INSIGHT Derek Owen – Totem
“Business teams that focus on clear strategic planning are 4x times more
profitable than those that don’t. “ Derek Owen, CEO - Totem
Seeing the wood from the trees
Many businesses feel that they do enough in terms of planning and then revisiting their plans once a
year. However, very successful businesses who do this regularly are between two to three times more
successful. In this next Health Check instalment, Derek Owen, CEO of Totem talks about Strategic Planning
In a recent strategy workshop
session, a CEO stated,
“we just can’t see the
wood for the trees”. is
is commonplace for many
businesses who are head down
and focused on making it work
and are quite comfortable
with the way they have always
managed their business.
Imagine, how successful
would your business be if once
in a while you took a step back
and took the time to get your
management team together to
review, assess and identify the
key issues aecting your longterm
goals.
If your long-term goals are
just to ‘get through’ each year
by increasing the growth of
your business and providing
an exceptional service to your
clients, then it sounds like
you have a plan that ts your
business ambition. But is this
enough? Business teams that
focus on clear strategic planning
are 4x times more protable
than those that don’t.
e Health Check results
show that there is a small
discrepancy between CEO
results compared to the rest of
their key management team
when it comes to planning. It’s
enough of a dierence to show
that without regular strategic
planning and review the
outcome will impact the bottom
line through unnecessary
expenditure.
So, what’s the answer? It’s
quite simple, get the executive
team and key business
inuencers together for a
planning workshop. If relevant,
include internal and external
stakeholders and perform an
interactive workshop session
that focuses on getting all the
issues out on the table. en
dene which are priority –
naturally at the start everything
is a priority – but take the
time to really dene which are
necessary and will positively
impact the growth of the
business.
From here discuss who is
best placed to lead the drive to
resolve or improve the issue,
ensuring that the rest of the
business fully supports them in
achieving the stated goals.
It sounds simple – but in
practise this takes commitment
to nd the time and, in some
cases, to get past the inertia
that stops businesses doing
something dierent. Use the
strategic planning session to
highlight and iron out any
underlining issues across the
whole management team.
Don’t forget as businesses
grow one of the known barriers
is how the executive board
changes and not all the team
make the nal journey for
a number of reasons. Some
businesses nd this one of the
most dicult internal barriers
to overcome, with a lot of time
spent moving around the issue
rather than facing it head on
and implementing the agreed
decision.
e workshops will highlight
other key issues such as having
the right team and skills in
place for today or determining
when the new skills will be
required to maintain business
growth.
ere are many good reasons
to run a strategic planning
workshop but the key 6 we have
used to help businesses on their
journey are as follows:
• Get everyone on the same
page
• Set direction, goals and
priorities
• Simplify the decision-making
process
• Adapt to the market
conditions
• Map the outcomes to
nancial impact
• Communicate a clear
direction
Ultimately use the workshop
session to align the exec team
on the desired goals, whether
that is maintaining a healthy
growth percentage, to merge
with another business, look
to acquire a new set of skills
or client base or preparing
for a sale, use these sessions
to identify the issues, dene
realistic timescales for resolving,
address the resources needed
and provide clear direction to
the whole business.
Does your company lack ‘Strategic Planning’? take the Totem
Business Health Check online to see where you could improve your
business.
WHERE - https://healthcheck.totemcg.org/
38 | Comms Business Magazine | April 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
/
/www.commsbusiness.co.uk