Before your firm's new strategic plan starts to become even a glimmer in your eye, there is work to do. Strategic planning in today's world is quite different from five or ten years ago. Things are moving quickly and you need to understand the latest industry trends and how the strategic planning process can adjust to them.
You learn:
• The big picture industry trends and macro-economic forces that you cannot ignore in today's strategic planning efforts.
• The most common mistakes in strategic planning and how to avoid them.
• The key differences (and inter-relationships) between strategic planning and business planning.
• How to use PSMJ's Strategic Planning Wheel to organize and prioritize initiatives.
• The critical pre-retreat data gathering, benchmarking, and analysis process to drive high quality strategic decisions.
The foundation of your firm's strategic plan is the clarity, alignment, and focus that comes out of an effective strategic planning retreat. This is where you articulate what drives the firm's success, what it will look like in the future, and what will change as we grow. A good retreat will be exhausting and intense…but also productive.
You learn:
• Why getting alignment around core purpose, vision, and values is so critical.
• How to define what sustainable growth really looks like for your firm.
• How to balance what seem like competing objectives of legacy and next generation leaders.
• The right ways to achieve clarity and alignment around ideology and big-picture goals.
• How to get buy-in key stakeholders to avoid spinning your wheels later.
• Proven strategies for determining what to keep and what to change about your firm's culture.
• The best ways to manage inevitable conflict in a productive and forward-looking way.
This is where most strategic plans start to falter. The rush to get to the operational tactics means you skip over the key questions that are stress-testing many AEC strategic plans right now. This is where AEC strategic plans are built to navigate change and capitalize on market shifts.
You learn:
• What competitive advantage really is and why it is so critical to understand and articulate in today's strategic plans.
• Where AI and technology fit into your firm's competitive value proposition.
• How to evaluate and prioritize organic growth and acquisition strategy to avoid costly expansion mistakes.
• How to address common organizational structure plateaus and the signs that you have outgrown your org chart.
• How to build out corporate governance structure changes as you grow and when it is time to bring on outside directors.
Once you have broader strategic issues nailed down, there are still a lot of ways things can go wrong. You now need to get things like compensation strategy, project delivery, financial management, and succession planning synced up to support the plan.
You learn:
• Where project delivery improvement fits into your strategic growth plans.
• Why your employee value proposition might be the best lever (and the biggest missed opportunity) you have to attract top talent.
• How to align your firm's compensation strategy with your strategic plan.
• The three financial drivers of profitability and your business model.
• How to calibrate your plan through the lens of succession planning to achieve your vision.
• Why your strategic plan may be the most effective tool for uncovering rising stars in the firm.
Things won't all go according to plan. You need to build some degree of flexibility right into the plan. However, you also need to build accountability into the plan. Without it, the plan is virtually guaranteed to go nowhere. Now, we get into proven ways to ensure you stick to the plan while allowing flexibility for change.
You learn:
• How to track the plan and decide who "owns" the plan to keep the momentum going.
• The basics of contingency planning as a tool to address the "what if?" challenges before they become problems.
• How to establish operational plans at the local business unit level.
• Examples, tips, and best practices to make a splash with plan rollout and communication (and how to get buy-in from employees who weren't at the retreat).
• The right KPIs to watch during the plan implementation process and how to overcome barriers to change.
Jared Jamison, P.E., is an accomplished engineering executive with over 20 years of experience in AEC firm leadership, having held senior roles including SVP and Director of Operations at Hankins and Anderson and VP of Operations at Mason & Hanger, where he led firm integration, strategic planning, and operations management. Earlier in his career, he designed structural and specialty projects at Stanley D. Lindsey and Associates and URS Corporation, including the first extradosed cable-stay bridge in the world. Now focused on consulting and teaching, Jared is a speaker, writer, and adviser on AEC business management and strategy, and has served as adjunct faculty for the Virginia Commonwealth University Executive MBA program. He holds BS and MS degrees in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech and an MBA from VCU, and is a registered professional engineer.