Crafting a Strategy Worth Executing

Whether your strategic planning process for the new year is completed, still in progress, or hasn’t even begun yet, it’s important to remember why we are planning in the first place. It is for our people.

Over the past ten years I’ve had the opportunity of learning various methods of strategic planning from talented CEO’s and strategy consultants. I’ve also had the privilege of applying the best of these experiences in the six brands I’ve led and have shared my approach with leaders from over 300 other brands.

I hope you find value in this framework and that it serves as a filter to help craft a compelling plan that your team is excited to execute.

A strategic plan provides the transparency, clarity, connection, and motivation necessary to transform a brand or achieve a new goal. People want to know where their brand is headed and how their day-to-day actions contribute to the bigger picture. When the intent and destination is clear, people become inspired to achieve new heights alongside you.

Before diving into the strategic planning process, you and your team must answer these five imperative questions to get a directional understanding of aspirations.

1. Where has our brand been?
2. Where is our brand now?
3. Where do we want our brand to go?
4. Why do we want our brand to go there?
5. How will our brand get there?

“The who,” you may ask? Well, that’s you and your team of course.

Inputs + Outputs

Here are the three inputs to create a strategic plan and three outputs to bring it to life.

INPUTS

1. Brand DNA

An effective strategic plan cannot exist without having a Brand DNA that is clear, concise, and widely understood by the majority.

What is DNA?

"The fundamental and distinctive characteristics or qualities of someone or something, especially when regarded as unchangeable"

A brand’s DNA is what shapes the culture and is made up of four high-quality ingredients:

1. Vision
2. Mission
3. Values
4. Unique Offer

I get it, this topic gets old, and most brands have “been there, done that.” My question for you is this, does your brand DNA align with where you want and/or need to go now?

Depending on your answer, here are follow up questions to consider.

If yes: Do they align because there is still untapped potential to expand within those parameters or because innovation is limited to what fits within the current parameters?

If no: Is it because the new ideas are too far of a stretch outside the brand or because there are new ideas compelling enough to initiate a refinement?

Once defined or refined, brand DNA should support and guide your strategy, just as tracks do for a train.

2. Sentiment & Insight

As a leader, you must stay in touch with the overall sentiment of those closest to the guest and gather necessary insights to gain a full perspective on your brand.

Sentiment:

In my experience this input gets overlooked or buried by the more tangible data sets. Although it may be more subjective than the rest, it can make or break a plan. As leaders, we have to build connection amongst our teams. Think about the last time you felt connected to a person. Usually, this occurs after people understand each other’s honest feelings and opinions and provided a safe space to share.

Meaning, you need to have a true pulse on what the people are feeling and saying about your brand, leadership, team, and performance. This will help you be more mindful in your approach and reduce resistance.

A best practice to accomplish this is to identify opinions and label them as positive, neutral, or negative based on the emotion used to express. Your approach to this can be quick and high-level or cumbersome and detailed, either will add value and help build connection. The more touchpoints the better, as it’s easy to let the squeakiest wheel influence your views.

Few Examples:

Conduct Satisfaction Surveys by Groups.

• Guest
• Team Member
• Operator/Manager
• Franchisee
• Support Center

Obtain Regional Summaries from Franchise Business Consultants and Regional Managers.

• If you have a Franchise Advisory Council, I’d recommend asking for their input as well.

Make Random 1:1 Check-In Calls for Anecdotal Feedback.

• Operators
• Franchisees
• Board Members
• Investors

Insight:

While it’s common to look for insight that is supportive, it is just as critical to look for what contradicts your aspirations and initiatives. Every brand has their own specific focus areas when it comes to performance metrics, like sales, COGS, overhead, EBITDA, retention, traffic, etc. Although these areas will be the first to evaluate, don’t lose sight of other areas that could have a huge impact like the following.

• Guest Feedback & Complaints
• Performance Trends Compared to Industry
• Competitive Research
• Price Elasticity
• Product Trends
• SWOT Analysis
• Areas to Innovate or Fast Follow
• Table Stake Opportunities - What are things that most, if not all, of your competitors are doing that you are not? You don’t want to give a guest a reason to not choose you simply because you don’t have a product or service that has become a staple in your niche. Sometimes our competitors end up creating a new expectation in the eyes of consumers.

Aggregate all this information and find correlations to help prepare your approach to the new strategy.

3. Collaboration & Inclusion

Now armed with direction, clarity, and perspective, you can begin brainstorming and strategizing with all levels of your organization. Collectively envisioning desired outcomes and working backwards from there. Whether out in the field face-to-face or virtually, it’s imperative to provide a platform for everyone’s voices to be heard. Host as many working sessions needed with the various groups of people until you have a draft you are confident in. Identify the commonalities and challenges as they become the low hanging fruit that must be addressed as a part of the final plan. In other words, you are identifying the inhibitors that need to be removed to provide a path of clear focus towards executing the larger goal that has a bigger impact.

The more people you involve in strategy the more ideas become diluted across location specific desires and system-wide strategic initiatives. This should be embraced with open arms as this additional insight can usually be included as part of a larger initiative, which will be considered a huge win and drive more adoption.

When I was with Cicis Pizza we had spent almost a year researching and testing how to make the perfect stuffed crust pizza and sourcing appropriate smallware and equipment. No matter what we looked at, test performance metrics, guest intercepts, competitive data, focus groups, etc., everything confirmed that stuffed crust pizza was right for our brand. All data aside, many franchisees and managers were not in support unless we addressed their biggest pain point…having to meticulously measure and stuff shredded cheese pieces into each pizza crust. With the help of our supply chain team, suppliers and franchisees, we formed a high-quality pre-cut cheese stick that was the exact length and width needed to fit our crust. Now operators simply had to tuck and roll. That product was a game changer for Cicis and their sales performance. An idea not included in the original strategy is what made this initiative possible, all from listening and collaborating with those closest to the action.

According to a McKinsey study, 74% of executives don’t have faith that their brand’s transformative strategies will succeed. I strongly believe this is due to a lack of collaboration and connection with those outside of the boardroom.

Strategy & Collaboration Tours:

Personally, one of my favorite things to do is conduct a “Strategy & Collaboration Tour.” This is something I’ve consistently done over the years as it’s always yielded the best results. Essentially, leadership members travel to all core markets and host a planning session with nearby general managers, franchisees, and field-based team members. I like to set the stage by asking everyone to pretend that those in the room represent the entire company and have full control. There are no other leaders, owners, or investors, just us. That being the case, I ask everyone,

?“What should we start, stop, and continue doing as a brand?”

This can help them think outside of their own four walls.

If those questions are tailored toward specific areas or open-ended, either way will foster an environment of open and honest feedback that builds and promotes collaboration. Throughout, you can use this interaction to plant seeds or test out some of the strategies you are considering.

After each tour was completed, my commitment was to share the following in response to all the ideas generated.

• Which are we willing to pursue and why. (Whether system-wide or regional)
• Which will we not pursue and why.
• Which will go into the parking garage and why.

This commitment further increases transparency and builds a stronger trust within your brand. Now there should be plenty to work with to develop your strategic plan. Some people may not agree with the final direction, but this approach provides them the why behind it. They will be more susceptive to supporting it since they had a seat at the table and got their voice heard.

After a draft is completed, I recommend pitching it to the following groups and in this order. You can gauge reactions and see where push back occurs to help continuously refine your strategy before brand implementation.

1. Executive Team
2. Support Center Team
3. Franchise Advisory Council
4. Board of Directors

“People Support What They Help Create”

Once you’ve gained consensus and approval, you can now finalize your strategic plan and shift focus to the outputs.

Strategic Plan Template:

OUTPUTS

1. Organizational Structure & Budget

Too often these two components are used as inputs instead of what they should be, which is outputs. When used as inputs they inevitably limit creative thinking and begin to dictate the strategy based on affordability and current headcount. In my experience it is best to provide an open canvas to generate the next big idea and then scale back from there if faced with financial constraints.

Organizational Structure:

Now that your strategic plan is built, you’ll want to cross reference it with your current org. chart and find any potential gaps in roles or responsibilities. There should be accountability assigned to a department or individual for all aspects of the plan.

Questions to answer through the lens of executing your strategy:

• Do we have the right people in the right roles?
• Do we need to add new responsibilities to existing roles?
• Do we need to add new roles to support our new initiatives?
• Do we have enough headcount in all departments to execute our new plan?

Use these answers to make necessary adjustments and prepare your financial ask.

Budget:

This can be a touchy subject as the budget can enable or hinder the end result. Although a final budget is an output of a strategic plan, initial budgetary projections and planning usually begin very early in the process as due diligence. Throughout the planning process it is important to have frequent check-ins with your FP&A team to have a directional understanding on what hurdles you may be up against. But again, you don’t want an initial budget driving or dictating what you need to achieve to elevate your brand. If specific budgetary needs cannot be fulfilled, you at least know where you need to go as a brand and can still work towards that direction in more efficient ways.

Whatever the asks may be, outline all potential benefits, risks, and have strong supporting evidence as to why the ask is worth the investment. Distinguish these asks between operating and capital budgets to help articulate how the funds would be allocated.

Sometimes a budget becomes a reflection of where you’ve been, not where you are trying to go. To prevent this, you will have to lead the conversation with conviction and facts.

64% of successful companies build their budget based on their strategy, rather than on past behaviors. (Palladium)

Let’s shift the mindset.

Sometimes you must go beyond the reef when your lagoon runs out of fish. Yes, to all my parents of young kids, that was a Moana reference.

2. Communication & Engagement

After the strategic plan is approved, it’s time to share system-wide through various channels. Make sure to share a recap of the journey with your brand. People need to know and be reminded of all the collective effort and hard work that went into crafting the plan and the key learnings gained throughout the process. Communicating the plan is not a one and done occurrence, it will take continuous and repetitive actions.

Recommended Deliverables:

• One Pager of Strategic Plan
• One Pager of Strategy Roadmap - Serves as a high-level visual of the initiatives and timelines for all roles.
• Supporting Deck Covering Plan Details & Case Studies
• Measurables & Financial Targets Organized into Monthly/Weekly/Daily Goals
• Promotional Swag
• Hype Video & Relevant Online Learning Courses
• Testimonials & Best Practice Videos from Field

For all further interactions, webinars, and communications, always find a way to tie everything back to the strategic plan.

This will drive more awareness, that will drive more engagement, that then leads to dedication.

"Only 27% of team members and 42% of managers have access to their company’s strategic plan" (Organizational Synergies)

3. Tactical Execution

In a Harvard Business Review study, 67% of well-formulated strategies failed due to poor execution. It may seem like the planning process is difficult and daunting, but execution is the hardest part in comparison.

Most likely, you have heard the old quote; “We don’t plan to fail, we fail to plan.” Many people probably remember this quote originally from Benjamin Franklin or a similar version from Winston Churchill. Unless you are like me, where you heard this quote for the first time from Denzel Washington in his famous commencement speech called “Fall Forward.” Nonetheless, this adage from the late 1700’s is overdue for a modern-day enhancement. After all these years, I think it’s safe to say most businesses and leaders have a plan. But is it a lack of planning that leads to failure or is it a lack of execution? End of the day it’s what you do, not what you plan.

Here's my version:

“We don’t plan to fail; we fail to execute on our plan.”

Execution comes down to discipline and focus. Regularly challenge yourself and your team to objectively evaluate where your energy and time is being allocated. Repeatedly ask yourself, “is this action getting us one step closer to achieving the strategy we set forth?” Let the strategy guide daily decision making and ensure all departmental goals align accordingly. If a project or task does not support or compliment the plan, consider postponing it or determine if there was a potential miss in the planning process. To maintain engagement, you’ll want to track and share your brand’s progress towards the initiatives and measurables.

There will always be the day-to-day responsibilities, last-minute issues, and overall life situations that must be a priority, but the bulk of productivity should contribute towards executing your strategic plan.

In closing, that's my strategy for executing a strategy.