Agile strategic planning methodology

• by Frederic Moreau, Founder, PÖL Digital •

AGILE STRATEGIC PLANNING SET YOUR PLANS IN A FAST CHANGING ENVIRONMENT

• METHODOLOGY & HOW TO START•

Research & strategies in the new economy

SUMMARY

• Introduction to Agile Strategic Planning

• Methodology

• How to get started?

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1 • INTRODUCTION

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TO BEGIN WITH…

THE LAST THING YOU NEED TO START A BUSINESS IS A BUSINESS PLAN

• The only thing you need is a first client that is willing to pay you for the experience you are offering, at a price that generates enough profit margin to sustain your business model (unless you’re a technology startup entrepreneur looking for an exit… but that’s another story).

• Truth is business planning is often time consuming, costly and inadequate in a fast changing environment.

• … But « You're two and a half times more likely to get into business (if you have a business plan) » - Clemson University entrepreneurship professor William B. Gartner - and it is highly recommended to have one in two cases:

- You want to raise money, where it is most likely that investors will ask you for some sort of financial forecasts as a result of a business plan,

- You really want to grow your business, and a business plan will help you and your team figure out the best way to do it.

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SEVERAL SIMPLE AND EFFECTIVE MODELS EXIST TO DEFINE A NEW BUSINESS PROJECT OR TO DESIGN A STRATEGIC PLAN (BUSINESS MODEL CANEVAS, BALANCED SCORECARD, ETC.)

BUT THEY DON’T DELIVER THE PROMISE TO COPE WITH A

FAST CHANGING ENVIRONMENT

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SO THE POINT WITH THE AGILE STRATEGIC PLANNING METHODOLOGY WAS TO DELIVER THE VALUE OF A BUSINESS PLAN MUCH FASTER, AT A MUCH LOWER COST, AND WITH THE CAPACITY TO ANTICIPATE CHANGES AND ADJUST PLANS EASILY AND QUICKLY.

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THE SOLUTION CAME FROM TURNING STRATEGIC PLANNING METHODOLOGIES INTO AGILE

• Accelerating design time frame from 1 to 3 months to 1 to 3 days• Reducing cost range from $15,000 — $30,000 to $900 — $3,600• Delivering an actionable business plan in 4 pages that can be updated easily

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2 • THE AGILE STRATEGIC PLANNING METHODOLOGY

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THE AGILE CONCEPT APPLIED

Vision

Collaboration Anticipation

FastCost-efficientValue driven

Satisfaction focused

Iteration

Iterat

ionIteration

• Agility is the on-going capacity to anticipate, to collaborate, to move on in a coordinated way, with a shared vision, towards a common goal.

THE AGILE ENTERPRISE TRINITY

Leadership agility (Behavior)

Operational agility (Execution)

Strategic agility (Direction)

Do we deliver value?

Where do we go?

How do we make it happen?

The Agile Enterprise

• To turn into agile, an enterprise should activate three agility triggers: its leadership, its operations and projet management, and its strategy. Results will come out from the execution axis, where lies the tangible. Also activating the leadership and the strategy lines will improve tangible results.

• The methodology we are reviewing in this document is about the third axis: strategic agility.

THE AGILE STRATEGIC PLANNING• MODEL OVERVIEW •

• 3 steps or « sprints » to complete 4 templates:

- Business model blueprint

- Market environment analysis

- Agile strategy, action plan and financial plan

YOUR STRATEGIC PLAN BECOMES A 4-PAGE DASHBOARD THAT CAN EASILY BE SHARED, AND UPDATED ONCE YOU’VE

BEEN THROUGH THE INITIAL BUILDING EXPERIENCE

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Your business project & model Your environment analysis Your strategies & key actions Your financial plan

THE INITIAL BUILDING EXPERIENCE IS A 3-STEP PROCESS WHERE THE 4 TEMPLATES ARE COMPLETED AND ALIGNED

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1 2 3

Business model blueprint (template #1)

Market environment analysis (template #2)

Experience completed

Agile strategies & plans

a

Agile strategies (template #3)

b

Financial plan (template #4)

Revisions to align templates

TEMPLATES INTRODUCTION

(CAN BE COMPLETED THROUGH 38 QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED IN 100 MINUTES)

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Agile Strategic Planning by Frederic Moreau is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Attributes-ShareAlike BY Frederic Moreau, PÖL Digital, www.poldigital.com - Attribution CC-BY Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

1/4• BUSINESS MODEL BLUEPRINT (10 QUESTIONS - 20 MINUTES TO COMPLETE THE TEMPLATE)

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• It analyses the 10 key success factors or your business project. The model suggests that, to be successful, you need to be 5 items (left column) and you need to have 5 items (right column).

2/4• MARKET ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS (10 QUESTIONS - 20 MINUTES TO COMPLETE THE TEMPLATE)

Innovation

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• The purpose of this template is to identify the key success factor and the main risk to be addressed by any business willing to enter this market. Then, based on template#1, to identify your project specifics.

• It analyses the 4 main domains of your market environment using a typical SWOT analysis model. However, 2 add ons were introduced: the first one when analyzing the social trends, you will be asked to consider also the notion of user experience available on the market; the second one when analyzing the technological environment, you will be asked to consider also existing systems (tools and technological products or services available on the market).

3/4• AGILE STRATEGY & ACTION PLAN (10 BLOCS OF 4 QUESTIONS - 40 MINUTES TO COMPLETE THE TEMPLATE)

Innovation

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• The model defines a strategy and its related action for the 10 main segments of any business strategy as part of a business planning exercise. (continued next page)…/

3/4• AGILE STRATEGY & ACTION PLAN

THE MODEL SUGGESTS THAT THERE ARE 3 POSSIBLE BUSINESS STRATEGIES, AND THAT THEY ARE INCREMENTAL

To Dominate (or to master)

To Adapt

To Innovate• To Dominate = to do things right

• To Adapt = to change what needs to be changed to remain aligned with the internal and external needs of your environment

• To Innovate = to create a solutionto resolve a pain or obtain a gain, to seizea new opportunity that arises on the market

The completion of the agile strategy follows a process: 1. Define which strategy the best applies to each functional segment of your business. 2. Specify which actions you need to implement to activate these strategies now. 3. Set deadlines to complete each action.4. You are asked whether your decisions are made from your instinct (intuition) or from

facts / measured data (rational).18

3/4• AGILE STRATEGY & ACTION PLAN

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• Example of completed agile strategy

4/4• FINANCIAL PLAN (8 QUESTIONS - 20 MINUTES TO COMPLETE THE TEMPLATE)

Innovation

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• The financial plan begins with the definition of 2 key business objectives:

- Data objective: it will illustrate the volume of « content » that your users should use or consume,

- Traffic objective: it will illustrate your number of users or visits you should generate to obtain a certain number of clients.

• Revenues are calculated based on the average revenue par client.

• Operational expenses will be allocated among different lines of expenses relevant to your case, and will calculate KPIs such as the cost to generate a new client.

• The agile model will focus on designing a simple / high level financial plan. Depending on the level of maturity of your company, an in-depth financial planning exercice shall be run afterwards.

3 • GETTING STARTED

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FREE « DO-IT-YOURSELF » OPTIONS TO AGILE STRATEGIC PLAN

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• Fill in the Agile Strategic Planning templates directly (free) File out the building blocks following the process described in this document.Ask for your free template tool kit at [email protected]

• Email-based advisory session (free) Go to www.poldigital.com and submit a wish for your business project on the home page.You will then begin a Q&A session designed to complete your templates. You will receive 3 professional advises along the process from a consultant.

« ADVISOR-ASSISTED » OPTIONS TO AGILE STRATEGIC PLAN

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• Workshop The in person workshop run by an advisor will walk you through the process of building your agile strategic plan, while providing you with expert advises along the process to optimize your outputs.Further information at [email protected]

• Web+phone advisory session You will be asked to answer a set of questions within a limited time frame on the web, and you will receive the feedback from an advisor by phone to optimize and iterate your outputs at the end of each step.Further information at [email protected]

• 2 to 8 key decision maker participants• Existing market insights and strategy

documents brought at the table• Q&A collaborative session to complete

templates, followed by advisor feedback to challenge and optimize your outputs

• 1 day session format: $1,800• 3 half-day session format: $3,600

• 1 to 6 key decision maker participants• Existing market insights and strategy

documentation with the participants• Online collaborative session to complete

templates, followed by advisor feedback on the phone to challenge and optimize content

• Web+phone session: $900

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FOR ANY SUPPORT OR FURTHER INFORMATION

• Frederic Moreau, PÖL Digital

Montreal, QC, CanadaPhone. +1 514 503-3357 - [email protected]/in/fredericmoreau/

• Stay up to date with PÖL

Agile Strategic Planner (LinkedIn discussion group)Twitter : @polstoriesFacebook: facebook.com/poldigital

Agile strategic planning methodology

Leadership & Management

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