Zim business must embrace strategic planning

01 Nov, 2019 - 00:11 0 Views

The ManicaPost

Simon Bere Post Correspondent
THERE is a general belief, especially among the Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) owners and small business managers that strategy and strategic planning is for the big corporate organisations.

Even in some large corporate organisations, strategy formulation and strategic planning are done not because they fully and unequivocally know and are totally convinced that they are the heart beat of their organisations.

This is despite the fact that the study of leadership and strategy reveals that the two are as inseparable as two the inside and outside of the same shirt.

Strategy comes from Greek words “stratos”, meaning a large number of people and “egy”, meaning leadership.

One can also find that strategy is synonymous with generalship, which in military terms, is leadership.

It then baffles the mind how some people get to the positions of leadership and completely disregard strategy as their tip of the spear in delivering leadership results.

Maybe this unfortunate dismembering of strategy and leadership into two and their academic study as two different fields did the damage – leading to the twin misfortunes of leadership mediocrity and the global leadership crisis of today.

This does not mean there are no great leaders today. They exist, but more of effective leadership is needed to overcome the challenges the world faces today.

People aspiring for leadership must understand that they may reach those positions without embracing strategy but find it tough up there for lack of correct strategic orientation and disposition.

Zimbabwe businesses that have been apathetic to formal and conscious strategic thinking, strategy formulation and strategic planning must immediately embrace the discipline and incorporate it within their rank and file or risk sinking into oblivion.

The fact that they have survived to date is not a guarantee that they will continue to thrive and survive into the future.

They must change their attitude and disposition and strategise.

The world has drastically changed and continues to do so at a swift pace. What used to work yesterday may not work tomorrow, hence the need for futuristic strategic thinking.

The increase in chaos and complexity requires a major paradigm shift, including an overhaul in the theory, philosophy, mindset and way of doing business.

Strategy and strategic thinking are becoming more important for success, survival and thriving than ever before.

In fact we are at the boundary line between two major worlds and crossing successfully into the evolving new world cannot happen without major upgrade in our mental models, theory and philosophy.

Many companies that undertake strategic planning activities in Zimbabwe use the planning model popularised in the 1970s, which places emphasis on the left brain approach supported by strategic planning tools such as SWOT, PESTLE, BCG Matrix, Ansoff Matrix, Porter’s Five Forces, Balanced Score Card and so on.

That strategic planning model worked very well then because the environment was not as fast changing.

Most of the year-on-year strategic planning was mainly about reviewing and tweaking an existing strategic plan.

In fact, in terms of real strategy, the outputs of most strategic planning sessions were basic operational plans and budgets packaged as “strategic plans.”

The old approach no longer works today.

The strategic planning tools and frameworks that I have mentioned are still very useful today if properly used.

My personal experience and research in facilitating strategic planning sessions is that in too many cases the same tools are abused and misused leading to bad or poor strategic outputs.

While many top CEOs and senior managers rightly talk about the VUCAR world and proclaim that the world has changed, they resort to the same old approaches.

They do little to match the massive and drastic changes in the world in which they operate.

Many companies react to radical changes in the environment they operate in through measures such as “cost cutting and rationalisation”.

These work when change is a bump and not when it is a long sustained climb in a rugged economic terrain.

Others try to maintain performance, results and sustainability by changing their strategy — which is better than tactical thinking and tactical reacting.

But change in strategy alone in a fast changing environment is tiresome and not sustainable.

Company leaders and senior managers must understand that changes that have taken place in the world they operate do not require change in strategy, but revolutionary change in the way they approach the world aspect of strategy, including strategic planning.

In other words, CEOs, corporate boards, top executives and managers require new and more powerful strategic planning models and approaches to help them survive and thrive in the new environment.

I am talking about either a complete abandonment or massive overhaul of their strategic planning and adopting a brand new or radically transformed approach and model.

This is not like travelling across a desert and changing from a two wheel drive to a 4×4 vehicle — but about moving from a desert into an ocean and abandoning the 4×4 to a ship or boat.

Let me repeat.

The environment has changed and we are at a major environmental discontinuity between a yesteryear and a drastically different global operating environment.

Insisting on running a business without formal strategic work or on using the strategic planning approaches and models that we have always been using just because they have been working is a recipe for disaster.

In fact, most of vision statements and mission statements of most organisations in Zimbabwe need either a major upgrade or complete abandonment and replacement because they are either poorly crafted or anchored in a future that does not exist.

If Zimbabwean companies choose to stick to the old approaches to strategy and strategic planning, the economy will not bounce back to life at a pace we all want. Simple!

We need a new strategic paradigm shift as a matter of urgency. Strategy matters more today than ever before!

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