Make Strategic Planning a Part on Your Annual Review Process

Typically, we struggle with surface symptoms rather than delving for the root.  When a logjam blocks a river, thousands of logs can be removed from the middle of the jam without effecting any change. But zero in on one key log at the front, and the whole shebang gives way. What are the key logs in your lab? What are the key opportunities? It would be very meaningful if we had a system to help identify them.

Many of you do parts or even whole strategic planning without calling it by name. In business, it is an integral part of planning and preparation to deal with the current and future internal and external forces that affect our success. If we fail to plan, we plan to fail. Plan your work and work your plan. Much like Steven Covey’s book challenges us to have the right paradigm and look at the problem the right way; DTI - Dental Technology’s CEO Paolo Kalaw challenges us to at least look at our environment. Dream of what your job, your business, your life could be like and begin to construct a path that gets you there. The journey of a thousand miles does indeed begin with a single step. But first, there was a plan of where to go on that journey. He makes sure we have a plan!

Let’s look at a system that allows us to plan strategically to best position our businesses as we grow and evolve over time. The process has four major parts: environmental scanning, strategy formulation, strategy implementation and evaluation and control. We will walk through the parts of each. I have included some examples drawn from business, our industry and even from DTI (no trade secrets exposed). One advantage for us is that after harnessing the energy, enthusiasm, experiences and intellectual capital from 14 locations and countless more people we can share and benchmark more effectively. All of us are better than any of us.

Environmental Scanning (SWOT analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats)

External Review

•    Societal and Environmental Forces and Events
o    The economy
o    Globalization
o    Interest rates
o    OSHA/FDA
o    The Internet
o    Polarization
o    Benefits
o    Legislation
•    Industry Specific Tasks
o    Certification/DAMAS
o    CAD/CAM
o    Technician availability
o    Consolidation
o    Succession Planning
o    Software
o    Materials
o    Legislation

Internal Review

•    Structure, Staffing and Chain of Command
o    Departments
o    Physical plant, capital equipment
o    Goal achievement
o    Benchmarking
•    Cultural Beliefs, Expectations and Values
o    Socialization
o    Community involvement
o    Communication
o    Leadership
o    Diversity
o    Employee engagement
•    Skills, Competencies, Knowledge and other Intellectual Asset
o    Technical training
o    Behavioral training
o    CRM
o    Vendor partnerships

Strategy Formulation

•    Mission - The reason for existence.
o    At DTI for example, “To advance the art, science and business of dentistry through industry leading performance.”
o    To change the way the world looks at dental technicians!
•    Objectives - What results to accomplish and by when.
o    Sales increase of XX%
o    Increase doctor retention to XX%
o    Improve revenue per doctor to $ XXXX
o    Reduce remakes and reworks to below X%
o    Reduce AR balances to less than XX days
•    Strategies - Plans to achieve the mission and objectives.
o    Marketing
o    Operations
o    Finance
•    Policies - Broad guidelines for decision making
o    Who is responsible
o    How decisions get made

Strategy Implementation

•    Programs - Activities needed to accomplish a plan.
o    CE
o    Tradeshows
o    Advertisement
•    Budgets - Cost of programs.
o    I prefer the term financial plan or spending plan
o    But there never seems to be enough for what I think of mid year!
•    Procedures - Sequence of steps needed to do the job.
 
Evaluation and Control

•    Evaluate actual results with feedback at all previous levels.
o    Monthly Key Performance Indicators (as you determine)
•    Sales
•    Expense percentages
•    Sales per doctors
•    Remakes

The development of long range plans for effective management of your business is a responsibility we cannot deny. The process will enrich us all in two major ways. First, we may uncover strategies that help us make decision in the best interest of our staff and self that enhance the probability of future success. We’ll find opportunities to seize and augment and uncover the logs that jam our progress. Secondly, we will develop a pattern of thinking critically about our selves and our environments. The better we think, the better we are likely to become. The more proactive and future oriented we will be. We’ll have more time between stimulus and response, more freedom and time to choose the appropriate reaction. And that will make all the difference.