How are you approaching strategic planning for 2021?

StevenForth
StevenForth Founding Partner | Expert ✭✭✭

It is that time of year again, and many of us are developing our plans for 2021. How are you approaching this?

  • What planning frameworks are you using?
  • What goals are you setting?
  • How will you be measuring goal attainment?
  • What key capabilities will you be developing?
  • How are you preparing for uncertainty?

Answers

  • Carlos Alves
    Carlos Alves TSIA Administrator, Moderator, Founding Member | admin

    we're doing in a shorter period of time this year, but thinking about many changes.

    • framework: not a market one, but containing retrospective (looking at results), where do we wanna go, and how to do it based on processes and people. We're using TSIA papers on Managed Services and CS Organization as reference for structure.
    • CSM goals still the same, with more empashis on generating more pipeline (new commercial opportunities). But NOT with a sales goal.
    • Using the TSIA 8 KPIs for services organization, following them up in different meetings and forums, automatizing dashboards, and monthly reviews.
    • Agile, agile, agile...
    • Establishing a common vision and goals, and then living one day after the other.
  • If we have learnt anything from this year, its that you have to be agile. However as we head into 2021, I think the organizations that will come out ahead will be the ones that are able to successfully balance the shortcomings of agile (allows for quick adaptation) with longer-term strategic planning and investments into capability building. Getting that balance just right is key, but tricky.

  • StevenForth
    StevenForth Founding Partner | Expert ✭✭✭

    Yes, there is a challenge to manage resilience, adaptability and efficiency. 2020 showed we need resilience. Organizations with low resilience will fail before they have time to adapt.

    I wonder if we will see a shift in 2021 from resilience to adaptation.

    I would put this in the context of the Adaptation - Resilience - Efficiency - Resilience - Adaptation ...

    A system of interacting systems will evolve to be resilient at which point the system of systems stabilizes and efficiency is selected for. Efficient systems are fragile and at some point there is an internal or external event that causes recalibration (like Covid). Only the companies that have enough residual resilience survive this. Sometimes the existing order survives, but other times a new cycle of adaptation begins.

    Good strategic planning has to consider all three of these system (company) attributes. You need all three to thrive over time, but you cannot optimize for all three at once. Which will you be optimizing for in 2021?

    My company entered 2020 focussed on efficiency, in March we shifted to resilience, we are now moving towards adaptation.