What the… is your business about? Demystifying strategic planning

by
engage consulting group
September 12, 2019

You meet a new person and they ask you 'what do you do', or 'what business are you in'? And then a plethora of words roll out disjointed and verbose demonstrating a vague generic set of things, you just want someone to save you but it is too late you are lost and so are they.

You may be one of the lucky ones who has a clear articulate concise business plan down pat – that’s great! However, if you’re like most of us and want to get more clarity about why your business, division or team exits, let’s get focused.

In our last Blog we shared with you the continuum of planning from doing nothing to planning everything that moves. Our engagePlanning process is designed to get the best out of business planning practices and then adapt it for your world.

engagePlanning enables businesses to stop, reflect, analyse and plan their future.

In this article, we are going to explore the Core Focus section of our engagePlanning approach, as shown in the engagePlanning diagram below.

The Core Focus

The first part of the engagePlanning process involves understanding your core focus - the why, what and how of the business. Having laser focus on where you’re going and why you exist is essential for success. Here are 3 steps to help you practically apply strategic thinking and develop key elements in your own strategic plan:

Step 1. Articulate the 'Why'

In this life we have many options available to us in terms of who we want to be and what we can do and achieve. Be conscious and mindful about whom you choose to be and do what you do. We need more mindful considered leaders. We need Leaders who can create a vision of a better future. We need to have a purpose that motivates us to get out of bed and dedicate our lives to.  Extraordinary lives are those where people are fully present and committed to their purpose, play to their strengths and are cognizant of the impact of their actions.

One successful social enterprise, Thankyou, that we support has an IMPACT scorecard in the middle of their office. The IMPACT scorecard measures every single life they have improved. Thankyou’s why is very clear - to eradicate poverty.

When we reflected on our own why – why does engage consulting group exist, what is our purpose, we had a lot of robust conversations. Our vision is to ‘be the company people come to for inspiration and innovation’ and our purpose is to ‘help people and businesses be all they can be’. We love seeing people and businesses grow to reach their full potential in a sustainable way.

Ask yourself the following questions to help uncover your 'Why', your purpose:

  • Why does your business/division/team exist?
  • Why this business?
  • What impact will you make in the world?
  • What legacy do you want to create?
  • What is your purpose?

Keep asking yourself these questions until you get to the core essence of your business.  Less is more, no one wants to hear or read a long wordy vision.

Use less words. Use images. Create your own language if you need to.

Use your head, heart and gut in creating your why and when you get to the core, you will know it. It will just flow and you will be able to share it with ease.

Step 2. Articulate the What

Once you have a clear Vision and Purpose articulating the ‘What’ becomes easier. The ‘What’ can be described in a mission and is a description of your core business. What product/service will you actually create, what does value look like?

Our business has evolved considerably over the last 18 years. We started out as an online survey company then pivoted to become a management consulting company. We dabbled in the financial planning industry and had a very successful IT professional services business. Now we are a strategic advisory company. The core value that we create is knowledge and growth.

Ask yourself the following questions to help uncover your ‘What – Core’ business:

  • What do you create?
  • What value do you deliver?
  • What outputs and outcomes do you create?
  • What do you need to do to ensure your vision comes to fruition?
  • What are your goals?

Keep asking yourself these questions until you get to 3 very clear products/services that you can deliver. Why 3? Well it’s a magic number – everyone can remember 3 things.

Step 3:  Articulate the How

Once you know the why and what of your business/division/team it’s easier to articulate the How. Consider the following questions to help you uncover your 'How':

  • What culture do you want?
  • How do you want to behave – what behaviours are important to you?
  • What experience do you want your people, customers, suppliers and stakeholders to have when working with you?
  • What is most important in how we work in this team?
  • How does it feel to work in your business/division/team?
  • What do you care about?

How you behave can be reflected in the business/division/team values. Values are set of rules and are reinforced by a complimentary set of behaviours.

Values need to support the effective implementation of the Vision and Goals.

Our values are LIFT – Learning, Innovation, Fun and Trust. These are core to how we work with all our stakeholders. They enable us to deliver on our Vision and Purpose.  

So going back to our opening question… What do you do?  

To help you create your own strategic plan, clarify and articulate your Core Focus.  See what you come up with. And remember less is more.

In our next blog, we will explore the practical application of engagePlanning’s ‘Analysis & Review’. This process helps you to first understand the competitive environment and then provides a framework that helps you identify the best options for success.

Contact us if you would like any feedback or support with articulating your Core Focus.

Be all you can be!

More news

Engage consulting group creates long-term trusting relationships with our clients

Women - Victims or Victors

by
Sarina Sorrenti
read more

Finding light in the darkness

by
Sarina Sorrenti
read more

How does your business compare? Demystifying strategic planning

by
engage consulting group
read more
View ALL
engage consulting group partners with business leaders to provide strategic advice and practical tools to support individual and business growth.
learn more

What we do

Strategic Advisory

Achieve sustainable growth with high calibre strategic advisors, mentors and executive coaches

learn more

Executive Coaching

Executive coaching services for career advancement, leadership development and performance coaching

learn more

IT Professional Services

Professional expertise to help you build and run world class IT systems

learn more

Testimonials

Since Sam joined the board at CartonCloud in the capacity of company secretary, he has contributed significantly to the strategic direction of the company while placing us on a path to better governance. He has been instrumental in CartonCloud securing large government funding which will take CartonCloud to the next level in terms of our software functionality and capability. I have gained from Sam’s vast business experience and is the consummate professional in his dealings with me and the broader CartonCloud team.

Carton Cloud

Telstra engaged Sam and his company to provide IT Professional Services. He regularly engaged high quality IT contractors that successfully completed many projects. Sam was great to work with, always professional and willing to learn and adapt in a continually changing environment. Extremely customer focused. I would recommend Sam to anyone looking to find high quality IT professionals.

Senior Vendor Manager, Telstra

Sam and I worked on a major client project that involved building a new information security service that was offered to the client’s large customer base. While I was responsible for the overall solutions architecture for security service, I worked closely with Sam as he selected and managed key project and technical resources. Sam demonstrated a high level of skill, diligence and care when it came to working with the client to understand their needs, building the team and dealing with issues.

Information Security Professional, Telstra

Sam is a complete professional in all aspects of his work and is driven by delivering the best possible results for his clients. Sam's customer focus approach and attention to detail ensure that outcomes exceed expectations.

Pacific Wireless Communications

Contact Us

Have a question or would like to find out more about how we can help you? Just fill out your details below and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.