Our roles as managers and owners sometimes feels as though we are constantly changing over the past several decades, but how we planned and strategized sped up dramatically after the 2008 global financial crisis. Managers who understood the need to be a strategic leader and a disruption navigator were a vital part in holding their company together during that tumultuous time — and helped build a foundation for future growth. Since then, the best leaders have been on the front lines of the business, embracing automation, transforming the organization digitally, accelerating innovation, and creating new revenue streams.
When the COVID pandemic curveball first hit, it left even the most seasoned managers unmoored. But it didn’t take long for strategically minded owners and managers to begin drafting strategic plans for the remainder of 2020 — and sketching a road map for at least early 2021. Some managers and owners have been pushing through this uncertainty to embrace their strong, central role, alongside their peers, in stabilizing the business and positioning it to thrive when conditions improve. Today, they must continue to prepare for the future of work.
Though 2020 has had a fair amount of uncertainty, we still need to navigate through these waters and plan. The 4Ward team is working with several customers right now in setting up a strategic plan for the future. Are you? Some companies are already in the midst or starting budgetary plans for 2021; but are they also taking the time to review their strategy?
Strategic Planning
Strategic planning provides a road map to help your business get from where you are now to where you want to be. Milestones are expressed in specific terms, as quantifiable objectives that measure whether you’re proceeding as planned and, if not, how far you’ve gone off path. Many companies today use a model of strategic planning that reflects how planning was done many years ago and reinforces the widespread notion that planning is a big, complicated process. Nothing could be further from the truth. Like most management processes, it should be lean, structured, and thorough.
Strategic planning is an important tool for bringing your team together and motivating them to work in tandem. If your managers and staff know the company’s short- and long-term goals, it is easier to stay on task throughout the year or plan cycle and rein in projects and individuals when they’re veering off track. Strategic objectives provide a shared sense of purpose, a shared language to gauge progress. Also very important to today’s Millennials and Gen Z and the rest of our team, these milestones provide an opportunity to celebrate, once they have been achieved.
Too often I find that, in our industry, business leaders exhibit a failure and irrelevance of strategy. Plans are drawn up, presented to their teams, and then left to collect dust on desks and shelves. The un-executed strategic plan has become a symbol of expensive exercises which cost time and money but fail to make impact. Companies then fall into a mode of whimsical initiatives and pet projects which don’t make sense to investors or employees, pulling the company into multiple directions. Within the LBM/Offsite industry, I would encourage owners and executive leadership to work together to prevent this situation.
Here are six simple ways to make sure your strategic plan remains relevant and gets executed.
Create Consistency
Strategic plans which list a set of unconnected ideas and priorities risk sounding like a dog’s breakfast or sawdust collecting in the corner. Instead, make sure your company is pursuing a set of actions which move in a common direction. A strategic plan should articulate a vision and goal and include multiple actions and priorities which move towards achieving an outcome. Priorities and investments which move in the same direction create synergistic benefits and momentum.
Start With Culture
Company culture is the secret sauce that makes things work. A culture which values action, promotes transparency, empowers employees, and encourages communication provides kinetic energy to the plan. Culture enables the strategy to be executed, allows our teams to play their role in getting things done, and also provides an outlet for voicing concerns and issues when the plan isn’t working.
Use Data Wisely
With data analytics tools and larger data sets available for mining and analysis, leaders face a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is to measure and analyze the most important and relevant data and ignore the noise. The opportunity is that, when data is used to make decisions and measure results, everyone will be able to understand what is important and know what they need to do. It is the opportunity to make the plan relevant and measurable for everyone who is involved in its execution. Strategic plans should identify the key data points which act as indicators of success.
Embrace Agility
Companies that deliberate for too long in their planning and obsess about precision in their decision-making won’t be able to keep pace. The competition wins by setting plans, trying, failing, and course-correcting quickly. Startups sprout up with fewer resources and nimbly capture market share. Larger companies must make decisions quickly, act faster, and accept imperfect, but good enough, plans which can be refined over time. Agility also means re-evaluating plans more than once a year and course-correcting when needed.
Focus on Customer Experience
Strategy should be guided by customer needs, not theory or agendas. Companies which address pain points, solve customer problems, and create a memorable and remarkable customer experience will win.
Communicate Again and Again
When plans are not communicated, they won’t be executed. Strategic plans need to be presented, shared, and explained at every level vertically and horizontally. When every employee understands the plan and knows how their actions align to it, the strategy becomes a force. Most companies underestimate the amount of communication needed to help their employees understand the strategy.
Strategic Planning need not be a burden or something that is left in the corner to collect saw dust. Take these initial steps now and plan for what you want to happen instead of letting it happen. If any of us at the 4Ward Solutions Team can be of assistance to you and your business, please let us know. Our team has assisted companies with strategic planning many times and we can help you get over the hurdle to starting your plan now.
As most of you have already heard, this year’s BCMC Show in Columbus has been cancelled due to the pandemic. Many of us are going to miss the opportunity to get together, see the latest equipment, and participate in informative seminars. As of this writing, I know the BCMC team is working through plans to share the seminars, so watch for that information. And, make sure your next Strategic Planning includes the next BCMC Show in Omaha, NE on October 5–8, 2021. We will be looking forward to seeing everyone there!
Ben Hershey is CEO of the 4Ward Solutions Group including Consulting, Labor, Offsite, Design, Software Programming, and Back Office Solutions. When the industry needs an actual expert, they turn to 4Ward team with more than 150 years of experience. 4Ward Consulting Group is the leading provider of Management and Manufacturing Solutions to the Structural Component and Lumber Industry. A Past President of SBCA, Ben has owned and managed several manufacturing and distribution companies and is Six Sigma Black Belt Certified. Ben has provided consulting to hundreds of Component Manufacturers, Lumber Dealers, and Millwork Operations in the past ten years. You can reach Ben at ben@4WardConsult.com or 623-512-6770. © 2020 4Ward Consulting Group, LLC