Strategy in the age of Covid-19

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As I write this it is quite hard to see what the world will look like post Covid-19. What is apparent is there will be a need to do a lot of re-planning….but do we also need to reset our strategy?

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Planning Strategy is not Strategic Planning

I am going to try and make this as simple as I can; Strategic Planning lays out how you are going to get where you have decided you want to go. It describes how you will achieve your goals in these extraordinary times – revised or otherwise…

Strategic Planning can be critical — and after you have a Strategy, you need to develop a Strategic Plan. In basic terms Strategic Planning lays out the particular actions you intend to carry out over the coming period to achieve the strategy.

I contend Strategic Planning is not Strategy. Strategy is the “what” you are going to be, and the broad approach to how you are going to be that.

As an example, your strategy may well remain intact post-Covid-19. It may be, for example, to become the number one (by reputation) retained recruitment organisation in Europe and the US, and will be achieved through successful partnership with organisations prepared to work closely together on engagements that are remunerated based on method, rigour and results, not just results.

Strategic Planning is the detail of how you will get there — which sectors to focus on, how many agents are to be added, what type of advertising will be used, etc. It is this which will need attention post Covid19, not necessarily your strategy. The strategic plan will document the specific actions you will now have to take in the requisite time scale and with the identified results they will have to deliver.

Imagine going full tilt at the revised strategic plan once lockdown is eased without reviewing where you are now going. Many people make the error of going straight into strategic planning without reviewing what, or whether, their Strategy remains viable. This is especially pertinent now in what will be a new world.

Of course, if you execute a plan you will get results of some sort. Is it where you wanted to go given the changing global conditions and new world order? Putting it another way, strategy outlines the destination, strategic planning identifies the specific methods, processes and actions needed to get there.

So, thanks to Covid-19, is this an opportunity to pause and think about where you now want to go? Most people, and most organisations, had pre-Covid-19 an idea of what they were trying to do. That must 2 seem like a long time ago now and the world (and the worlds’ marketplaces) has undoubtedly changed. It is clearly time to consider this question again.

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The case for considering revising Strategy

Strategy is not necessarily a series of alternatives. Many think it is about evaluating a series of options in terms of available resources, or a competitive response. I am sorry to say these parameters will undoubtedly change in the new world. Similarly, some may consider strategy in terms of growth. Last year you increased profits by 30%; that means this cycle you need to aim for increasing profits by 40% or 25%?

These may be acceptable targets, and this approach is certainly common. However, hitting these objectives will not fundamentally modify your relationship to the wider world (or even the market you occupy). Nothing will really be changed — not you, not your people, not your organisation– and not the world. The world IS different now. We all need to face it. I suggest you and your organisations need to think wider and deeper.

When you do the same things, only more efficiently what you’ll probably get is more of what you’ve already got, which may be acceptable, as long as you’ve determined that more of what you’ve got is what you want in this new world. Alternatively, you might want to ‘change the final destination’, revise your strategy in the light of what has happened during and immediately after the pandemic.

A strategy should be unique – but not set in stone.

Strategy is something you invent, not copy; it is unique and specific to your organisation. Strategy is a declaration of what you will do to fulfil your vision: what specifically will you achieve, what worth will your organisation hold? These statements may well now be different than from the period before March 2020. But I don’t advocate ignoring your past work. I suggest you just don’t allow your strategy to be constrained by it. Accept the world is/will be a different place post-Covid-19. Don’t ignore what the new world will look like and don’t just fall into the trap of letting your competitors’ actions define what yours will be. Certainly don’t ignore your clients/customers. Having said that, don’t just think that your customers’ demands are the only measure of what you should seek to accomplish. If we have learnt nothing from the Covid-19 pandemic it is that the measure of an organisation is more than what they provide for their clientele.

Of course these touchpoints — past performance, market conditions, competition, customers, etc must be taken into account. Consider wider objectives; worth to society, contribution to the charitable sector, support for freedoms – whatever those wider objectives may be.

Then, in a nutshell, if your revised strategy succinctly describes the new direction you want your organisation will now take, you have reset yourself in the light of, and for, the post–Covid-19 era.

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 A revised, innovative strategy motivates…

Why take this opportunity? A fresh, innovative strategy forged in the light of a major shift in the world around us should motivate simply because it encompasses the vision for your organisation and how the realisation of your strategy can make an important difference in this new world. It will hopefully inspire your team, your clients, your prospects. A strategy revised in the light of the Covid-19 experience can energise all your constituents, where simple growth just seems like more of the same. A new revised strategy can transform and enhance your organisations relationship to the new world around you, not least to the changing marketplace you occupy.

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How to do it….

It’s about asking the right questions. What direction should the organisation take *now* to realise its revised vision? What value will you offer (internally, externally) now? What meaningful difference will you make in your new world? How do you want to affect those you come into contact with? Answer these questions and you are some way towards capturing the essence of your revised vision and the strategy to achieve it. Undoubtedly there will be some organisations who will hang onto their prevailing strategy during and after this crisis and it will be the end of them – either by reputation, commercially or even their relevance in a newly changed world.

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Be radical!

Strategy should reflect definitive progress, perhaps even radical progress. Do not assume the old way is the only way. You are in a new world now. Consider which beliefs will restrain growth or ambition. Make up your own assumptions of the new world. Test them with colleagues, friends or simply do they make sense to yourself?

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First the ‘What’, then the How’?

At first do not be concerned about whether you have the means to make your strategy a success. If you do that you are more likely to compromise your ambition from the start. There will be the means for manipulating ‘how’ later so (initially) ignore the constraints which you may have felt pre-Covid-19. That said, you will deal with these constraints when the time is right. First formulate a revised vision post Covid-19,one that you believe will make a genuine difference and lead to greater things.

Where the Strategic and tactical planning comes in is where you have to figure out how to make your revised strategy come to life given all the constraints you operate under. That is for another day postCovid-19