How to get the company's strategic planning off the ground?
Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2025 4:14 am
The development of a company's strategic planning can be compared to preparing for a trip. When we decide to travel, the first big choice to make is the destination, right? Once that's done, the next step is to decide on the means of transportation (car, plane, bus). From then on, the trip planning is broken down into several stages: choosing the hotel, tours, restaurants, etc.
Returning to the business reality, the premise is practically the same as in our example. The starting point for creating strategic planning is to define the organization's mission, that is, what its business is and what it is for. Then comes the definition of the vision: where your business wants to go and, lastly, the values, which are the company's rules of taiwan whatsapp data conduct to achieve the expected results.
Done. With that, the strategic planning process has begun , a step that is usually very well done by companies.
However, it is from this point that the first management and planning challenges begin .
How to get there?
Taking planning off paper and implementing it on a daily basis to reap the expected results is a step that keeps many managers awake at night.
To be successful at this point, it is important for the manager to take into account the analysis of two groups of factors, which can be beneficial or harmful to the business. These are external factors, which refer to what is happening in the market and the economy of the country and the world, and internal factors, based on the strengths and weaknesses of the organization.
With this mapping in hand, it is time to define a business strategy. It is worth remembering that there is no standard formula for this. The best strategy will depend on the context and needs of each organization.
This is where the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) tool makes all the difference and becomes essential to help in the process of enabling strategic planning and management.
Understanding how the BSC can help
First of all, it is important to keep in mind that the BSC is not a planning tool , but rather a strategy execution tool. By way of analogy, the Balanced Scorecard can be compared to a car's dashboard, where you can find all the information you need to drive the vehicle safely. The dashboard tells you the speed of the vehicle, whether it is running low on oil, whether the door is open, whether the handbrake is on, and so on. Based on each piece of information received, you can make a decision. However, having a dashboard does not make a driver a good driver. However, good drivers make decisions based on the correct dashboard.
In business management, the BSC is an excellent tool that allows you to evaluate results monthly and make the most assertive decisions.
However, to have an effective response, it is important to work with the right indicators. Historically, organizations focused their analyses only on financial indicators. Although they are very relevant, analyses are incomplete with these metrics alone. This is because financial indicators usually provide information from the past. Knowing whether the company made a profit in the previous year is no guarantee that the result will be positive this year.
Therefore, what makes the BSC an important tool for decision-making is that it allows you to combine indicators from different dimensions and look at information backwards.
You can analyze financial indicators, customer indicators (customer satisfaction, market share, retention, etc.), internal process indicators (operations, innovation, productivity) and learning and growth indicators (people and IT).
The logic behind these analyses is simple to help with decision-making. In general terms, we can summarize the analysis of these indicators as follows: motivated, qualified people with good tools execute good processes. If the processes work well, the customer is satisfied. A satisfied customer makes new purchases , refers other customers and , consequently, the company presents good financial results .
Another important advantage of the BSC is that, because it is extremely visual, the indicators are placed within a strategic map, which helps to evaluate and monitor the performance of actions and communicate the strategy.
Returning to the business reality, the premise is practically the same as in our example. The starting point for creating strategic planning is to define the organization's mission, that is, what its business is and what it is for. Then comes the definition of the vision: where your business wants to go and, lastly, the values, which are the company's rules of taiwan whatsapp data conduct to achieve the expected results.
Done. With that, the strategic planning process has begun , a step that is usually very well done by companies.
However, it is from this point that the first management and planning challenges begin .
How to get there?
Taking planning off paper and implementing it on a daily basis to reap the expected results is a step that keeps many managers awake at night.
To be successful at this point, it is important for the manager to take into account the analysis of two groups of factors, which can be beneficial or harmful to the business. These are external factors, which refer to what is happening in the market and the economy of the country and the world, and internal factors, based on the strengths and weaknesses of the organization.
With this mapping in hand, it is time to define a business strategy. It is worth remembering that there is no standard formula for this. The best strategy will depend on the context and needs of each organization.
This is where the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) tool makes all the difference and becomes essential to help in the process of enabling strategic planning and management.
Understanding how the BSC can help
First of all, it is important to keep in mind that the BSC is not a planning tool , but rather a strategy execution tool. By way of analogy, the Balanced Scorecard can be compared to a car's dashboard, where you can find all the information you need to drive the vehicle safely. The dashboard tells you the speed of the vehicle, whether it is running low on oil, whether the door is open, whether the handbrake is on, and so on. Based on each piece of information received, you can make a decision. However, having a dashboard does not make a driver a good driver. However, good drivers make decisions based on the correct dashboard.
In business management, the BSC is an excellent tool that allows you to evaluate results monthly and make the most assertive decisions.
However, to have an effective response, it is important to work with the right indicators. Historically, organizations focused their analyses only on financial indicators. Although they are very relevant, analyses are incomplete with these metrics alone. This is because financial indicators usually provide information from the past. Knowing whether the company made a profit in the previous year is no guarantee that the result will be positive this year.
Therefore, what makes the BSC an important tool for decision-making is that it allows you to combine indicators from different dimensions and look at information backwards.
You can analyze financial indicators, customer indicators (customer satisfaction, market share, retention, etc.), internal process indicators (operations, innovation, productivity) and learning and growth indicators (people and IT).
The logic behind these analyses is simple to help with decision-making. In general terms, we can summarize the analysis of these indicators as follows: motivated, qualified people with good tools execute good processes. If the processes work well, the customer is satisfied. A satisfied customer makes new purchases , refers other customers and , consequently, the company presents good financial results .
Another important advantage of the BSC is that, because it is extremely visual, the indicators are placed within a strategic map, which helps to evaluate and monitor the performance of actions and communicate the strategy.