Do you approach your Business Strategy as Arnold Schwarzenegger approached his personal goals in life?

Rule one – There is only Plan A, there is no Plan B.

In other words, once you have agreed on and set in motion your organisational Strategy and
its corresponding goals and KPI’s, let’s say for at least the next 12 months, you cannot
entertain doubts and excuses that perhaps the team is not going to realise the goals and the
strategy for this assigned period. Thoughts such as, if this strategy with its goals and KPI’s,
does not work out, we will be satisfied with another result!

Arnold said he never entertained Plan B. The moment Plan B creeps up into your mind and
you start thinking that, well, maybe my goals were over ambitious, perhaps, I should not be
aiming so high. The moment you let that pesky little voice in your head get the upper hand,
guess what, you are on the path to Plan B, Plan A is no longer your number one focus. In
other words, you will not achieve Plan A.

How does this apply in a practical sense in the business environment? Here is an extract
with some additional comments, which I have included from my recent book.

Rule two – Only the Management Board is allowed to verify and amend the Strategy
mid-year.

Clearly, its is the responsibility of the Leadership Team of any organisation to always be
looking out for changes in the external environment which can affect the organisation. There
are four stages to the development of an organisation. Top management is responsible for
aiming for and building a progressive organisation. Good practice is to hold an off-site one
day workshop, once every six months. The role of the leadership team is to be looking ahead
to see what could derail or seriously negatively impact the business. The Operational
managers should be focused on the daily and weekly tasks which will deliver the monthly
goals. Bring an experienced business consultant as moderator from outside the business to
support the team in their thinking.

Rule three – Is your Management Board objective enough in how it is supporting the
employees in driving forward the strategy!

Do you find that your Management Board is full of Yes people or perhaps it is dominated by
one person, the CEO or the Owner of the business!. This is not a good sign. The
Management Board is as good as its ability to have open and challenging dialogue, which
include wisdom, humility and discernment. It is fine to have vision, determination, courage
and be assertive but every coin has two sides. You need the full skill set to run a business
successfully and in a sustainable manner today.

The Management Board can be a stressful and lonely place that is why I recommend some
of the following options. Where there is a Supervisory board, bring the two teams together to
discuss the Strategy, the miles stones, goals and KPI’s. I have developed a dedicated short
intensive programme for Supervisory Board members, it’s called “How to develop a
professional Supervisor Board”. This type of meeting should be held once every three
months where things are going well, and more often when the business is unstable or
struggling in some way. Where there is family investor, invite the Management Board and the
Family Committee to discuss things.

Rule four – The Key Daily Management Practice of the Management Board is to
support the operational managers in realising their business goals.

I truly believe that this point is extremely important and often misunderstood in today’s
business environment. As perhaps you may know, I was trained and developed at Toyota
UK. We were taught that the higher you are up in the organisational tree, the more you are
responsible in supporting, developing and coaching your direct line reporting team members.

Delivering the business goals, in line with the strategy, supported by the organisational
values and beliefs is the job of every leader, from CEO to shift leader. The ability to deliver
business results by developing people on solving problems brings huge benefits for
employees, the business and its clients. Spend time at the place of work, Genba (in
Japanese) with your employees. Use visual management and problem solving tools and
show with sincerity and respect that you are there to support them in becoming more self-
reliant and engaged in what they do.

Rule five – Designing the business strategy is no easy task, but the real work comes in
implementing the goals of the strategy.

Every good organisation, whether it be a manufacturing business, a service driven
organisation, a government department or educational institution, needs to set it strategic
goals using the five KPI’s which have the international acronym SPQDC. For more details on
SPQDC, contact me for more details or find out more by visiting me on Linedin.com or on llw-
institute.com.

Rule six – The Strategy need not be complicated.
Your strategy should be simple and clear to everyone. For example, Our strategy for this year
is to focus on delivering quality and delivering our products and services on time to the client.
This can then be backed up by specific strategic KPI’s such as; Quality on product range xx
to be no less than 97% right first time with rework reduced by 3%. The delivery on product
range yy to be 98% on time for all our clients.

Where our strategy is more developed, let’s say it has eight main components such as these;
quality, delivery, employee engagement, safety, costs, innovation, continuous improvement,
environment, needs to have one or two Key Performance Indicators – KPI attached to each
branch of the strategy. You also need to consider who, how and when these strategic
elements will be implemented. Cascading the strategic KPI is important for operational
managers. A good strategy is to use the SPQDC acronym for all performance indicators.

Rule 7 – The Hosin kanri method of setting up and implementing the strategy.

Do not treat the Hosin Kanri as an Excel exercise. This will only frustrate senior management
and you will soon find you are implementing Plan B, not Plan A. All too often organisations
spend time and money on designing a strategy, goals, KPI and organisational values only to
find that the actual doing, the implementation takes a lot longer and hits road-blocks along
the way. Use common sense, discernment and wisdom in how you approach the
implementation stage. One piece of advice is to hold monthly or quarterly mile stone
meetings with the Management Board and Directors, I call these Quality Gaye meetings, to
demonstrate were are we, what we have achieved, what we are working on and discuss next
key action point steps.

I hope you have found these 7 points useful. Remember, the organisational strategy is your
Plan A, focus on delivering Plan A and don’t get into the habit of thinking about Plan B.

Good luck in designing and implementing your strategic deployment policy for 2025 and beyond.
I welcome your comments and feedback.

Contributor: Mark Forkun