use. The term is derived from the Greek word for generalship or leading an army.
3. Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/strategy.html#ixzz20EX3rXFB

Operations

1. Activities involved in the day to day functions of the business conducted for the purpose of generating profits.
2. Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/business-operation.html#ixzz20EXq1zkJ

Differences

Management Study Guides provides an excellent graph to show the differences between strategy, administration, and operations. “The differences between Strategic, Administrative and Operational decisions can be summarized as follows-

Strategic Decisions	Administrative Decisions	Operational Decisions
Strategic decisions are long-term decisions.	Administrative decisions are taken daily.	Operational decisions are not frequently taken.
These are considered where The future planning is concerned.	These are short-term based Decisions.	These are medium-period based decisions.
Strategic decisions are taken in Accordance with organizational mission and vision.	These are taken according to strategic and operational Decisions.	These are taken in accordance with strategic and administrative decision.
These are related to overall Counter planning of all Organization.	These are related to working of employees in an Organization.	These are related to production.
These deal with organizational Growth.	These are in welfare of employees working in an organization.	These are related to production and factory growth.

Thursday we review hierarchical levels of strategy: corporate, business unit, departmental

Marketing Methods & Vehicles 14: In Review

This concludes our series on marketing methods and vehicles that increase revenues

Bryan Waldon Pope designed The 7 Pillars of Successful Marketing for small-business owners. He incorporated all the key elements that you need to provide million dollars marketing on a shoestring. His easy to remember and implement pillars outline a well-rounded marketing plan. His approach, since it incorporates sales as one of the pillars, enhances marketing’s place in your business as a profit center rather than a cost center.

The 7 Pillars of Successful Marketing

The 7 pillars build on one another. You need to implement them in order. I know many business owners that skip one or two to do the ones they perceive as the easy ones. They waste thousands of dollars on the wrong message or the wrong audience. Building your marketing program one pillar at a time:

1. Market Research directs you to gather the information about your product or service, your competition, your target audience, potential and past clients
2. The Right Messages prompts you to define, refine, and focus the message(s) to each audience’s needs, interests, and hot buttons
3. Strategy outlines your strategy for current and future offerings to your audience
4. Campaigns defines the time-specific, unique marketing operations you will implement
5. Methods & Vehicles will be reviewed below
6. Sales creates the revenue generation as people respond to your campaigns, methods, & vehicles
7. Client retention includes all the steps to gather information about and reach to existing clients for additional sales (it leads you back to the first pillar to start all over)

Summary of Marketing Methods and Vehicles

Marketing Methods include the procedures or processes for obtaining sales. You utilized three major procedures for obtaining sales:

• Promotions
• Publicity/Public Relations
• Advertising

Marketing Vehicles constitute the agents you use to transmit your message. You will transmit your message through the vehicles:

• Print
• Radio
• Television
• The Internet
• Parties, Door-to-Door, or others

I encourage you to buy Bryan Waldon Pope’s package on The 7 Pillars of Successful Marketing at www.BWPope.com/marketingplan.

Tuesday we will begin a new focus a strategy cycle to move your business to a new level

Marketing Methods & Vehicles 13: Parties, Door-to-Door, and More

This continues our series on marketing methods and vehicles that increase revenues

Our final marketing vehicles include some of the more obscure or personal vehicles. They traditionally apply to certain kinds of industries: multi-level, direct or network marketing. However, they are spreading into additional industries and types of businesses. You may find them beneficial to marketing your business.

Parties

We all heard of organizations that used parties to sell their product: Mary Kay, Tupperware, Pampered Chef, lingerie, and others. I recently heard of a company that markets toys to kids. They use parties for small children to test market and sell toys.

Parties work well if

• Your clients enjoy social activities
• Seeing or playing with the product increases interest and sales
• You can train a sales force easily to prospect hosts, run the parties, process orders
• Clients trust sales force to order product at the party and delay receiving it
• Costs for the party justify the potential sales from the party

Review these articles on marketing through parties:

• Entrepreneur Marketing Through Parties
• Profitable Internet Marketing Tips and Tricks: Your Ticket to the Party
• Niche Marketing Tips/Niche Marketing Strategies from a Party Queen

Door-to-Door

Fuller Brush sold brushes door-to-door for almost a century. Today, businesses sell security systems, pest control, and more door-to-door.  Door-to-Door sales seems to apply to business-to-consumer sales. However, business-to-business sales can also use a door-to-door vehicle.

The following articles give tips to door-to-door marketing:

• Door-to-door sales Tips by Buzzle.com
• Selling More Door-to-Door—Tips for Success
• How Sales Techniques Work

More Vehicles

I’ve included a few more articles to help you with your marketing vehicles:

Small Business Administration publishes 7 Tips for Getting Your Marketing Message Right

28 Quick and Easy Ways to Get Your Marketing Message Across

How Do You Make Sure Your Marketing Message is Heard as Your Target Travels…

Is Your Message Clear?

How2 Make Your Marketing Message Stand Out—a 7 Step Guide

Your marketing vehicles transmit your message to your audience. They carry what you want to say. Make say the right thing.

Saturday we will conclude our series by summarizing marketing methods or vehicles

Happy Independence Day

Today we celebrate tomorrow’s commemoration of the birth of a nation of opportunity

The sweltering incubator of Philadelphia in 1776 brought forth, as Abraham Lincoln declared “a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” He continued “Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.” In a sense, we still test whether that nation can endure.

Celebrate the Glorious Words

Our hearts should soar as we contemplate the lofty ideals they made into reality:

“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

• Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed
• That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.
• Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes
• When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government
• Such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.”

Let us rejoice at the dedication of those who built a nation on those principles. Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Afghanistan, and others show us, today, how difficult it is to accomplish the same goals.