16. customer intelligence
who are our most satisfied customers?
who are our most profitable customers?
who have the greatest growth potential?
what are their current and future needs?
what are we doing about it?
19. competitive advantage
what is our competitive advantage?
what are we actively doing to leverage it?
what do we need to do to make it even stronger?
can we measure it?
20. financial perspective /
trends / benchmarks
are we profitable?
are we generating enough cash?
are we getting a fair return on our investment?
what about non-financial indicators?
21. input surveys
[Insert the surveys that your
organisation uses to gather
feedback from your team]
for example:
HIP stakeholder survey
non-chargeable activities survey
GGOB appraisal survey
Climate/Culture survey
28. strategies
should bridge the gap between
NOW and WHERE
answers the question – HOW will we get there
FOCUS on exploiting strengths and
opportunities and minimizing weakness and
threats
32. what if?
our assumptions are incorrect?
our largest client goes out of business?
our competitors actively peruse our accounts?
what if we lose a team member?
36. questions: 0-10
do you believe it?
does it excite you?
do you have confidence in the plan?
Editor's Notes
These slides are provided as a template for you to pull together a well structured high involvement planning session to run with your team.
The time taken to conduct the planning session can vary from organisation to organisation – however usually 1-1 ½ days is appropriate (however it may take longer the first time you decide to run this).
We are more than happy to facilitate /chair the running of your firm’s high involvement planning day, and are happy to discuss with you what role we can play in helping your organisation plan into the future and achieve your goals.
We suggest you have 4 action templates split between the following areas - to record actions on the run throughout your planning day:
Financial
Marketplace
Operational
People
(this can be done on a whiteboard or on large sheets of paper)
We also suggest you have room for a SWOT – dissected between the quadrants - Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats.
This is the process that the planning day will follow - with focus being given to the first two boxes – Revisit Vision, Purpose, Values and Advantage AND H.I.P Strategic Review.
Boxes three and four are completed after the planning session in ‘follow-up’ sessions.
Before you start thinking about planning for the upcoming period - reflect on your wins in the last 12 months - as a way to get your team warmed up and contributing.
It helps sets a positive tone right up front.
In these next slides - you take a moment to revisit what your business is about - and how you feel you've been travelling against your stated values, mission, vision, etc.
Ask your team to list your core values.
Ask your team to give examples of how they live those values.
From 0-10, how well are you living those values?
For any low scored values - ask for a suggestion to improve / close the gap.
REMEMBER - for values to be memorable - try having no more than four.
If you have more than four - workshop with your team - to craft a shorten list.
Consider if your core values are still relevant and valuable, or whether they need revision.
Have your team nominate the companies mission / purpose.
Get them to explain how you have delivered on that mission in the last period.
Does your mission still excite you? Does it still reflect what you are trying to achieve?
Have decisions made been consistent with this purpose?
REMEMBER - each decision that is made it this planning day should be checked back against this mission to ensure it is consistent.
Have your team nominate your vision -where you want to take your business.
What progress have you made toward it in this last period?
So that you and your team are clear on how to get to the vision - list here the key building blocks - ie the key activities / actions / goals that need to happen to get there.
You might choose to identify sub-actions / activities needed to achieve those key steps.
REMEMBER - your planning day is about understanding where you are now, where you want to go, and how to get there.
So ensure you take the time to distill your thoughts and create a picture of the future - one that excites you and one that is visible to the team.
Duplicate this slide for the number of goals you have defined – so you can identify sub-actions for each goal.
You might choose to identify sub-actions / activities needed to achieve those key steps.
REMEMBER - your planning day is about understanding where you are now, where you want to go, and how to get there.
So ensure you take the time to distill your thoughts and create a picture of the future - one that excites you and one that is visible to the team.
Duplicate this slide for the number of goals you have defined – so you can identify sub-actions for each goal.
You might choose to identify sub-actions / activities needed to achieve those key steps.
REMEMBER - your planning day is about understanding where you are now, where you want to go, and how to get there.
So ensure you take the time to distill your thoughts and create a picture of the future - one that excites you and one that is visible to the team.
Duplicate this slide for the number of goals you have defined – so you can identify sub-actions for each goal.
To connect all team members to the vision and stay focused on achieving the building blocks to get there – get each team member to personally write down what they are doing to help achieve that.
To help connect your team to that vision - ask them to draw what it is they are doing in that vision - and present back to the team.
(15-30 minutes with butchers paper is rough guide)
In this next section - we consider the external environment.
What changes are impacting your industry?
What are the prevailing economic conditions?
What are your competitors doing?
Use external market information/publications/surveys/etc to gather economic, industry, market intelligence.
Share this with your team as pre-reading before the High Involvement planning day.
What we do we know about our customers?
Analyse your customer base to help idenfity growth areas/areas where you aren’t achieving the outcome you’d like.
Do you need to consider new growth areas?
Have you got systems in place to ensure you are meeting your customer’s needs?
In this reflective period - take what your learned - and start completing your SWOT (strength, weakness, opportunity, threat) for those opportunities and threats.
Now turn your attention to the internal strengths and weaknesses of the SWOT.
Get the team to nominate and record all ideas.
Now focus on the major ones:
FOR STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES – CONSIDER WHAT YOUR TOP 6 ARE COMPARED TO YOUR COMPETITORS.
FOR OPPORTUNITIES AND THREATS – WHAT ARE THE TOP 6 THAT YOU SHOULD ACT ON TO CAPITALISE ON (RE: OPPORTUNITIES) OR MINIMISE (RE: THREATS).
Consider what actions you need to take with respect to those top ones.
Look at your firm’s competitive advantage.
Get the team to consider and answer each of the questions.
Look at the financial position of the firm and give a quick update on where the firm sits for the prior year.
In this section - reflect on any surveys you had your team complete in advance of the planning day.
What are the team telling you?
Are their observations consistent and aligned with yours?
Of what you've learnt, continue to fill our your SWOT.
In this next section- you and your team will set your revenue / sales target for the coming financial year.
Everything hinges off your top line - which is why we start there.
What will it be for the coming year - giving regard to history, economic conditions, customer changes, etc - ie from your learnings in the past sections.
In this next section - you'll workshop strategies to take you closer to where you want to be - including actions needed to hit your revenue target.
Reflect of your SWOT analysis -
Can you combine a strength with an opportunity?
List out the strategic actions your going to take in each area in the coming period.
These are the take away actions from all the discussion points had during the course of the day.
REMEMBER - when nominating actions - note also WHO will be responsible for the action and WHEN the action is to be completed.
In this next section - the aim is to brainstorm a few strategies that you can activate if needed should things change dramatically by way of contingency.
You'll also look forward - to prompt your thinking about what the future may look like by extrapolating your growth - and from there - giving thought to actions that may need to be taken as a result of that growth.
Can you take your existing products/services to a new market?
Is there new products/services you can develop to service your existing market?
Plan longer term with your team – what do you want it to look like, and how will you achieve it?
In this final section of the day - you'll ask for an indication from the team to their level of buy-in.
This a quick whip around the room - to have each team member comment on the day and give a rating of 0-10.
This template is provided as a starting point for you to use and adapt for your organisation – aimed at providing guidance to assist in conducting your planning days.
This downloadable template/information does not give business, accounting, taxation, investment or financial planning advice. It is intended to provide information in a summary form and is general in nature. The contents do not constitute business, accounting, taxation, investment or financial planning advice and should not be relied upon as such. Formal business, accounting, taxation, investment or financial planning advice should be sought in particular matters. O'Connells OBM Pty Ltd accepts no liability in respect of this information and any person acting solely on the information contained within does so entirely at their own risk.