strategic planning in the post-crisis period
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This is because strategic planning is a guide . You can see it as your compass or your map. This doesn't mean that you will always follow predetermined paths, but you will have clarity about where you want to go.
Furthermore, drawing up medium or long-term plans in strategic planning is often seen as an outdated and rigid methodology.
Especially because today we live in a VUCA world (acronym in English for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous), where we hear that successful startups grow very quickly and, in a certain way, in a disorganized way.
One day they are testing their business model. The next day, something happens in the world (like the current pandemic) and they double or triple their revenue.
That's why, for your post-crisis strategic planning, you need to know the OKRs methodology!
THE OKR METHODOLOGY
Firstly, OKRs is a more agile, simpler and more results-focused management methodology than traditional ones.
The OKRs methodology became famous and proved to be efficient in sustaining the growth of a company that you must know and, it was probably through it that you arrived at our website: Google !
Thus, the use of the OKRs methodology supported Google's growth from 40 employees to more than 60,000 today. The methodology was created by Intel, and spread to other companies in Silicon Valley.
Today, companies like Amazon, Spotify, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Walmart and The Guardian (to name just a few) use OKRs to manage their strategy.
With these examples, we feel more confident in carrying out our post-crisis strategic planning!
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Is OKR really different from the others?
Furthermore, two other widely used methodologies for carrying out strategic planning for companies are:
Balanced Scorecard (BSC)
Methodology created in 1992, defined by 4 pillars and centered on the company's vision:
Customer: To achieve our vision, how should we be seen by our customers?
Financial: To be financially successful, how should we appear to our investors?
Internal business processes: to satisfy customers, which processes should we excel at?
Learning and growth: To achieve our vision, how do we sustain the ability to change and progress?
In this way, we can see that this methodology, in addition to not being simplistic , tries to fit all the possible aspects of your business into just 4 fields. And we know that, in real life, it is not quite like that (especially after a crisis).
Therefore, doing your post-crisis strategic planning based on BS C can limit your growth and make you monitor indicators that are not essential for you.
Must-Win Battles (MWB)
A more recent methodology, created in 2005, has a more playful and inspiring tone. For the post-crisis period, a motivational tone is interesting !
It is based on defining what your company's “war” is within a period (for the next 5 years, for example) and, to win the war, you need to win “battles” – small war objectives broken down into smaller periods (annual, quarterly, etc.).
A well-made MWB needs to follow 4 steps:
Create a mantra;
Set 3 to 5 MWB;
From finishing 1 to 3 reasons for each battle;
Establish up to 3 key activities for the end .
Therefore, MWB has similar aspects to OKR, but it takes on a less pragmatic aspect . Let's get to know OKRs and understand how to do our strategic planning based on them!
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WHAT ARE OKRs?
First of all, to start your post-crisis strategic planning, I finally need to tell you that OKR is the acronym for Objective and Key Result .
If you analyze it a little more, the name itself already conveys the idea of simplicity and essentialism that OKR allows: you define an objective and which key results measure the achievement of that objective.
So, in line with this insight, John Doerr defined a formula for building an OKR:
I will ____ measured by _____.
I.e:
I will (objective) measured by (key results) .
Can you see how this highlights what is really needed in your post-crisis life?
OBJECTIVE
First, the objective is the sentence that should summarize where you want to go in a given field. Therefore, an objective is a short, engaging, qualitative sentence that should begin with a verb .
KEY RESULTS
If objectives are the qualitative part of OKRs, to really focus on results we need the quantitative part. Therefore, this is where key results come in.
Therefore, key results need to be quantitative in order to measure whether you are reaching your goal. Therefore, for each goal, it is recommended to have 2 to 5 key results.
