PLANNING

PROCESS 2013

AIESEC in COLOMBIA

INTRODUCTION

Before starting the planning process, remember the TMP/TLP Principles. Why? Because

this is a matter of a team working together to achieve a goal, and if we look at these

principles, we will find that the first and one of the most important elements is to set

clear expectations about the Team Purpose.

Your purpose is your reason for existence.

If you think your team exists to create products, to deliver services or to make money,

you are missing the opportunity to tap into the power of a clear purpose. These questions will help you surface new ways of understanding your work and new possibilities for

moving forward:

What business are you really in?

What is the real value you offer?

What is the end-result that you offer?

The LCP is the final responsible to establish a space with the whole team and guide the

dynamics of the session until getting the team purpose. It is important to invest all the

time needed for this, since the purpose becomes a driver to keep moving forward during

the whole term, helps decision making within the team and gives clarity about how to

work.

As suggested methodology, the LCP can split the team in 3 working groups to discuss

each of the questions and come up with a proposal. Then, discuss each proposal within

the whole team until getting to a common agreement, and finally translating those

answers into powerful sentences that will define the Team Purpose.

For more information, go to this link: http://seapointcenter.com/identify-team-purpose/

PLANNING PROCESS

The planning process is a flow that starts with our BHAG and strategy, and ends with the

operational planning, which allows us to make a plan focused on the delivery of our MoS

(Measures of Success = ELD Programs Realizations). Please, during the whole

process, remember to have the ELD Programs as the main discussion point.

1) BSC: Indicators review & historical analysis.

The BSC in Colombia

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a strategic planning and management system used to

align business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization, improve internal

and external communications, and monitor organizational performance against strategic

goals. The chart below shows the logic behind the BSC:

In AIESEC in Colombia we use this tool to track and review 2015 strategy and guarantee

national alignment. That is why the quarter reports and planning process are based on

this methodology

The Strategic Objectives that conform our Strategy Map (as the figure 1 shows), were

defined based on the AIESEC in Colombia’s Roadmap to 2015 (hereafter: understood as

strategic themes or strategic lines), aiming to get closer to our BHAG.

Figure1.

According to the logic of the BSC, the strategic objectives have some measurements

(KPI – Key Performance Indicators) with specific targets (Goals), and also strategic

initiatives to achieve them (which are elaborated by each entity). Under this, there is

the operative planning of each LC, as seen in the figure 2:

Figure 2.

HOW TO START?

1. Check and understand each KPI in the format.

2. Fill the blanks with the correct data until the current year.

3. Write down comments (related to the context of the numbers you put, since the

description/explanation of that number is telling us why such indicator behaved as

the number shows – a number itself does not say anything).

The tool to do this is the EXCEL format:

Regarding the indicators, let’s explore them a little bit:

# realizations (exchange experiences delivered): this is the realization number

per year in each program (IGIP, IGCDP, OGCDP, OGIP)

# Team Leader realizations (Team Leadership experiences completed): this is

the realization number per year of team leader program.

# Team Member realizations (Team Member experiences completed): this is

the realization number per year of team member program.

# Raised (TN): this is the number of TN raised per year (for IGCDP and IGIP)

# New cooperation agreements: this is the number of cooperation agreements

signed with entities (although they have not risen forms, but support in kind or

knowledge, e.g. universities)

# Re-Raised (TN): this is the number of TN raised by the second time for IGCDP,

IGIP.

Overall Net Promoter Score of the organization (% closed cases):this is the

percentage of closed cases.

% of investments covered by operational revenues: of the total of investments

of the LC which percentage was covered by operational revenues.

# Months of reserves: what is the number of months the LC has with financial

reserves.

# Universities: this is the number of universities we reached and worked with

them.

# Faculties: this is the number of faculties we reached and worked with them.

% members per Faculties: this is the percentage of members that come from each

of the faculties we reach

# market researches: This is the number of market researches in general

(particularly to understand the local market: students, allies etc.)

# new products: this is the number of products that have been developed by the

entity or implemented from the MC (including each program/area).

Average days to raise a form: average of days that takes a form to raise after we

agree to do it (IGIP, IGCDP, OGCDP, OGIP).

Average days to match a form: average of days that takes a form to match (IGIP,

IGCDP, OGCDP, OGIP).

Retention rate (%): of the total members what was the retention rate of the year.

# LEC executed (over the planed this year): this is the number of local education

cycle activities executed according to the planed that year.

# LDP activities executed (over the planed this year): this is the number of

leadership development programs executed according to the planed that year.

% membership participation in education activities: of the total number of

members which is the percentage of them participating in education activities in that

year.

% activity in PODIO spaces: just for 2012.

2) Internal and External analysis.

We must assess (internal and external assessment) our current situation, and then

analyze it (strategic analysis) from different perspectives.

2.1) Internal assessment.

When looking at the inside of our entities, we must analyze the current situation of the

two main resources that AIESEC has as organization: human resources and financial

resources.

Human Resources analysis:

It is required to make a membership pipeline review, going through each single member

in the LC and evaluating the following criteria per each:

Member Performance Capacities

Pepe

Which level (%) of performance does Pepe have?

(according to the performance evaluation made in the

LC)

Which skills does

Pepe have? What is Pepe good

at?

With this information we should know:

- Which members are high, medium and low performers?

- What decisions we must make regarding the medium and low performers?

As outcome we are going to have the exact quantity and quality of human resources that

we can count with to begin the next term.

Financial Resources analysis:

Regarding finances, we must be clear on some specific indicators that will let us know

which are our financial restrictions to start operating and executing the strategic

initiatives for the next term, and so it allows us to make proper decisions about how to

spend and invest.

The indicators are:

- Amount of money in the Local Operative Fund.

- # of months of operations that can be covered with the Local Operative Fund.

- Accounts receivable.

As outcome we are going to know exactly how much money we can count on in cash and

in the bank account to start executing our plan.

The outcomes from both analyses will be the main inputs to develop your operative

planning at the end of this process.

2.2) External assessment.

Our entities are part of an environment that influences it. Environment is defined as all

external factors that an organization cannot control, and that highly influence the success

of our strategy. We can assess the environment in a generic way and a specific way.

2.2.1) Generic Assessment: it refers to analyze tendencies in the environment

related to themes such as politics, economics, legality, sociocultural,

technological, and others; that can influence the ELD programs delivery of our

entity. If you want to implement a specific methodology for this assessment, the

PEST analysis can be a good tool: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_09.htm

(Remember you should adapt it, not all factors in the PEST analysis may influence an AIESEC Local

Committee).

2.2.2) Specific Assessment: it refers to analyze the different stakeholders that have

to do with the ELD programs delivery at some point. It includes our clients

(students and organizations), supporters, enablers, our competition, etc. The

suggested methodology for this assessment is the implementation of the

Empathy Map analysis (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMN7vkE4csg), which helps us

understand the behaviors and perspectives of each stakeholder.

2.3) Strategic analysis

Data itself is not enough to help us create a proper plan. We need to make deep analyses

in order to come out with intelligent conclusions that will lead us to establish effective

strategies. Two methodologies are suggested, however LCs are completely autonomous

about how to do it, just guide discussions always focused on ELD programs delivery (and

not so much in support strategies):

- SWOT Analysis: this technique combines both internal and external factors to

obtain an overall picture of the entity and to make strong conclusions. It identifies

4 main aspects:

Strengths: internal factors of the organization that may influence in a positive way.

Weaknesses: internal factors of the organization that may influence in a negative

way.

Opportunities: external situations that may influence in a positive way the

development of the organization.

Threats: external situations that may influence in a negative way the development

of the organization.

Then, by doing crossed analysis we can define initial inputs for our planning process:

Threats Opportunities

Strengths Defensive initiatives:

usage of strengths to

avoid threats.

Offensive initiatives:

usage of strengths to

take advantage of opportunities.

Weaknesses Survival initiatives:

reduce weaknesses

and avoid threats.

Reordering initiatives:

overcome weaknesses

by taking advantage of opportunities.

- Organizational Octagon: it’s a tool that assesses the strengths and weaknesses

of an organization, and allows identifying the necessary actions to make work more

efficient.

It evaluates 4 variables in a systemic way: organizational basis, organization activities,

organization capacity and organization relations.

For a complete explanation and tools provided go to this link:

http://books.google.com.co/books?id=r_H3dpKH5kMC&pg=PA89&lpg=PA89&dq=octagono+organizacional&source=bl&o

ts=AaMS2BjFTl&sig=M8H3-

6v6JWPrpdeKy7qzBz7UhS4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ByCSULXtI5H29gSMjIHoCQ&ved=0CEoQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=octagono%

20organizacional&f=false.

3) Goals Setting (MoS, KPI’s).

Accordingly to what is mentioned in the beginning, the EB team has to define which is

going to be their focus exchange program for the term.

Why do we need to focus?

- Because we have limited resources in one year.

- Because we must have a long-term picture in mind to develop all of our programs

in a smart way according to their Product Life Cycle stage, taking into account

that we cannot pretend that all programs evolve at the same rhythm in the short-

term (during one year).

The Product Life Cycle is a marketing theory that describes the stages that any product

will pass through since it is developed and launched to the market, until it is finally

removed from the market, or improved in order to keep the market share. For more info:

http://www.netmba.com/marketing/product/lifecycle/.

To do this in a proper way, take into account the following steps:

Start by modeling the possible MoS goals for the next term and for 2014 and 2015

(realizations in the ELD Programs – “The way we do it” perspective in the BSC), use

the tool GOAL SETTING to do so, and follow this steps:

- Review the percentages of growth that the local committee has had in the ELD

Programs during the past years and calculate the overall percentage. Then, multiply

the overall percentage of growth in the past years with the results in 2012, this

data shows what the LC should be capable to perform next year.

- On the other hand, set with the team the ambition that the LC has regarding each

program for the next term taking into account: which program should overcome

stages according to the Product Life Cycle (to know this, check the specific

KPIs of each program), and by establishing a certain percentage of contribution

to the national ELD goals (defined in the Roadmap to 2015). This data determines

which programs will have to be challenged the most in the next year.

- The team must agree on which is the exchange program that will be the focus for

next year because based on that the operative planning of the whole team must

include it as a priority. To speed-up the decision, prioritize the programs according

to the “Impact-Feasibility”, which will help the team answer the next questions for

each program:

Has the program already reached a high level of impact? Or it still needs

more effort to have a bigger impact? (by Impact, we refer to the quantity of

realizations in 2012).

How feasible is it to run the program? (by Feasibility, we mean the

complexity to run the program).

The answers to these two questions help the team decide which will be the

focus program.

- Once this decision is made, the next outcome is to set the first draft of what the

MoS goals (realizations in ELD Programs) for the next year should be in the GOAL

SETTING tool, and what growth percentages each program will have.

Once the team has defined the goals for the MoS and which are the focus programs

according to the expected growth, the next step is to set goals for each KPI in all

the strategic objectives from the other perspectives of the BSC. Take into account

the cause-effect connections among the strategic objectives: if the LC wants to

achieve X ELD realizations in the first perspective, it determines what should be the

goal in other KPIs from the rest of perspectives in order to achieve it.

4) Strategic Initiatives.

At this point, the team has already defined:

- The exchange program that will be the focus for the next term.

- The goals for the MoS in the next term (ELD programs realizations).

- The goals for all the KPIs in each strategic objective of the BSC for the next term.

The next step is to define specific strategic initiatives to achieve those goals.

First of all, we need to understand the difference between “Back Office strategies” and

“Front Office strategies”.

- Back office is related to the support strategies such as: brand positioning,

education, financial sustainability, knowledge information, etc.

- Front office is related to direct strategies that impact on the delivery of the

program such as: sales force enhancement, delivery efficiency, showcasing impact,

etc.

Now, there has to be both kind of strategies to support the achievement of the focus

program already defined. It means that the LCP has to guarantee that the whole planning

is oriented to this, and all individual plans from each VP has to include either back office

or front office strategies to boost the focus program.

During the discussions within the team to define this, as leader the LCP must guarantee

two things:

- Challenge ideas, not people. We want to have the BEST strategies, so the

challenge is: are those ideas the best ideas? Can they be even better? Some

insights:

You should encourage comments and suggestions, and hand them out to your coworkers.

Ideas are often improved by challenging them, but you must take care in how the idea is

challenged.

There is a distinct difference between challenging the idea itself and challenging the person

who presented the idea. Phrasing a challenge that criticizes the person rather than focuses

on the idea creates animosity and leads nowhere.

Managers need to create an atmosphere in which people are free to challenge ideas and in

which individuals are receptive to feedback.

- Validate the strategies. Each strategy proposed must fulfill the next parameters:

Alignment with the AIESEC in Colombia’s Roadmap to 2015.

Alignment to the national focus areas.

Transversality: must encourage working in synergy. It’s not about one

strategy in one area, it’s about one strategic initiative executed by several

areas according to the synergies needed.

Consistency with the assessments and analysis done in the step 2 (Internal

and External analysis).

It’s important to take decisions as a team regarding the strategies. According to the

complexity of the EB team and their internal decision making process, two methodologies

are suggested for this:

Case 1 – Simple decision making: for every strategy, answer the next questions

and decide if it is suitable or not in the plan for the next term:

- Is there a better way to fulfill the goals proposed?

- What are we better trained at?

- Is it going to be acceptable for the members?

- Is it consistent with the environment analysis?

- Is it related to the organization’s objectives?

- Which risks does it implicate?

- Does it take advantage of opportunities and strengths, and avoids weaknesses and

threats?

Case 2 – Complex decision making: use of a multi-criteria decision system. It

helps evaluate each strategy according to specific criteria, as follows:

- First, the team has to agree about the criteria that will be used to take the

decisions. There are three possible criteria

suggested (the team can add more):

Consistency criteria: it’s about analyzing how the strategy can fit the internal

and external diagnosis, how it faces the identified difficulties, how it takes

advantage of strengths and opportunities, and how it suits with the mission

and vision.

Feasibility criteria: it’s about analyzing the operation of the strategy, trying to

meet the possibilities of implementing it, resources availability, capabilities,

etc. Answer the question: can the strategy be implemented with the current

resources (human and finances) and capabilities?

Acceptability criteria: it’s about evaluating if the consequences of the strategy

are acceptable or not for the organization (in terms of sustainability, values,

etc.). Usually criteria such as: benefits that it contributes, what is the cost-

benefit effect, the risks implications, reactions from stakeholders, etc.

- Second, not all criteria have the same relevance; it is needed to prioritize which

are the most determinant criteria.

- Third, the system must reflect the levels of relevance (weight). To do so, each

criterion must be assigned a percentage from 0% to 100%, until completing the

100% with the sum of all criteria.

- Fourth, as well, it is needed to set a rank of punctuation for the strategies,

normally in a scale from 1 to 10.

- Fifth, for all strategies proposed, the team makes the evaluation assigning the

punctuation.

- Sixth, the punctuation is multiplied then by the percentage of relevance in the

specific criteria.

- Seventh, sum up the punctuation weighted in each criterion for each strategy.

- Eighth, the strategy with the highest score in the weighted punctuations is the

most proper one.

The next chart can be useful for this:

Criteria Strategy 1 Strategy 2 Strategy 3 Strategy 4

Criterion Weight

value

Direct

Punctuation

Weighted

Punctuation

Direct

Punctuation

Weighted

Punctuation

Direct

Punctuation

Weighted

Punctuation

Direct

Punctuation

Weighted

Punctuation

Criterion

1 30% 5 1,5

Criterion 2

40% ... …

… … …

Criterion

N 10% … …

TOTAL

VALUE … …

5) Review of Strategic Objectives by each area.

At this point, there is a clear focus program supported by back office and front office

strategies, as well as the goals for the MoS and KPIs in each strategic objective of the

BSC.

Now we must guarantee that each area has clarity about what are the strategic

objectives in the BSC that they are impacting directly, and what is the specific

contribution for them. This will help the team’s performance tracking when analyzing the

BSC execution, since we will know who is the direct responsible to impact on a specific

strategic objective.

After this we open the door to the operational planning!

6) Operational Planning.

The final step is to translate all the strategic initiatives into daily operations.

Activities:

- Each strategic initiative is composed by several activities.

- Each activity has a direct responsible who will execute it.

- Each activity is impacting one strategic objective of the BSC.

- Each activity has a deadline to be executed.

Standards of performance:

- Each operation area (TM, iGCDP, oGCDP, iGIP, oGIP) has specific KPIs that help

evaluate their constant efficiency.

- Each KPI should have a standard defined (e.g. # of sales meetings per week = 10).

- Each standard should be tracked monthly, weekly and sometimes even daily.

Budget:

- The execution of most of the activities has a cost.

- If you don’t make a conscious and proper budgeting of the operative planning,

probably you will face problems to execute all you planned during the year.

It’s up to the EB the format they want to use to make this plan, and how specific they

want it to be. However, we have a basic suggested format for the LCs that want to

implement.

No matter which format you use, remember that it is part of the LCP’s MoF to track the

whole strategic planning and the operative planning in a determined periodicity:

- Quarter reviews.

- Monthly reviews.

- Weekly EB Meetings.

- Daily calls and mails.

Finally, have clear expectations on the process:

- Our suggestion is to have the first 5 steps done before NPM,

and do the 6th step (operative planning) after NPM. However,

you are free to manage the process.

- During NPM you will collect feedbacks to your planning, as well

as you will align your planning to the national focus strategies,

so please be flexible and open enough to take the most out of

this conference.

Hoping you enjoy your planning process,

The LCD Team 12.13 of AIESEC in Colombia – MC BOOST.

Information for resource point (Annexes):

What is the Balanced Scorecard?

The balanced scorecard is a strategic planning and management system used to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization, improve internal and

external communications, and monitor organizational performance against strategic

goals.

t was originated by Drs. Robert Kaplan (Harvard Business School) and David Norton as a

performance measurement framework that added strategic non-financial performance

measures to traditional financial metrics to give managers and executives a more 'balanced' view of organizational performance. While the phrase balanced scorecard was

coined in the early 1990s, the roots of the this type of approach are deep, and include

the pioneering work of General Electric on performance measurement reporting in the

1950’s and the work of French process engineers (who created the Tableau de Bord – literally, a "dashboard" of performance measures) in the early part of the 20th century.

The balanced scorecard has evolved from its early use as a simple performance measurement framework to a full strategic planning and management system. The “new”

balanced scorecard transforms an organization’s strategic plan from an attractive but

passive document into the "marching orders" for the organization on a daily basis. It

provides a framework that not only provides performance measurements, but helps

planners identify what should be done and measured. It enables executives to truly

execute their strategies.

This new approach to strategic management was first detailed in a series of articles and books by Drs. Kaplan and Norton. Recognizing some of the weaknesses and vagueness of

previous management approaches, the balanced scorecard approach provides a clear

prescription as to what companies should measure in order to 'balance' the financial

perspective. The balanced scorecard is a management system (not only a measurement system) that enables organizations to clarify their vision and strategy and translate them

into action. It provides feedback around both the internal business processes and

external outcomes in order to continuously improve strategic performance and results.

When fully deployed, the balanced scorecard transforms strategic planning from an

academic exercise into the nerve center of an enterprise.

(Source: balanced score card institute)

Perspectives

The balanced scorecard suggests that we view the organization from four perspectives,

and to develop metrics, collect data and analyze it relative to each of these perspectives:

The Learning & Growth Perspective

This perspective includes employee training and corporate cultural attitudes related to both individual and corporate self-improvement. In a knowledge-worker organization,

people -- the only repository of knowledge -- are the main resource. In the current

climate of rapid technological change, it is becoming necessary for knowledge workers to

be in a continuous learning mode. Metrics can be put into place to guide managers in focusing training funds where they can help the most. In any case, learning and growth

constitute the essential foundation for success of any knowledge-worker organization.

Kaplan and Norton emphasize that 'learning' is more than 'training'; it also includes

things like mentors and tutors within the organization, as well as that ease of

communication among workers that allows them to readily get help on a problem when it

is needed. It also includes technological tools; what the Baldrige criteria call "high

performance work systems."

The Business Process Perspective

This perspective refers to internal business processes. Metrics based on this perspective

allow the managers to know how well their business is running, and whether its products

and services conform to customer requirements (the mission). These metrics have to be

carefully designed by those who know these processes most intimately; with our unique

missions these are not something that can be developed by outside consultants.

The Customer Perspective Recent management philosophy has shown an increasing realization of the importance of

customer focus and customer satisfaction in any business. These are leading indicators: if

customers are not satisfied, they will eventually find other suppliers that will meet their

needs. Poor performance from this perspective is thus a leading indicator of future

decline, even though the current financial picture may look good.

In developing metrics for satisfaction, customers should be analyzed in terms of kinds of customers and the kinds of processes for which we are providing a product or service to

those customer groups.

The Financial Perspective

Kaplan and Norton do not disregard the traditional need for financial data. Timely and

accurate funding data will always be a priority, and managers will do whatever necessary

to provide it. In fact, often there is more than enough handling and processing of financial data. With the implementation of a corporate database, it is hoped that more of

the processing can be centralized and automated. But the point is that the current

emphasis on financials leads to the "unbalanced" situation with regard to other

perspectives. There is perhaps a need to include additional financial-related data, such

as risk assessment and cost-benefit data, in this category.

Strategy Mapping

Strategy maps are communication tools used to tell a story of how value is created for the organization. They show a logical, step-by-step connection between strategic

objectives (shown as squares on the map) in the form of a cause-and-effect

chain. Generally speaking, improving performance in the objectives found in the

Learning & Growth perspective (the bottom row) enables the organization to improve its Internal Process perspective Objectives (the next row up), which in turn enables the

organization to create desirable results in the Customer and Financial perspectives (the

top two rows).

For more information about BSC: http://www.balancedscorecard.org