Organizational Planning

"Organizational planning does not deal with future decisions, but with the future of present decision." – Peter Drucker

There are three levels of planning required for most organizations: Strategic, Business and Marketing.

Strategic planning looks outward to establish the context in which a company will operate with respect to a defined mission, and to set the vision for a desired future state. Business planning looks inward to marshal available resources in pursuit of your vision. The marketing plan identifies and addresses the various issues related to mobilizing the external marketing effort. Planning is our primary activity, supporting our clients at every stage of the strategic development, business and marketing planning process as illustrated in the Figure below:

Strategic Planning

“Great business strategy is achieved by combining thought, data, discussion, experience and insight.” ®

The strategic plan defines what an organization is all about (mission and vision), whom it will serve (customers and other stakeholders), what needs it will fulfill (products and services), how well it will perform (objectives and goals), and under what terms it will operate (values and beliefs). Strategic planning establishes the external boundaries of the enterprise with respect to the environment in which it operates. Strategic planning also offers a systematic process to ask and answer the most critical questions confronting management teams, especially large irrevocable resource commitment questions.

Structured Approach

Meridian Strategy Group applies a rational model based approach to the initial review, editing or drafting of a strategic plan in order to achieve more structure and coherence in plan content. An example is provided by our Strategic Viability Checklist illustrated in Figure 1. The checklists' robust set of strategic questions requires the proponents of a strategy or new business proposal to build a business case and defend it.

Business Planning

"A good plan violently executed now is better than a perfect plan executed next week." – Gen. George S. Patton

While the strategic plan establishes broad objectives and goals over a long-range planning horizon the business plan specifies detailed objectives that can be accomplished within a single business year cycle. The strategic plan is complete once the objectives, goals and broad strategies are defined and approved.

The business plan always proceeds to the action or implementation stage for all defined strategic objectives. While the strategic plan is constructed based on explicitly stated assumptions about what will happen or not happen outside the organization (the environment), the business plan is developed as if the assumptions in the strategic plan were facts.

What constitutes a good business plan?

One of the many problems faced by any manager, investor or investment adviser is the complex question of what constitutes a good business plan. Those involved in the industry will always make their individual assessments about specific industrial sectors, rates of return, "comfort factors," views of management, business practices and the like.

A properly written business plan, outlining the past, current and future development of a company, must demonstrate that the company's product, service or technology is sufficiently developed and that there is a reasonable expectation of earnings from the company's business within the period of the business plan. A complete business plan is generally about 40-50 pages in length.

Marketing and Sales Planning

"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." – Ralph Waldo Emerson

There are really two parts of the marketing plan at heart: the strategy and the tactical plan. The marketing strategy identifies and addresses the various issues related to mobilizing the marketing effort, while the tactical plan provides specific dates, tools, budgets and measurement initiatives needed to implement the program.

These nested strategies form the basis for highly effective business positioning. Marketing goals must directly support the overall goals of the business, as stated in the business plan. By developing accurate market and industry insights to competitor plans, market trends and various aspects of customer demand a company is able to effectively allocate limited resources among multiple opportunities.

Develop new insight by asking the right questions

In order to assess the required competency within specific industry segments, companies also need to confirm the basic dynamics of the market for each product or business unit and have answers to the following questions:

How is this market segmented by geography, distribution channels and customers?
What are the size, growth rate and profitability of each market segment?
Through what channels are the product /service distributed and sold and what barriers exist?
What are the critical success factors in this market in the opinion of current competitors; distribution and sales channel members, customers and industry observers?
How competitively intense is each segment, and which firms are considered to be the leaders or emerging leaders?
What are the important strategies of each key player, and why are they successful (or unsuccessful)? What factors could cause significant changes (in profitability, in market share) in the future?