For this planning process to be effective, the company must reassess its own strategy, updating it in terms of opportunities seen in the market and revitalizing its essence as a business. In addition, with this new strategic perspective, the company revisits its business model to make the delivery of value creation more effective, exceeding the expectations of the target market served.
By reviewing the strategy and its business model, the company identifies whether the management structure is up to date so that its improved model can be developed. In this aspect, it is important to emphasize that it is not about people specifically, but about the alignment of the profile and skills necessary for the development of the model, consequently of the feedback strategy.
The impact of the pandemic on strategic planning
Many companies faced, and still face, challenges due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, but some of them presented greater difficulty and others even ceased to exist since the tripod “strategy, model and management structure” represents something that, in the past and in other circumstances, was successful, but no longer has the same effect.
This change usually occurs silently, when the company turns on autopilot and performs its operation mechanically. Sometimes the success of the past can have an air of pride, distancing itself from those magical moments that one day your customers identified and saw themselves involved in an impeccable delivery and legitimately being provided and generating unique experiences.
Attention to market dynamics
To overcome the challenges and not fall into autopilot, companies need to be always aware of market dynamics, new competitive models and changes in consumer behavior, whether in a B2C or B2B business.
It is important to remember that being an individual customer like a company, it has a limited capacity to consume, so this is very dynamic and challenging. On the other hand, the company must seek dynamics that are more structuring of its business and not just reacting to the market. Once again, it is possible to identify the importance of strategic planning and, of course, execution, which makes what really contributes to the generation of value happen.
When a break is needed
Sometimes we see companies obsessed with results, and this is really very important, but if there is no alignment of their strategic bases, the effort becomes greater every day to achieve minimum results for the continuity of the business.
This dynamic ends up becoming frustrating with pressured partners and doubtful managers regarding the decisions they make every day. At this point, “taking a break” for quality, carrying out the strategic review in a few weeks, makes them realign and start to lead the evolution of the business, building a new cycle of development, results and sustainability of the company through the revitalization of the business.
According to Kotler, "strategic planning is a management methodology that allows the establishment of the direction to be followed by the organization, aiming at greater interaction with the environment". This direction significantly involves issues related to macro policy, macro strategies and functional objectives. On the other hand, as for the interaction with the environment, the direction may vary depending on the alignment of objectives. This is what makes the interaction positive, neutral or negative.
Peter Drucker's perspective on strategic planning adds important elements: it is a continuous and systematic process that gathers as much knowledge as possible about the future. This process informs decision-making in order to minimize risks, organize the necessary actions for execution, in addition to providing feedback and measuring its impacts on the organization. In short, planning implies an analysis of the organization from different angles that translates into direction and monitoring of effective actions. The purpose of organizations' strategies is to establish the necessary paths to achieve the desired results.
Benefits of good planning
Organizations that manage to carry out good strategic planning, recognize it as a photograph of their horizon. Faced with technological development and crises (economic, social and political), which occur exponentially, no planning should be a mere instrument of sporadic consultation, but an intentional tool for transformation.
However, planning is not restricted to analyzing the environment, establishing and monitoring goals and actions, it also involves communication. Through it, the fundamental values and objectives are made explicit to all those involved, promoting alignment with the organization's priorities. For this reason, the elaboration of strategic planning is a dynamic process that involves review and updating with periodicity defined by each organization.
Managers and team leaders must take into account the need to understand what a business strategy is:
- It is a value creation system that sustains a company's competitive position and its uniqueness.
- It is an open and dynamic system in constant mutation, which evolves, moves and changes without telling you when.
What has been forgotten is that strategy is neither a destination nor a solution. It's not a problem to be solved. It is a journey and needs to be led permanently.
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