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The Case for Bringing Outside Planning Consultants In
| Guest post by: Joe Evans |
Article Overview: Internal strategic planners clearly have their place in the corporate planning process. The deep insight and internal understanding of the inside strategists are hard to replace. Yet, with inside knowledge comes the side effects of political swaying, less objectivity, and “planning as usual.” Many of today’s successful organizations effectively combine an internal view with an external view to bring about a holistic approach to planning.
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Free Download - How Well Do You Understand Your Organization’s Core Competencies? By Joe Evans |
The Case for Bringing Outside Planning Consultants In
An internal corporate strategic planning team can bring significant
benefits to its organization. The awareness and understanding internal
teams bring to the table mean that they can deliver strategic and
operational plans that have the following advantages:
- They are based on the organization’s proven ability to deliver.
- They are optimized for the company’s political environment.
- They leverage the core competencies of the organization.
- They take into account corporate culture.
- They are communicated through known channels in the organization.
- The organization’s plans are failing to consistently deliver intended outcomes.
- The organization’s growth has stalled.
- Corporate culture is eroding and/or the organization is experiencing morale problems.
- Revenue and/or profitability are declining.
The capacity to create strategic plans that are based on the organization’s proven ability to deliver:
In any organization, there are actions or
decisions that are made which can result in positive acceleration
(increase in speed) or negative acceleration (decrease in speed).
Knowing in advance how the organization will respond enables strategists
to devise their plans with realistic timeframes within which the
organization will be expected to deliver. This “historical
acceleration” brings into account how fast the organization can reach a
desired goal.
For example, a plan might have the desired goal of increasing revenues by 15% over a certain time period based on accomplishing a certain set of tasks. While it’s true that internal strategists have “been there, done that” when it comes to knowing the abilities of the organization, external strategists bring with them techniques that allow them to measure the historical rate of change. These mathematical techniques can bring the external strategist’s understanding quickly in line with the internal team. And many times, the external team can be even more accurate since there is no bias involved in assessing the organization’s actual historical acceleration.
The ability to optimize plans for the company’s political environment:
For example, a plan might have the desired goal of increasing revenues by 15% over a certain time period based on accomplishing a certain set of tasks. While it’s true that internal strategists have “been there, done that” when it comes to knowing the abilities of the organization, external strategists bring with them techniques that allow them to measure the historical rate of change. These mathematical techniques can bring the external strategist’s understanding quickly in line with the internal team. And many times, the external team can be even more accurate since there is no bias involved in assessing the organization’s actual historical acceleration.
The ability to optimize plans for the company’s political environment:
Internal strategists have a special
understanding and view of the inside politics of the organization. Sad
but true, politics creep into almost every organization and bring with
them the undesirable effect of clouding the judgment of otherwise
objective thinkers. When it comes to justifying decisions and creating
priorities in the strategic planning process, politics can create
pressure to boost the priority of an otherwise less important initiative
or to make a strategic decision that might not otherwise be
considered. An outside consultant can bring objective and rational
thinking into the strategic planning process and, when needed, can take
the “unpopular” position in the face of corporate politics.
Understanding necessary to leverage the core competencies of the organization:
Understanding necessary to leverage the core competencies of the organization:
Every strategic plan relies on the core
competencies of the organization to successfully implement it. Core
competencies, which represent the fundamental knowledge, abilities, and
expertise of an organization, are what separate one organization from
another and certainly what enable objectives to be met. A corporate
strategic plan must take into account a clear measurement of what the
organization’s core competencies truly are and what, if any,
shortcomings exist. Too often core competencies are misidentified,
overstated, or misjudged by those inside the organization. In contrast,
the right outside consultant can bring an objective approach and a
well-refined process for identifying those critical core competencies.
The insight to devise strategic plans that take into account the culture of the organization:
The insight to devise strategic plans that take into account the culture of the organization:
Culture forms the foundation of how an
organization works and how work will be completed when working toward
desired outcomes. Clearly, understanding culture is critical to building
an effective strategic plan. Internal strategists live and breathe the
culture of their organizations on a daily basis and therefore are likely
to understand it quite well. But an outside perspective can bring new
light to how culture is viewed since external consultants will consider
organizational structure, behaviors, and relationships. Pairing this
outside perspective with internal experience can provide useful and
often eye-opening input to the corporate planning process.
Knowledge of an organization’s existing communication channels:
Knowledge of an organization’s existing communication channels:
Closely aligned with culture, a corporate
plan cannot possibly be effective without effective communication
throughout the organization, at all levels. As with cultural awareness,
communication within the organization can be facilitated by the
experience of the internal strategist. Unfortunately, most internal
strategy groups lack the multidisciplinary and culture-based approach to
plan effectively for both culture and communication throughout the
organization. The right external strategist will bring a refined
approach to viewing the organization holistically and crafting
communication approaches that target the right people
External strategists are trained to view the organizational environment from a holistic standpoint and find the communication gaps, areas of improvement within the organization, and baseline the organization’s true strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. By leveraging the experience of an external strategist, the internal strategist can be assured that communication approaches will target the right people in the right ways.
Try Planning from the Outside In.
External strategists are trained to view the organizational environment from a holistic standpoint and find the communication gaps, areas of improvement within the organization, and baseline the organization’s true strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. By leveraging the experience of an external strategist, the internal strategist can be assured that communication approaches will target the right people in the right ways.
Try Planning from the Outside In.
Internal strategic planners clearly have
their place in the corporate planning process. The deep insight and
internal understanding of the inside strategists are hard to replace.
Yet, with inside knowledge comes the side effects of political swaying,
less objectivity, and “planning as usual.” Many of today’s successful
organizations effectively combine an internal view with an external view
to bring about a holistic approach to planning. This “two heads are
better than one” approach puts insiders in close partnership with
outsiders to create successful outcomes in strategic planning and
implementation.
To learn more, read our full length article titled, “The Role of the Internal versus the External Strategist”.
To learn more, read our full length article titled, “The Role of the Internal versus the External Strategist”.
* * *
Join
the Strategic
Planning Xchange group.
Learn More Let us show you how to realize 140%+ ROI on your strategic planning efforts through our unique Plan4SM process that brings together strategy and execution into a powerful plan. Plan4 is our proprietary business planning process that involves an integrated set of actions designed to help companies gain sustainable advantage. Download our brochure to learn more about Method Frameworks and our services or download our Plan4 Planning Process Overview.
You can contact Method Frameworks at 877-317-5264 (877-31PLAN4) or follow this link to request a meeting with a planning consultant. Check our articles and blog often at www.methodframeworks.com to get many more planning tips and information about our Plan4 process.
Related Articles
Join
the Strategic
Planning Xchange group.
Learn More Let us show you how to realize 140%+ ROI on your strategic planning efforts through our unique Plan4SM process that brings together strategy and execution into a powerful plan. Plan4 is our proprietary business planning process that involves an integrated set of actions designed to help companies gain sustainable advantage. Download our brochure to learn more about Method Frameworks and our services or download our Plan4 Planning Process Overview.
You can contact Method Frameworks at 877-317-5264 (877-31PLAN4) or follow this link to request a meeting with a planning consultant. Check our articles and blog often at www.methodframeworks.com to get many more planning tips and information about our Plan4 process.
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Article Tags: corporate planning, organizational development, planning consultants, strategists
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About the Author: Joe Evans RSS for Joe's articles - Visit Joe's website Joe Evans serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Method Frameworks. Method Frameworks provides management consulting services to commercial enterprises with strategic and operational planning solutions using the firm’s proprietary Plan4 process. Visit Method Frameworks at www.methodframeworks.com. Joe is a published author, frequent speaker and recognized expert in co rporate strategic planning. To contact Method Frameworks about scheduling Mr. Evans about an upcoming speaking engagement, visit www.methodframeworks.com/business-speaker or email requests to media_relations@methodframeworks.com. Want more corporate strategic planning insights? Read Joe's blog. Also, request to join the "Strategic Planning Xchange" now by following this link to the Strategic Planning Xchange. Click here to visit Joe's website   The Changing Role of Board Involvement in Corporate Strategy The Top Three Things CIOs Must Do in 2010 Strategic Planning Business Executive Essentials Part 10 of 12 Mergers and Acquisitions Understanding the Essentials of Strategy and Execution in the MA Ecosystem Part 2 of 4 The Definition of Strategic Planning A White Paper |
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