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Archive for October, 2006

Strategic Planning for Dummies and Experts Alike

Tuesday, October 24th, 2006

By Stephanie Molnar

The bottom line: Sales is responsible for delivering the company’s top line growth. While hitting the numbers is important, says Erica Olsen, Vice President of Marketing for M3 Planning and author of Strategic Planning for Dummies (slated for November publication), salespeople are often so busy working to deliver year-end goals that they’re left out of the strategic planning loop, either by choice or circumstance.

Sales leaders and their teams bring knowledge about client needs and wants to the table that can help keep the company from making costly missteps, Olsen suggests.  And, sales leaders can make sure future plans are in alignment with its department’s resources.

Sales Performance Journal asked Olsen, who has helped a wide range of clients craft and implement strategic plans, to explain. The edited exchange follows.

***** Sales Performance Journal: You’re a huge proponent of strategic planning in general. Why is it so important?

Erica Olsen: Well, it’s only important if a company wants to grow. If a company wants to grow, they need a strategic plan. And if they’re forecasting growth, the sales organization really needs to be involved in the development of revenue goals, because sales is responsible for that top line growth.

In the boardroom, we toss out numbers–10, 20, 30 percent–but we may not think through the impact of the goal on sales or support.

There’s one organization I know of where sales was given a goal of 30 percent growth. The sales organization delivered. The rest of the operation couldn’t support it! The realistic goal on the manufacturing side of the house was only about three percent. So sales can’t fulfill contracts to retailers, sales gets incentives based on deliveries…the entire organization is a mess.

The sales were made, but revenue goals weren’t reached. It’s a case of left hand/right hand, of not really paying attention. Sales was successful but no one asked the tough question, “Can we deliver?”

SPJ: How can sales help avoid disasters like this one?

EO: They can help determine if a strategic plan is sound. They can use a Balanced Scorecard [a strategic planning system developed by Drs. Robert Kaplan and David Norton that examines organizations from four angles: learning and growth, business process, customer and financial perspectives] as a kind of “sniff test” to see if the strategy will work. They can ask: Do we have the people to support the operations? Are we delivering value to customers to meet financial goals? Do we have the right people in the right places in the operation to deliver what we’re selling to provide value to our customers?

Look at the strategy. Really get connected with the rest of the organization. Get strategic planning to a point where everyone can say confidently: yes the market is there, yes the organization is behind us to fulfill what we’re selling, and yes we have the right people in the right roles to get there [reach the revenue target]. It takes the unknown out of it. It’s much less “pie in the sky” when you ask those questions. These are the questions the Fortune 100 ask.

SPJ: So sales will help drive the profitability of the organization by doing more than just selling.

EO: If sales is at the table and engaged in a way they can make a difference, they’ll have a huge impact on their department and overall profitability. Sales has a ton of customer information. They have any number of customer touch points, whether the information is gathered in a formal manner or not. What are the trends? They can actually affect the product they’ll be selling next year with this information.

[For this to work,] sales must view [the strategic planning effort] as a benefit and not as wasted time. Sales will waste more time in the long run because they didn’t take that day [to attend planning sessions]. Sales leaders must review the numbers, ask the questions and make sure there is alignment.

Realizing the true role the sales force can play should be very exciting for anyone in a leadership role. The result is empowering. Looking at sales as strategic rather than tactical is ultimately empowering.

SPJ: And the results?

EO: Strategic planning works. [We’ve seen that] just getting people talking–even if the plan is ultimately faulty in some way–results in an average growth rate of 12 percent. Failure to plan is planning to fail.

COMPANY: M3 Planning Business: On-Demand Strategic Planning Services Headquarters: Reno, Nevada Founded: 2000 Website: www.m3planning.com

INTERVIEW SUBJECT:

Name: Erica Olsen, MBA Current Title: Vice President, Marketing M3Planning: Strategic business planning, helping entrepreneurs to articulate and realize their visions.  Erica is a frequent academic lecturer and author of Strategic Planning for Dummies.

Sales Performance Journal contributor Stephanie Molnar is a business and sales writer based in Austin, Texas. Article questions or comments? Click here.

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Recognize Local Entrepreneurs during National Women in Business

Friday, October 20th, 2006

(RENO, NV., October 11, 2006) (Reno, Nevada)- National Women in Business Week falls just days prior to the release of a new book, which is part of a national best selling series, authored by a prominent local business women.

Erica Olsen, 32, owner of M3 Planning in Reno, and author of the soon to be released, Strategic Planning for Dummies, is a woman in business who is raising standards for businesses around the world.

“The upcoming launch of this book is really exciting,” said Olsen. “Finally there is a book on the market that is making strategic planning not only effective, but fun.”

“The Strategic Business Performance Study”, conducted by M3 Planning in 2005, reported businesses which use strategic planning profit more than 12 percent more annually than they would have otherwise. Erica’s ability to transform a typically dry, complicated topic to one that is clear, easy to understand, and expressed with energy and excitement is evident in her new book.

“Strategic Planning for Dummies is a quick reference book for small business owners hoping to expand,” said Olsen. “If executed correctly, the pay off can really make a difference for business owners.”

Strategic Planning for Dummies is now available for advanced purchase on-line at Amazon.com, and will be available in bookstores nationally November 1.

M3 Planning retains accounts with businesses locally, nationally, and internationally. National Women in Business Week begins Monday, October 16. For more information about Erica Olsen, her business, or her new book, visit www.m3planning.com.

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Hiring a Facilitator

Monday, October 16th, 2006

A facilitator can make or break a strategic planning retreat. By using an experienced facilitator in the right situations, you will almost certainly accomplish more in your meetings, delve deeper into critical issues and resolve them. Equally important, participants will leave with positive feelings, stronger cohesiveness, a sense of accomplishment, and a renewed belief in the team. Here are some tips from the American Institute of Architects on hiring a facilitator which could be applied to hiring a facilitator in any industry.

Selecting a Facilitator for Your Strategic Planning Retreat By Frank A. Stasiowski, FAIA

Most design firms that have tried both internal and outside facilitators have found the presence of a well-qualified outsider is essential to keep participants objective and on track. Of course, having an outside facilitator doesn’t guarantee the success of your plan, but not having one can almost guarantee that you won’t achieve the thorough, objective, imaginative thinking required to create an effective strategy.

Why Hire an Outside Facilitator?

Strategic planning discussions can be painful and difficult. They involve personal values and goals, deeply held beliefs about the nature of the firm and where it’s going, and maybe different perspectives on the marketplace. Some principals may have values or goals that conflict with those of other key members of the firm.

All this can reduce the team’s ability to take the objective, long?term overview that strategic planning requires. And unless differences are dealt with carefully and openly, they can result in dissension that subverts the strategic plan.

Added to these complexities are the networks of interrelationships among people who have been working together for some time, comfortable (or uncomfortable but at least familiar) behavior patterns, and knowledge of how the firm has done business in the past. Also, some people in the session are bound to perceive that their careers depend on how they relate to some others.

An outside facilitator carries none of this baggage. He or she can look at the firm, the management team, and the planning process objectively. An outside facilitator can say things like “that’s habit talking” or “you’re rationalizing,” and can make sure that some people don’t dominate the discussion. A facilitator knows how to keep the discussion on track while taking everyone’s concerns into consideration.

What Happens If You Don’t Hire Someone from Outside? Some firms try to do their strategic planning entirely with their own people. Maybe they have an executive who is known for objectivity and fairness and they invite him or her to be the facilitator.

Here’s what often happens:

  • Strategic discussions break down into nonstrategic, operational issues
  • Participants tend to look back, into the company’s history, rather than forward
  • The discussion gets stuck in mundane issues and detail, as opposed to focusing on the big picture
  • Participants don’t engage in “out?of?the?box” thinking
  • The internal facilitator cannot facilitate fully, for several reasons
  • The process doesn’t result in specific action items or a way to assure the planned actions really take place.

Selecting a Facilitator

To identify the best facilitator, start with a short list of three qualified candidates. Rank the candidates based on an interview and reference checks. Criteria to evaluate the candidates should include

  • An understanding of the architecture/engineering industry
  • Experience with multiple architecture/engineering firms
  • An ability to articulate key strategic concepts
  • An ability to provide strategic direction
  • An ability and willingness to tackle “sacred cows”
  • An ability to focus on strategic issues and not get bogged down in operational details
  • An ability to keep the meeting moving toward a successful conclusion.

Checking References

Unless you have had previous experience with the facilitator or you trust the person who recommended the facilitator, it is essential that you check the facilitator’s references. Some questions you might ask references include

  • How did you like working with the facilitator?
  • Would you describe the type of strategic planning that was performed for your firm?
  • How many people in your firm were in the planning session?
  • Did you get the results you wanted?
  • If you could coach this consultant/facilitator on how to make his/her work more effective, what would you tell him or her?
  • How does this facilitator compare to other facilitators you’ve used?
  • Would you use the facilitator again?

Frank A. Stasiowski, FAIA, is president of PSMJ Resource Inc., a consulting firm for architecture/engineering professionals worldwide. Inquiries may be directed to stasiowski_psmj@msn.com.

Click here for additional information on hiring a facilitator.

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Talking Points: What makes great companies great

Friday, October 13th, 2006

Becoming the best at something is often achieved by modeling the behaviors of winners and putting those behaviors into practice. Here are the characteristics of a high-performance company:

  • Has a purpose that focuses the energy of all its members (typically, that purpose is to be the best there is or ever was)
  • Simultaneously and continuously maximizes the self-interests of all its stakeholders
  • Outperforms all others (by any measure) not because of what propels it, but in spite of any and all obstacles that impede it
  • Makes it possible for ordinary people to perform in an extraordinary fashion
  • Transforms its people into “owners” of the organization’s destiny
  • Is a healthy organization committed to being great, no matter what it takes
  • Knows that the execution is more important than the strategy

While a strategic plan is the means, growth and high-performance are the end to those means.

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Talking Points: The Best of the Best Do Planning

Sunday, October 8th, 2006
Need some more talking points to convince your boss or board of directors to do a strategic plan? Here are some points to help you make your case:

High-performance organizations have fundamental differences that set them apart from other organizations. Anecdotally, these companies are better than their competitors at everything they do. They work more diligently and incessantly to improve faster than their competitors.

There are tons of studies out there that dig into the hows and whys of companies that are ahead of the pack. But instead of getting lost in the details and differences of these studies, take a look at the basics.

At the end of the day, high-performance organizations accomplish extraordinary results, and they do it with ordinary people. The key to achieving is to structure an organization so ordinary people can regularly accomplish outstanding things. Enter a strategic plan.

If you keep waiting for extraordinary people to come along and make things happen, you’re going to wait a long time. Instead, your goal should be to transform your organization in such a way that your people are capable of delivering high performance every minute and every hour of every day.

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