What I Do

In strategic planning you need your very best thinkers in the room. It needs to be a bold process. It needs to be very tightly focused. It can’t be a process of ‘we have to do’ but rather one that ‘we want to do.’ Process is important of course, but in my experience be wary of process being more important than meaningful outcomes and actual achievements.

My experience with strategic planning has been quite varied – from participating as a senior management employee as a plan designer (McDonald’s 3-1-2 strategic plan model, identified as 3 year vision outreach, annual (1 year) review and 2 month progress check in against goals) to facilitation, (UBC Sauder School of business faculty team) and Rocky Mountain Railway (envisioning sessions) to participation as a Board Governor for seven years (Glenlyon Norfolk School).

I was also very involved in the leadership team of communication company DDB, annual planning as Managing Director for the company. Our team’s collective focus on a very tightly defined objective of being ‘the highest, quantitatively ranked communication company in Canada’ played out with us achieving this ranking for seven straight consecutive years. This particular plan, execution and outcome was not without a bumpy and challenging road. It cost a lot of money in award show entries, it meant a lot of personnel changes – the loss of some clients, but the gain of many others. But we achieved our plan and became a well-recognized creative powerhouse in Canada. It was a remarkable experience, our confidence grew enormously and we got asked to pitch a lot of business. And we won more than our fair share of it. The top creative ranking for DDB in Canada created a halo for the organization and attracted a multitude of young and up-and-coming talent. DDB stood out for one thing – creative horsepower.

Brand strategy as part of business strategy or strategic planning? What’s that all about? In addition to a lot of facilitation, I have led many brand planning sessions. Those sessions are often focused on self-discovery of value, purpose and differentiation. For many years I have told clients that the definition of brand is, from the inside the organization, ‘A promise of value,’ and to the external audience ‘a collection of expectations.’ I don’t really know how to put it better.

So what does this have to do with strategic planning? Well rather a lot really. I read years ago in Harvard Business Review that companies are only made up of three things – resources, processes and values. That’s it. So how do we make sure that all of this is aligned and optimized? How do we ensure that brand and business strategy are inextricably linked?

Whenever I have done a brand session (which process always starts with lots of solid discovery work), we end up with the over-arching sustainable competitive advantage for the product or service supported by the pillars of differentiation – which are then delivered by all departments within an organization. To me the key is the visioning proposition – which is then supported by the strategic plan of execution of making that happen. That’s when you can clearly look at Michael Watkins’ six disciplines as a framework to ensure that you have the systems, resources and processes in place to execute on the vision for the future.