I was asked recently for my thoughts on how to go about benchmarking a Strategic Planning process. Here are some slides with my thoughts and findings.

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Strategic Planning:
Benchmarking and Best Practice
“If you don’t have any important choices
to make about the future, you don’t
need strategic planning”

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How to benchmark Strategic Planning
 I was asked recently for my thoughts on how
to go about benchmarking a Strategic
Planning process
 My immediate response was that the process
is pretty much generic, but good practice is
likely to be defined by roles and behaviours
adopted within the process

3. Benchmarking Strategic Planning
 A few words of caution…
 Adopting so-called best practices is a follower’s
strategy
 An organisation that simply adopts another’s
practices will never be a leader and is likely not to be
innovative, agile or fit for the future
 That’s not to say that Benchmarking and adoption of
best practices are a waste of time. It’s just that they
need to be done with thought and consideration of
where and when they might add value. When used to
stimulate ideas and step changes in performance they
certainly have their place
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4. Information sources
 It’s fairly easy to find information on good
practices in Strategic Planning
 The Association for Strategic Planning has
defined 10 Attributes
 The APQC published a benchmarking study and
summarised 9 key points
 Numerous consultancies have published papers
 Some of the research is quite dated, but is
remarkably consistent with more recent
material
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5. The underlying framework
 The APQC says approaches to planning
processes and planning system designs vary
greatly, but the underlying framework has
universal relevance
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Issue and
option
generation
Prioritisation
Review and
feedback

6. My conclusions
 Based on my research, I thought it worth
sharing the overall conclusions on best
practices in strategic planning…
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7. The planning process
 It’s generic!
 It should be flexible and subject to continuous
improvement
 Feedback and learning should be built in
 It’s a vehicle for learning and for preparing
people for implementation
 Need a supporting toolkit that is flexible and
scalable
 Tools are just that; tools not rules!
 It’s not about templates
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8. Strategic vs. Business Planning
 Strategic planning cycle times are shortening,
so the boundaries between SPs and BPs are
blurring
 Business Planning is based on a strong
corporate culture and vision
 Strategic Plan may cover 3-5 years but there
should be a 1 year drop off so the plan is
updated annually
 Business Plan covers the next 12 months
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9. Who develops strategy?
 Led from the top
 Those who carry out strategy also make it
 Developed as a team, not done by Planners
or Finance
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10. Creating strategy
 Insight comes from asking the right questions
 Fact-based approach, data driven
 Use external data primarily, not internal
performance (or worse, Financial data)
 Document the strategic thinking and choices
 Challenge the status quo, set stretch goals
 Driven by your Vision, not your Mission
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11. The plan
 Short and simple; a few pages long
 A road map, not a book
 Focused on the most important things to
accomplish
 Must be implementable, not a wish list
 Not tablets of stone, responsive to changing
conditions
 A means to an end, not the end in itself
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12. Communications
 The strategy should be transparent 2-3 levels
down the organisation
 Communication of the strategy is formal and
rigorous
 “Sharing Strategic Plans with all employees is one
of the few generic business practices that
differentiates the above average performers from
the rest” [American Foundation for Quality Survey]
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13. Implementation
 You have to do something with it (other than
file and forget)
 Measure progress against goals and
achievement of deadlines
 Deliver practical benefits over the long term
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14. Some final thoughts…
 Best practices are actually only “best” in the
context of the organisation, culture, processes,
people and skills from which they originated
 They don’t come with a Manual that describes
how to implement them or how to achieve
superior levels of performance
 It can be extremely difficult to replicate others’
capability to achieve a particular level of
performance because that is largely due to their
people, not their processes
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15. Further reading
 From my website:
 Why Benchmarking Might Not Work
 SMART Planning
 Are you ready for a Balanced Scorecard?
 Does your Balanced Scorecard Add Value?
 Identifying Measurements with a Balanced
Scorecard
 OpenStrategies: An Introduction
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16. Improvement Skills
Consulting Ltd.
ian.seath@improvement-skills.co.uk
07850 728506
@ianjseath
www.improvement-skills.co.uk
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