Reshaping Strategic Planning in a Dynamic World

Strategic planning is an integral part of the business planning process that helps companies define success for investors, shareholders, and employees. The pandemic and recent economic shifts brought unprecedented changes in the Strategic Planning process in large companies. For many years, there was a structured way of setting up the so-called short, medium, or long-term plans that define the targets and resources required to achieve the ambitions. Lately, however, strategic planning divisions have faced dynamic challenges that brought new ways of working from the original discipline it had maintained for many years. I have had the pleasure of not only working during and after the pandemic to see the evolution of the strategic planning process but also witnessing the true value this agile process brings to the company.

While business plans have helped articulate the operational and financial goals that need to be achieved in the future, recent events since the pandemic have brought unpredictable factors in the assumptions of our business drivers. Rapid changes in industry trends, commodity prices (inflation), and interest rates, for example, require fine-tuning the business plan before it can be endorsed. Using the old planning process, colleagues have raised questions about the validity of the strategic plan and whether it is malleable enough to incorporate changes to reflect the most accurate representation of the business.

To be relevant in this ever-dynamic era, business plans should be more iterative and agile so businesses can adjust their plans quickly. This means a greater emphasis should be placed on resilience and agility as well. We all agree that the winners of the pandemic were companies that could adapt to rapid changes and expected disruptions. Therefore, rather than simply forecasting and planning for a linear future, what changes can we put in place to incorporate resilience and agility? Here are a few takeaways:

• Democratizing the process and co-creating the plan, where inputs come from all levels of the organization. 

• Be comfortable with the uncomfortable. Moving away from the status quo can be painful, but being part of the new process can be exciting. 

• Adopt scenario planning to prepare for different circumstances. Another pandemic could hit, but do we know what needs to be done?

• Don’t be afraid to speak up. In times of uncertainty, you do not have to have all the answers. The more information we have at our disposal, the better decision we can make as a company.