strategic planning for startups: how to do more with less

Strategic Planning For Startups

How to do more with less

What are you trying to do?

To gain customers, to grow revenues, to either exit by acquisition or continue growth trajectory.

What’s next?Planning can help with the daily tasks to get you where

you want to go.

Today’s objectives• Providing advice in establishing long-term goals

• Defining vision, mission and values of organization

• Providing input on the critical strategic issues and the proposed strategic direction

• Engaging in what will be accomplished, not how to achieve the results

What are your biggest challenges working with

your team?

An Exercise

What game is your team playing?

Who am I

Principal consultant at SME Strategy

We work with the management teams of SME’s to assess and improve their strategies.

I like soccer, scotch, and puns.

Connect with me: @anthonyctaylor

Objectives for todayBest practices in: • How to best establish/determine long term goals

• Defining vision, mission and values.

• Proving input on key issues relating to strategic direction

• Focusing on objectives and not tactics.

When does the planning process begin?

During team meetings?

During an strategy sessions?

At Start up?

Who decides the direction?

(Some of the)Things you need to worry about• Burn Rate• Product market fit• Customer Acquisition• Hiring Talent• Customer retention• Attracting investment• Office space/managing growth• Pitching, marketing and sales• Improving your product• Culture• IP/Legal• Investor relations

What are the most important things you should be doing?

Why do strategic planning?• To better allocate resources• To focus on specific initiatives• To create better focus in your organization• To create better alignment within your

organization• To change the direction of your organization• To deal with competitors• To merge companies together

Building towards the strategic plan

How did we get to where we are now?

How did we get here• Results from the last plan.

• What worked?

• What didn’t?

• How did we do over all?

What’s going on in the world around us?And what does it mean to our business?

InputsPESTLE• POLITICAL,• ECONOMICAL,• SOCIETAL,• TECHNOLOGICAL,• LEGAL,• ENVIRONMENTAL

External forces

What’s the state of the company?

Inputs

o SWOT• STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES,OPPORTUNITIES, THREATS

o Ie: Funding environment, competition, etc.

• Stakeholder and management team inputs.

My questions

• What do we do well?

• Where can we improve?

• What changes would we like to see?

Anthony C Taylor- SME Strategy 25

What is (your) business?

• Core Competencies • What are you good

at?• ______________• ______________• ______________• ______________

#IMMCYC

Anthony C Taylor- SME Strategy 26

What is (your) business?

• Core Competencies • What are you good

at?• _______________• _______________• _______________• _______________

• Competitive advantage

• What are you better at compared to everyone else?

• __________________• __________________• __________________• __________________

#IMMCYC

27

Competitive advantages cont’Will this:• Increase revs/decrease costs?• Are there any unusual skills that are needed to

execute this strategy?• Will it take competitors significant time to

imitate?• What’s the advantage potential?

#IMMCYC Anthony C Taylor- SME Strategy

Anthony C Taylor- SME Strategy 28

Competitive advantage cont’

• VIRO• Valuable• Imitable• Rare• Organization- Is the

firm organized to implement the strategy.

• Valuable strategies are table stakes (ante)

• Valuable and hard to imitate will be short term advantage

• Valuable, rare and hard to imitate will result in long term advantage.

#IMMCYC

The strategic planning process

How do we get there?

VisionMission

Objectives/Goals

Strategies

Tactics

VisionWhere do we want to be at some point in the future?

Vision

• Where are we going?

• Why should we go there?

• What is winning?

If success was a place, how would we know if

we got there?

Creating a vivid visionAnd getting agreement on it.

Vision• Get your team to describe their vision of the

organization as clearly and vividly as possible.

• What do operations look like?• What do staff look like?• What do clients look like?• How else does your organization look different?

• Like a blueprint for a house, you build the design.

MissionHow are we going to get there?

What do we do?Who do we do it for?

Mission• How do you accomplish your vision?

• What is your purpose?

• Who is your core customer?• What do you do for them?

• What differentiates your value from your competition?

Anthony C Taylor- SME Strategy 39

Do you understand your customers?• What are the

Alternatives for your customer?

• Cost• Time• Work for the buyer• Warranty• Risk

• Eg:

• What is your customers’ thought process in regards to your product?

• How do they buy it?• When do they buy it?• How do they find out

about it?

#IMMCYC

What is the most important factor to a companies success?

According to successful tech entrepreneurs and VC’s?

Values

Values• What is in the DNA of your organization?

• What do you value?

• What are the cultures and norms or your organization?

Organizational values |Guiding principles.

• Values and behaviors are: “The way we do things around here.”

• What negative behaviors might be addressed with a statement of values?

• To what degree do the stated values differ from actual behavior?

VisionMission

Objectives/Goals

Strategies

Tactics

Goals and objectives

Goals and objectives

• Goals are generic themes that support the accomplishing the mission

• Objectives are specific and measurable that contribute to moving the needle on the goals.o Eg: Moving from X to Y by Date.

• Strategies and tactics are done at the implementation level to accomplish the objective.

Strategic intent• Headlines or themes for how you will execute

your strategy.

• Broadly specific areas of focus.

• Makes it easy to communicate, and focuses action.

o “Think of new years resolutions”

MISSION

VISION What is going to move the needle on

the vision?

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES AND INITIATIVES

GOAL 1

GOAL 2 GOAL 3

Your organization’s vision:

Our purpose….

What is going to move your organization closer

to your vision?

Setting goals 3-5 year goals

1 year goals

Quarterly goals

Cascading goals• Creating different goals for:

• The organization• The business Unit• The individual

Top 5 and top 1 of 5• What are your top 5 priorities for the Quarter?

• Of those top 5 priorities, which is the top priority?

• Make significant progress on a few initiatives vs. incremental progress on many initiatives.

KPI’s

• How do you measure success?

• What key ratios exist in your business?

• What is the most important ratio/measure in your business?

Focusing on objectives and not tactics.

Other parts of the planning process

Success drivers

Big Picture vs. Practical application

Constraints• Time

• Budgets

• Human Resources

• Technology

• Other Constraints?

People• Who are the key people in the organization that

are responsible for functional areas?

• Where are the gaps as far as key functions?

• Are there people responsible for more than one area?

• Help them do more by focusing on fewer areas

Communicating the plan• How are you going to share this strategic plan

with your organization?

• Keep in mind that different people absorb information in different ways:o Wordso Audioo Pictures

Potential RisksWhat is going to try and get in our way?

How to stop it?What needs to be addressed?

Risks• What uncertainty exists in our organization?

• What are the impacts of that uncertainty (risk)

• What is the likelihood of that happening?

• What can we do to mitigate that risk?

Risks

Risk Impact

Ris

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Low Moderate High

Low

M

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H

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Cash flow planning

Cash flow planning

Communication and Alignment

Functional Management

It’s all about alignment.

When the rubber hits the road

You need to align and execute

Happy Planning!

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