Category Archives: Innovation

Three Uses of Strategic Planning

Innovation, Leadership, Planning Strategy, Strategic Planning, Strategy

Strategic planning can become quite complex.

We can go all in on Porter’s 5 forces, be thorough with our SWOT analysis, develop quite a detailed view of the organisation using the VRIO framework, base the strategic plan on some form of a Balanced Scorecard view, or even think about strategy in terms of the Value Chain.

We might even think of strategy planning and development in terms of the market cycle, even industry life cycle, in terms of diversification, mergers & acquisitions, or even some form of international expression.

But in my view, strategic planning comes down to a mix of the three main uses of strategic planning.

  1. Setting a common vision
  2. Improving resource usage
  3. Uncovering other possibilities

 

With “setting a common vision“, the emphasis of the exercise is to ensure that everyone is going in the same direction. While there may be those who wish to no longer take the same journey as everyone else, the outcome of the process is to raise the organisational flag and set the vision. It’s to get buy-in from everyone. Its to say “this is where we are going, and how we are getting there”.

With “improving resource usage“,  the emphasis is to make sure you have what you need for the journey. It’s a process of uncovering either shortcomings or abundance, of looking at what you have or what you need in order to achieve the vision. Of either doing better with what you have, putting aside the things you don’t need, or investing in labour/capital/resources to ensure your success.

With “uncovering other possibilities“, the emphasis is on finding out alternatives. Whether they be new products, markets, processes, and so on. This could be seen as the province of innovation. While in other posts I have discussed strategic foresight/thinking as solving the “what might we need to do” conundrum, strategic planning is about “what will we do and how will we do it”. Thus “uncovering possibilities” falls firmly within the “what will we do” question.

So, for the obvious question, can you use strategic planning to achieve one or more of these three aims?

 

For more of what I have to offer, visit Dellium Advisory, follow on Twitter, connect using LinkedIn, or review my IT-centric blog.

How do you “win the future”?

Futures, Futurist, Governance, Innovation, Strategic Foresight, Systems

Whilst the future is inherently unknowable, the path toward it is eminently discoverable. Reflect on the observation that today is yesterday’s tomorrow. That we are, in part, living out today what we dreamt of in times past.

As a thought experiment, consider the current ubiquity of Facebook, Twitter and other social media. Now, place yourself back in time to 2003 (the year when the “Matrix Reloaded” was released and when the Concorde made its last flight). And think about the technology trends in that year. Consider the growing spread of the internet and the increasing desire for mobile computing and communication technology. And attach these nascent trends to the basic human desire to be connected with others.

Thus we have the ingredients for mass virtual networking. With the opportunity afforded us through hindsight, we can see that these two technology trends in 2003 were used to great effect by people that understood that we are indeed a social being. And that technology and that understanding gave rise to the vision that these people had – that software applications would facilitate social interaction on a global scale.

Now, in futures work, this realisation of visions past being fulfilled can be explained by the three horizons model. Where the first horizon is called today, where the third horizon is tomorrow, and where the second horizon is that period of time between the first and third horizons.

Now, if you frame the current horizon in terms of “Business As Usual” and tomorrow’s horizon as an “Alternative Future”, one can make two inferences. Firstly, that the dominant characteristics of the third horizon are emerging today. And secondly, there are characteristics of today’s world that are no longer dominant in the future.

And it is through the tussle of this messy middle horizon that the winners of today’s competing emerging issues and trends will rise. It is these victors, who use to their advantage these issues and trends, that determine what the future will look like. They can see the weak signals of what is happening around them. And further, one notable characteristic of these victors is that they have an entrepreneurial mindset. They have a predisposition to be able to join the dots and to apply systems thinking to what is nascent.

Think about this messy middle in terms of the tussle between Facebook and MySpace from about a decade ago. Who took best advantage of the rise of the internet and mobile ICT to satiate our desire for connection? Facebook.

So, how does this apply to your situation? How can we relate this three horizons model to a current day circumstance. Well, how about the workings of government? What about how the direction of government is set. Think about this model in the context of say education policy? Or perhaps other areas like social, industrial or health policy? The application of this model is in terms of who can best take advantage of today’s emerging issues and trends in the context of a particular policy area.

One way of applying this three horizons model is by standing at that third horizon. What do you want the future to look like? What do you see around you? How do you describe this prospective landscape? Then, from this yet-to-be vantage point, what are the emerging issues and trends that you need to champion now, in today’s horizon, in order to bring about what you want to see?

For example, say you want to see, in a few years time, a situation where all homes have solar panels connected to a smart grid. What are nascent issues and trends that you could champion now to bring that to pass? Could you perhaps encourage one or more of: the acceptance of the sharing economy, the desire to do something for the environment, the increasing range of solar financing options? More completely, what are the embryonic political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal developments that you need to support in order to successfully realise your policy objective?

The future is there for the winning, but it requires an understanding of what is emerging to shape the vision you see.

For more of what I have to offer, visit Dellium Advisory, follow on Twitter, connect using LinkedIn, or review my IT-centric blog.

Getting the best out of what you have

Cognitive Strategy, Innovation, Leadership, Planning Strategy, Positioning Strategy, Strategy

Have you thought about the resources and capabilities that you have on hand, and how well you are using them?

Have you thought about how these aspects of your organisation, whether not-for-profit or a business, can help you stay in the game and be successful?

Well, when planning your strategies perhaps reflect on your own unique set of resources and capabilities using the following four attributes:

  1. value
  2. rarity
  3. imitability
  4. organization

Value. What is the value that you have? For you must have resources and capabilities of value in order to create a proposition that customers will pay for.  This value that you have must be capable of exploiting an opportunity or seeing off a potential threat. Or, on the other hand, is this resource or capability hindering your ability to respond to opportunities or threats? That is, is it a weakness?

Rarity. Do you have at your disposal an asset that is rare? That not many others have? Perhaps you own a particular segment of the market. Perhaps some of the talents that your staff have are quite unique. What about a technology that you use in your processes that not many others have.

Imitability. How easy is it for others to copy what you have? Think about the processes you have, the way your goods are produces, or the particular value that you add to your services. Can what you do be easily imitated by current or potential competitors?

Organisation. Are you geared to taking full advantage of the resources and capabilities that you have? Think about your policies and procedures. Do they stifle or do they give assistance to exploiting the value, the rarity and the imitability of what you have at hand?

For sustaining competitive advantage is about ensuring all four of these attributes are kept in strategic focus.

Dellium Advisory
For more of what I have to offer, visit Dellium Advisory, follow on Twitter, connect using LinkedIn, or review my IT-centric blog.