By Prof. Enrique Soriano
For the last year and a half, hundreds of companies continue to be on the defense because of the influx of unforgiving adversities presented by the pandemic. As most businesses know by now, the lack of preparation and foresight, in a time when massive changes are happening rapidly, can bring a swift yet painful death.
Even if the atmosphere surrounding this health crisis turned into an economic crisis continues to wreak havoc on many economies, the hard realities faced by business owners such as the collapse of demand, the rise in unemployment, changes in psychosocial attitudes and behavior, supply chain interruptions, and the crippling economic recession should still be addressed to ensure the revival of struggling organizations.
A clear direction towards the future which also takes careful consideration of the present situation will help you transition into the much-awaited phase of renewal. To determine the proper course of action that will be followed by your business to effectively enter a period of growth and sustainability, business owners and key leaders must understand the gravity of strategic planning.
Plan Now
The thought of making decisions in the presence of uncertainty can be overwhelming but a solid strategic plan becomes your greatest asset in identifying these uncertainties and in constructing a roadmap that will drive your organization from where you are now to where you want to be. In doing strategic planning, long discussions that revolve around the appropriate allocation and adjustments of limited resources and the needed flexibility of structures and operational systems to function in this new normal are expected to take priority as certain difficult decisions and judgement calls have to be made. Familiar questions about the mission and vision will also be revisited as former solutions might no longer be viable in this ever-changing environment. Key business leaders must learn to quickly adapt and react to ensure that brand new opportunities will be maximized and that operations will not be damaged by the useless pursuit of obsolete ideas and processes. It is time to deep dive on your present structure and introduce a new competitive strategy that can guide the organization to where it wants to be years from now.
It is also important not to downplay and overlook family governance as it is a critical pillar in the company’s goal of staging an impressive comeback. As a matter of fact it should be included in the strategic plan especially since most of the businesses in the country are family-owned. We need to be reminded that no matter how groundbreaking the strategy is, if the people responsible for its implementation fail, then all efforts will be rendered pointless. Now, the most important question we have for you is this: “Is your company prepared enough to plan for your future?
We are still not out of the storm yet and no one has a clear map for sailing through them. It’s clear that scenario planning as an integrating component in strategic planning, should play a critical role this year. The current uncertainty is expected to last for another 2 to 3 years. It is therefore important for companies to consider more variables in addressing this “black swan”. My advice to strategists initiating the planning sessions is to master these five drills: Plan, Communicate, Anticipate, Manage and Measure then go back again as a new COVID strain or variant makes an attempt to wreak havoc on the economy again and again.
Time has shown us that failure to plan means that you’re only inviting the end to come sooner.
