| Abstract | | | | almost every book ever published available, either new |
| The strategic planning process can take many paths. | | | | through its warehouses or used via used-book |
| It can require months of preparatory analysis or simply | | | | partners. Instead of buying just what is in the |
| use the collective knowledge of the management | | | | bookstore you can buy whatever you want, get |
| team. Either method requires that the company | | | | recommendations for new books based on what you |
| make decisions on its future course. In this paper we | | | | previously bought and read comments from other |
| will show how to use Strategic Filters as a way to sift | | | | consumers before you buy. |
| through the data and make the best decisions. Then, | | | | Then Amazon changed again by offering the Kindle |
| we will focus these decisions into a few Wildly | | | | E-reader linked to its online bookstore. Now you can |
| Important Goals (WIGs) that will be resourced and | | | | have thousands of books 1 minute after you, buy |
| completed. | | | | delivered wirelessly over cell networks. Newspapers |
| Strategic Planning: Strategic Filters & Wildly | | | | and magazines are delivered to your Kindle every |
| Important Goals | | | | night at 3 AM. No ink, no printing, no late or missing |
| 1. Driving Force Filter – The Competitive Advantage | | | | delivery service, no problem when you travel. Instead, |
| you can Prove | | | | you get perfect service. |
| 2. Emerging Trend Filter | | | | Now we now have the IPAD from Apple, which |
| 3. Customer Filter | | | | promises to embed graphics and videos within books, |
| 4. Wildly Important Goals | | | | magazines and newspapers. This will incorporate the |
| 5. Strategy Map | | | | e-delivery features of the Kindle and make the reading |
| Driving Force Filter | | | | experience completely different. |
| The driving force is the key differentiator or | | | | Printers and Publishers needed to see these trends |
| competitive advantage of the company. The most | | | | coming, to survive and thrive. These developments |
| important element of the driving force is the proof. If | | | | can shut down huge companies and make others |
| you want your employees and your customers to | | | | clear winners. |
| believe it, then you must find the data that backs up | | | | Other trends of note are environmental/clean-tech, |
| your claim. | | | | monetary/interest rates and global markets/supply |
| Here is a list of things that are NOT acceptable | | | | chains. |
| examples of driving force: | | | | Customer Filter |
| - Knowledgeable employees | | | | Understanding your customers completes the |
| - Customer Service | | | | filter-puzzle and will allow you to make the best |
| - Quality | | | | decisions on your strategic plan. A significant time is |
| - Trust | | | | spent understanding who are your best customers. |
| - Responsiveness | | | | We recommend a quantitative approach of choosing |
| - Reputation | | | | the key measureable characteristics that are important |
| - Innovation | | | | to your organization and then using Pareto Analysis to |
| - Etc. | | | | sort your customers from best to worst based on |
| The reason these are not good examples is that any | | | | these measures. |
| company can claim these and everyone is saying it. | | | | Once you know who your best customers are you |
| If everyone is saying it, then no one will believe it. | | | | can determine the characteristics that they share. |
| Here are some driving force examples that the | | | | Communicating through the sales force or directly with |
| marketplace can believe are real differentiators: | | | | these customers you need to ask two critical |
| - Innovation / Experience – We invented | | | | questions: |
| surgical-adhesive to replace sutures. The use of | | | | - Why do they buy from you? |
| surgical-adhesive reduces surgical time by 20 – | | | | - What pain do they have? |
| 90% with lower risk of infection. | | | | At the end of the Customer-Filter session you will |
| - Speed – We will produce any custom product in 2 | | | | know: |
| weeks or less versus our competitors who are at 6 | | | | - Who your best customer are |
| weeks or more. | | | | - The characteristics of the best (what differentiates |
| - Rugged – We produce the most rugged portable | | | | them from everyone else) |
| power generation equipment for military use. Our | | | | - Why customers buy from you |
| mean-time-between-failure is 10,000 + hours. | | | | - What pain customers have that you may be able to |
| - Customer Service / Training – We trained 1580 | | | | solve (with special emphasis put on the best |
| customer-mechanics in service/repair techniques last | | | | customers) |
| year and have two mechanics dedicated to assisting | | | | Wildly Important Goals (WIGs) |
| customer-mechanics over the phone. | | | | With all the preparatory work complete you can now |
| - Product Leadership – We are the only Consulting | | | | create your strategic plan. The best companies |
| Firm in the Midwest with experience applying | | | | always focus on achieving a few wildly important |
| quantitative process improvement tools to streamline | | | | goals. Everyone in your organization is working on |
| sales and marketing; reducing costs and growing sales. | | | | the important things every day. Serving customers, |
| Once you know and agree on the Driving Force for | | | | delivering product, coaching employees, buying, etc. are |
| your company, you can use this to understand: | | | | all important and need to happen every day, week and |
| - What you did to be the best | | | | month. Strategic Planning looks out on a longer time |
| - The core competencies that support your Driving | | | | horizon. Therefore we need to go above the |
| Force | | | | important and focus on a few (3 or less) Wildly |
| - How you stay the best | | | | Important Goals that will take longer but will create |
| Emerging Trend Filter | | | | breakthrough results for your organization. |
| Emerging trends are outside forces that you cannot | | | | This focus gives the plan a sense of reality. Lots of |
| control and may impact your business. These may | | | | organizations try to do too many things and end up |
| include: | | | | either not getting most done or doing an average job. |
| - Economic/monetary trends | | | | You want to be great! |
| - Political/regulatory trends | | | | These WIGs can include: |
| - Social/demographic trends | | | | - Acquisitions or divestitures |
| - Market conditions | | | | - Major capital expenditures |
| - Customer attributes/habits | | | | - Product development |
| - Competitor profiles/mix | | | | - Geographic expansions |
| - Technology evolution | | | | - Entire new businesses or brands |
| - Manufacturing capabilities | | | | - Marketing campaigns |
| - Product design/content | | | | - Globalize the supply chain |
| - Sales & marketing methods | | | | - Internal process improvement efforts (Lean Six |
| - Distribution methods/systems | | | | Sigma) |
| - Resources – natural/human/financial | | | | - Implementing new information technology systems |
| We want these to be a strategic filter because they | | | | - And endless other ideas |
| may require you to change your business model | | | | Strategy Map |
| beyond internal competencies and customer | | | | The last step is too align the organization with the |
| requirements. They will impact how you: | | | | Wildly Important Goals. A Strategy Map is a simple |
| - Sell | | | | tool to visually show how each department is going to |
| - Distribute | | | | support each WIG. |
| - Purchase | | | | To view an example of a Strategy Map goto |
| - Plan acquisitions | | | | The example you will see is of a medical technology |
| - Develop new products and services | | | | company whose Wildly Important Goals was to |
| We have lived during a time of great external | | | | dramatically ramp-up new product development. The |
| disruption. Books and newspapers are a great | | | | map shows how Marketing, Research, Development |
| example. Amazon changed book buying by making | | | | Engineering and Manufacturing all support this strategy. |