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2006 IEEE SF Bay Area Region AGM2006 IEEE SF Bay Area Region AGM30 September 200630 September 2006

Strategic Planning for Strategic Planning for DummiesDummies

Dr. Carlos F. CamargoDr. Carlos F. CamargoResearch Fellow & Director of Educational ResearchResearch Fellow & Director of Educational Research

Ohana Foundation for Technical DevelopmentOhana Foundation for Technical Development

IEEE Caucus Member--East Bay ChapterIEEE Caucus Member--East Bay ChapterIEEE Computer Society, Transnational Committee, Instructional IEEE Computer Society, Transnational Committee, Instructional

Technology, and Technology, and Communications CaucusCommunications Caucus

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Leah Jamieson, 2006 VP-Publication Services and Products

We are in a time of change. The future of the IEEE will depend on our ability to combine our great

strengths with forward-looking approaches in member services, new technologies, and products.

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The way I understand and interpret

We are in a time of challenge.

The future of the IEEE will depend on our strategic planning based on the

analysis of our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,

and threats.

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What Is Strategic Planning?

• A process for determining• Where you are• Where you intend to be• How you’re going to get there

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Why Do It?

• To control the things you can control and deal with the things you can’t

• One way for your organization to add superior value to your customers

• It’s your responsibility as a manager • If you don’t do it, someone else will

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The Generic Process

Define current state

Analyze trends

Define future state

Analyze gap

Develop plan

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Getting Prepared

•Make it a group project – invite everyone to participate

•Make decisions by consensus, not majority rule

•If possible, get a neutral facilitator

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Getting Prepared (continued)

• Question everything, “assume nothing” – be prepared to put yourself out of business

• As manager, you set the tone – be careful about what you say and do, discuss the “undiscussable”

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Getting Prepared (continued)

• Look ? years out• Allow enough time (? months minimum)• Plan series of ?-day meetings with

several weeks between each session

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Defining the Current State

•Business definition•Customer analysis•Competitor analysis•Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/ Threats (SWOT) analysis

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Business Definition

A single paragraph that answers the following questions:• What is your offering?• Who buys and consumes it?• What do they get out of it?

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Customer Analysis

•Who are they (who makes buying decision)?

•What are their key goals, objectives, and strategies?

•How are they organized?•What are their critical success factors?•How do they value for technical information?

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Customer Analysis

• In your team, discuss what you would like to learn about your customers• External – what are the job? what do they

like or not like?• Internal – how can we help them? what are

their expectations?• How much money do you want to spend?• What skills levels do they have?

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Competitor Analysis

• Who are they? (think broadly)• What are their capabilities?• How do we compare?• What are our sources of competitive advantage

(what do we do differently or better)?• What are our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,

and threats? (SWOT analysis)

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Competitor Analysis (continued)

• In your teams, discuss who you believe to be your major competitors:• engineers and programmers• marketing, testing and QA, field service• customer service, training, HR, IS depts• outsourcing, independent contractors• accountants, other tech pubs departments• project leaders, product managers QA: Quality Assurance, HR: Human Resource, IS: Information Source

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SWOT Analysis

Strengths Weaknesses

Opportunities Threats

Knowledge of products

Good to excellent quality

Good operating and managing processes

Solid technical background

Perceived as experts in Web design

No multimedia experience

Don’t have relationships with decision-makers

Weak strategic thinking and business skills

Perceived by some as slow and expensive

Customers need to get more value from information

Leverage Web expertise to create multimedia

Strong demand for information and knowledge of solutions

Continued trend toward outsourcing

New generation of IT tools makes it easier for developers to think they can do work themselves

Customers do not value our information

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SWOT Analysis (continued)

• In your teams, list four major strengths and four major weaknesses.

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Analyze Trends

• External forces that drive businesses:• Economics• Resources and environment• International factors• Social change• Technology• Politics

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Products of Trends Analysis

• List of trends (brainstorm)• Certainty vs. impact matrix• Short list of most significant trends

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Degree of Certainty Vs. Impact

Must plan for

Minimum resources

if any

Maintain flexibility in plan

Forget it

High Low

High

Low

Degree of certainty

Impact on business

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Defining the Future State

• What it takes to win• Vision

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What It Takes to Win

Given the most significant trends we identified:• How can we gain power relative to others in

the industry?• Which customers should we serve?• Which customer values should we address?• Which competitors should we focus on?

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Vision

A shared mental picture of how we would like the business to be...

“If you can’t see it, you can’t become it.”

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Qualities of a Vision

• Comes from the mind and heart – asks too much of us

• We alone can make these statements – people recognize them as ours

• Radical and compelling – dramatizes wishes, hopes, and aspirations

• Conscious image that is the cause of our current behavior

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Creating a Vision

• Could be a set of statements, a picture, or both

• Should be developed and must be understood and shared by the entire organization

• Should focus on customers, end-users, and other stakeholders

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Analyzing the Gap

You know where you are (current state)

You know where you intend to be (future state/vision)

So how do you get there?

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Developing a Roadmap

• What needs to be in place at milestones between now and the target date (~five years from now)?

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Developing a Roadmap (continued)

• Develop a set of goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics with timelines and responsibilities

or• Develop a milestone chart populated

with events, activities, and metrics

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Developing a Roadmap (continued)

• Review work of teams with entire group• Formalize roadmap in a document

distributed/available to everyone

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List of Obstacles

• In your team, develop a short list of obstacles

• For each obstacles, develop at least one possible solution

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Promoting Your Vision and Plan

Publicize and promote vision/plan with critical stakeholders:

• Your organization• Your management

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Promoting Your Vision and Plan

• Discuss ways in which you can obtain recognition for your vision and plan.

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Do’s and Don’t in Planning

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Why Plan? Avoid wasting effort:

It is easy to spend large amounts of time on activities that in retrospect prove to be irrelevant to the success of the project. Planning helps you to achieve the maximum effect from a given effort.

Take into account all factors, and focus on the critical ones:This ensures that you are aware of the implications of what you want to do, and that you are prepared for all reasonable eventualities.

Be aware of all changes that will need to be made:If you know these, then you can assess in advance the likelihood of being able to make those changes, and take action to ensure that they will be successful.

Gather the resources needed:This ensures that the project will not fail or suffer for lack of a critical resource.

Carry out the task in the most efficient way possibleSo that you conserve your own resources, avoid wasting ecological resources, make a fair profit and are seen as an effective, useful person.

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Why Do People Avoid Planning? (Organizational problem)

Poor reward structuresWhere an organization often failing to reward success. This often results in a situation where it is better for an individual to do nothing than risk trying to achieve something, fail and be punished.

Fire-fightingAn organization can be so deeply embroiled in crisis management that it simply does not have the time to plan.

The 'get stuck in' cultureAn organization may oppose planning as a waste of time. Managers are so experienced in a job that they do not appreciate that they are planning. The approach cripples inexperienced staff by denying them the benefits of planning, and puts load on experienced managers.

Opposition to Time & Expense of PlanningTime spent on planning is an investment. Some organizations are culturally opposed to spending resources.

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Why Do People Avoid Planning? (Individual problem)

Laziness

Lack of Commitment and Resistance to Change

Fear of Failure

Experience

Poor Experience of Planning

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The Planning Cycle

Planning is best thought of as a cycle, not a straight-through process: once a plan has been devised it should be evaluated. This evaluation may be cost or number based, or may use other analytical tools. This analysis may show that the plan specified may cause unwanted consequences, may cost too much, or may simply not work.

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Elements of a Good PlanHave a clear statement of the current situation Have a clear aim Reflect the resources available Detail the tasks to be carried out, whose

responsibility they are, their priorities and deadlines.

Explain control mechanisms that will alert the manager to difficulties in achieving the plan.

Plan for contingencies, so that a rapid and effective response may be made to crises, perhaps at a time when you are at a low ebb or are confused following a set-back.

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To Make a Plan Effective, You have to: Involve people affected by the plan to gain their support Explain why the plan is being carried out Sell & resell the benefits to everyone involved Ensure that the required resources are available and

remain available As far as possible keep to existing ways of doing things.

This avoids unnecessary disruption. Build in milestones and review progress. This helps to keep

a sense of movement in the plan, and allows achievement to be rewarded

Use KISS (Keep It Simple and Straightforward) Keep the plan flexible Consider transitional arrangements - how will you keep

things going while you implement the plan?

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Thank you for your attention!