(CLP) Programs

Appleton Greene corporate training programs are all process-driven. They are used as vehicles to implement tangible business processes within clients’ organizations, together with training, support and facilitation during the use of these processes. Corporate training programs are therefore implemented over a sustainable period of time, that is to say, between 1 year (incorporating 12 monthly workshops), and 4 years (incorporating 48 monthly workshops). Your program information guide will specify how long each program takes to complete. Each monthly workshop takes 6 hours to implement and can be undertaken either on the client’s premises, an Appleton Greene serviced office, or online via the internet. This enables clients to implement each part of their business process, before moving onto the next stage of the program and enables employees to plan their study time around their current work commitments. The result is far greater program benefit, over a more sustainable period of time and a significantly improved return on investment.

Appleton Greene uses standard and bespoke corporate training programs as vessels to transfer business process improvement knowledge into the heart of our clients’ organizations. Each individual program focuses upon the implementation of a specific business process, which enables clients to easily quantify their return on investment. There are hundreds of established Appleton Greene corporate training products now available to clients within customer services, e-business, finance, globalization, human resources, information technology, legal, management, marketing and production. It does not matter whether a client’s employees are located within one office, or an unlimited number of international offices, we can still bring them together to learn and implement specific business processes collectively. Our approach to global localization enables us to provide clients with a truly international service with that all important personal touch. Appleton Greene corporate training programs can be provided virtually or locally and they are all unique in that they individually focus upon a specific business function. All (CLP) programs are implemented over a sustainable period of time, usually between 1-4 years, incorporating 12-48 monthly workshops and professional support is consistently provided during this time by qualified learning providers and where appropriate, by Accredited Consultants.

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Executive summary

Strategic Planning

Planning has been around since early man had to decide to plant crops or move on and collect what nature provided. Strategic planning has been with us for a much shorter time. In the military, strategy and tactics were part of the same plan. Strategy described the overarching objectives and tactics detailed how the strategy would be realized. A strategy could be eliminating your enemies capabilities to supply armament to their troops, while a tactic could be to destroy the transportation network.

Following WW II, strategy and strategic planning were put to the sidelines. The economy was expanding to fulfill the market with consumer demands that had been pent up during the war years. Factories were humming and consumers were buying. Strategy was condensed to get as much as you could to market and business would do well. Factories changed from making planes and tanks to making cars and trucks. Food shortages and rationing were things of the past. Farmers were growing as much as they could and were improving yields year over year.

During the 1950’s and 1960’s, Strategic Planning became a control tool for the Department of Defense to utilize in trying to control the large contracts that they managed. Strategic plans were, therefore, mainly financial and schedule driven exercises that could span years of design, development, and manufacture of complex military equipment. As a result, Project Management was developed as a controlling function and project management departments were formed in the military support community.

Over time, the industrial community realized that the markets had changed and that they need to react to the normal economic climate. Gone were the days of demand outstripping supply. Now your products and services had to be recognized as valuable. Public companies needed to respond to stockholder desires, and private companies needed to respond to owner desires. And most stockholders and owners wanted to be assured of a bright future for their companies and for themselves. This necessitated a need for future planning, better known as Strategic Planning.

However, this strategic planning quickly became mired in the need for financial budgeting and scheduling. The planning became a look into the future that was all too uncertain. Uncertainty is not what one desires in planning. Many businesses backed away from the strategic part of the planning cycle, giving it lip service at best, and instead focused on the near more certain term. This removes the fear of the unknown from their plans, but also removed the future from them.

Strategic planning is stuck in the past. Most companies still use it as a tool to generate financial information which are only used to monitor actual financial performance. The predictions of future non-financial performance are vague and ill defined. In the case of public companies, they primarily are tied to quarterly performance. For most public companies quarterly results are paramount. Stock prices and executive compensation and livelihood ride on these numbers. With private concerns, financial performance is more personal. Lower profits might translate to lower personal compensation.

Although strategic planning is predicated on establishing future goals and developing strategies to achieve their goals, most companies feel lost when they try to analyze the future. They all have plenty of examples where forecasting has been wrong and resulted in negative outcomes. Sales forecasts are overly optimistic. New product release dates are late. Operational performance is less than promised. All of these lead to missed promises, unhappy customers, and poor financial performance. The future is uncertain. And because it is uncertain, many people tend to ignore it. They will prepare forecasts that are wrong, and they will “update” them as new data makes the errors obvious. They handle the uncertainties of the future by adapting to them as they become more certain. Yet they will not plan strategically because the future is uncertain.

Many companies do try to ascertain the future and model their companies to what they see as that future. But this has been found to be insufficient. Why is this so? There are three reasons: one, the future view is too short sighted; two, the views tend to be more tactical than strategic; and, they do not start with the personal goals of the leadership.

Why are the views so short sighted? The key metric for companies has migrated from producing a great product or service that customers would buy and would come back for more, to pure financial performance. The earnings have become the be all and end all of evaluating a company’s performance. This is the key for all public companies and dictates the price of the company’s shares for public companies. We are witnessing a change in the perception of what makes one company better than another. There are also investors that look at the stock market as a place to make money on buying and selling stock, rather than as an opportunity to invest for the future. The result is that leadership in public companies must live up to short term pressure, or see the stock prices drop, and potentially losing their jobs. This phenomenon is not limited to public companies. Private companies feel the same pressure to increase earnings, at a reduced level. In both cases, this pressure for short term earning, typically one or two quarters, makes long term strategies irrelevant.

A corollary of taking short term views is that planning tends to be short term, or tactical. There is no grand strategy to be a market leader or be number one or two in the industry. The only goal is to increase earnings usually made by increasing revenue, decreasing costs, increasing market share, or selling to new customers. Sales and marketing plans are developed which answer the question, “What will we do this quarter?”. The race to meet or exceed the projections for profit are so great that strategy is often ignored.

Any strategy needs to address the personal goals of leadership. The goals of leadership and the company must be congruent if they are to be successful. After all, if the leadership goals cannot be satisfied with the company’s goals, the company goals will not be realized. The importance of having the same long-term goals is most apparent in private companies. These tend to be smaller than most public companies and the leadership is most often the owner who profits when the company is profitable. However, profits are not the only goal. The owners have other obligations that public leadership normally does not. They have family to care about, now and tomorrow. They have legacies that they wish to establish. There are family members that need to be trained to be future leaders. Fulfilling these obligations is their primary motive for business success once the basic revenue needs to support the family and its lifestyle have been reached. In some cases, they are more important than revenue. For the private company owner, there are legacy issues and how they support their communities. Many private businesses are the largest employer in their area and keeping the business solvent open and employing community residents is of paramount importance.

Public companies are realizing that they also have obligations beyond those to shareholders. They have obligations to various other stakeholders including employees, suppliers, customers, and their communities. In this day shareholder activists promote their views and companies must react to them. The general cry for equality, equal treatment, diversity, and inclusion are beyond the increase earnings goal and companies need to craft strategies that not only ensure the company’s financial success, but also the companies social and community success.

The futures for both private and public companies are similar if not the same. Both have to take a longer and more strategic view if they want to be successful. Planning needs to be more long term with short term tactics supporting the longer-term goals. More and more companies in the public sector are announcing that they will no longer provide quarterly estimates of profitability. They are aligning corporate goals with personal goals, the aim being to bring a better alignment between corporate and personal targets. They are realizing that if they wish to enable their companies to be long lived, they need to look out five to ten years, and then make strategic plans to ensure those targets are met, and develop tactical plans for the nearer term, one to two years.

Similarly, private companies are realizing that their long-term horizon is much longer than the typical private one. Their strategic plans may have to be twenty-five or more years in the future. They have to wait for future generations to mature before they can join the firm and begin to develop into the next generation of leadership. They can expand more slowly than public companies as they do not have shareholders betting on short term stock values.

Both private and public companies are realizing that long term, true strategic planning is necessary, and the industry leaders are beginning to do that.

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Curriculum

Strategic Planning – Part 1- Year 1

1. Part 1 Month 1 Getting Started
2. Part 1 Month 2 Next Step
3. Part 1 Month 3 Formalize Goals
4. Part 1 Month 4 Leadership Teams
5. Part 1 Month 5 Moving Forward
6. Part 1 Month 6 Leadership Goals
7. Part 1 Month 7 Goal Consensus
8. Part 1 Month 8 Company Vision
9. Part 1 Month 9 Vision Continued
10. Part 1 Month 10 Strategic Team
11. Part 1 Month 11 Team Meeting
12. Part 1 Month 12 Team Targets

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Strategic Planning- Part 2- Year 2

1. Part 2 Month 1 Team Analysis
2. Part 2 Month 2 Team Analysis
3. Part 2 Month 3 Barriers Analysis
4. Part 2 Month 4 Market Analysis
5. Part 2 Month 5 Competitive Analysis
6. Part 2 Month 6 Perceptions
7. Part 2 Month 7 Team Analysis
8. Part 2 Month 8 Vision Viability
9. Part 2 Month 9 More Financials
10. Part 2 Month 10 Annual Goals
11. Part 2 Month 11 Annual Targets
12. Part 2 Month 12 Team Recommendations

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Strategic Planning – Part 3- Year 3

1. Part 3 Month 1 Prioritize Goals
2. Part 3 Month 2 Approve Priorities
3. Part 3 Month 3 Goal Strategies
4. Part 3 Month 4 Goal Strategies
5. Part 3 Month 5 Goal Strategies
6. Part 3 Month 6 Goal Strategies
7. Part 3 Month 7 Goal Strategies
8. Part 3 Month 8 Prioritizing Strategies
9. Part 3 Month 9 Action Planning
10. Part 3 Month 10 Action Planning
11. Part 3 Month 11 Action Planning
12. Part 3 Month 12 Summary Report

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Strategic Planning – Part 4- Year 4

1. Part 4 Month 1 Implementation Schedule
2. Part 4 Month 2 Implement Actions
3. Part 4 Month 3 Implement Actions
4. Part 4 Month 4 Implement Actions
5. Part 4 Month 5 Implement Actions
6. Part 4 Month 6 Implement Actions
7. Part 4 Month 7 Implementation Review
8. Part 4 Month 8 Implement Actions
9. Part 4 Month 9 Implement Actions
10. Part 4 Month 10 Implement Actions
11. Part 4 Month 11 Formalize Actions
12. Part 4 Month 12 Report Results

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Program Objectives

The following list represents the Key Program Objectives (KPO) for the Appleton Greene Strategic Planning corporate training program.

Strategic Planning – Part 1- Year 1

1. Part 1 Month 1 Getting Started – The senior executive or owner is involved in this and the next two modules. In this first module the objective is to bring the senior executive to the point where he or she has an understanding of the Strategic Planning Process and to prepare the executive for the generation of the strategic plan and its implementation. The foundation for a strategic plan is the company’s Mission, Vision and Values. On these three statements lie success or failure. These three statements are a definition of why the company is in business, its mission, what is its view of where it will be and how it will look if the mission is successful, the vision, and the underlying business methods, its values. Therefore, we start with these three statements. If there are no articulated statements, we will develop them. Where they exist, we will examine and dissect them to determine their validity. Many times, these statements have been written with little underlying them but good intentions. The objective of this module is to elucidate the senior executive’s view on the primary guides to business success. These guidelines are normally published and displayed in prominent locations so that all the associates may read them. If they are not what they should be, everyone in the company is either following the wrong lead or ignoring the statements. Both instances are bad for performance and morale. The senior executive or owner’s view on these key statements of company principles is where we begin our journey. In subsequent modules we re-examine them with the next level(s) in the organization, so as to ensure continuity throughout the business.
2. Part 1 Month 2 Next Step – The SPP theory begins with the realization that there must be an alignment of personal and business goals to succeed. If they are not aligned one or both will suffer. If personal goals are dominant the business will be less successful than if there was alignment. If business goals are given preference the leadership will experience a personal loss. This loss could be financial, personal, physical or psychological. None of this is acceptable. In the SPP the senior executives will develop their long-term personal goals. Long term will be defined as it differs with business type. For a Fortune 100 company long term might be five years or less. For a private company or a family owned company it could be twenty years or more. The long-term horizons are very different and require different goals to attain. The business’s Missions, Values, and Visions statements must be examined to determine their applicability to the strategic long term. A public company’s statements are probably focused on short term goals and meeting financial expectations. For publicly traded companies the pressure for quarterly results is such that their attainment is top priority. For private companies there are financial goals, but long-term sustainability might be of first consideration. Once the executive has articulated their long-term goals and their long-term horizon, and the mission, vision and values of the company have been examined, the executive’s personal goals can be detailed. The present company goals can then be examined to determine how they fit with the personal goals. There is seldom congruence between the personal and company goals and in this case, the deficiencies can be seen. This can be a particularly trying time for the executive who has worked hard for company success. In most cases the personal goals will not be met with current company objectives and it is the executive’s job to ensure that they do. With all the short-term pressure applied to senior executives, it is not easy to strike a strategy that is long term and is aimed at attaining goals that meet both business and personal targets .
3. Part 1 Month 3 Formalize Goals – In this module we formalize the senior executives personal goals and examine the alignment with the company’s mission, vision and values. With proper alignment, the personal goals are likely to be achievable. Without the alignment, they are may not be able to be reached. The senior executive will also begin to develop company goals that are supported by and supporting to the executive’s personal goals. Starting with the executives own long term goals, we will build a goal tree that displays how the long-term personal goals and company goals relate to each other. These are the two main branches to the goal tree, company and personal. The branches may be the same length, or they may differ. If the personal goals are longer term than the company’s goals, the interim period goals must be developed. In this case the company is more short term focused and the company’s goals will have to be constructed in steps. These steps can be considered as independent, or as seamlessly transitioning one to the other. We will determine how they progress and construct goals for them in either case. If the company goals are longer term than the personal goals, an analysis of the difference will be conducted in order to determine how best to achieve both goals sets. All cases will be examined and the output from this module will be a formalized statement of the executive’s personal goals. Also, the company goals that result from the executive’s goals will also be formalized.
4. Part 1 Month 4 Leadership Teams – The objective of this module and the subsequent two modules, is to introduce the company’s senior management team to the strategic planning process in much the same way as the senior executive was in Modules 1 – 3. As was stated in module one, the foundation of a strategic plan is its Mission, Vision and Values. These three attributes should be the leadership teams first principals. These three statements are a definition of why the company is in business, its mission, what is its view of where it will be and how it will look if the mission is successful, and the underlying business methods. Therefore, we start with these three statements. Just as we did with the senior executive, we will move forward with the leadership team. If there are no articulated statements, we will develop them. Where they exist, we will examine and dissect them to determine their validity. The objective of this module is to elucidate the leaderships team’s view on the primary guides to business success. These guidelines are normally published and displayed in prominent locations, so that all the associates may read them. If they are not what they should be, everyone in the company is either following the wrong lead or ignoring the statements. Both instances are bad for performance and morale. The senior executive or owner’s view on these key statements of company principles is where we begin our journey. In subsequent modules we re-examine them with the next level or levels, so as to ensure continuity through the business.
5. Part 1 Month 5 Moving Forward – In this module the leadership team will see that the SPP theory begins with the realization that there must be an alignment of personal and business goals to succeed. If they are not aligned one or both will suffer. If personal goals are dominant, the business will be less successful than if there was alignment. If business goals are given preference the leadership will experience a personal loss. In the SPP the leadership team will develop their long-term personal goals. Long term will be defined, as it differs with the business type. For a Fortune 100 company long term might be five years of less. For a private company or a family owned company it could be twenty years or more. The long-term horizons are very different and require different goals to attain. Once the leadership team has articulated their long-term goals and their long-term horizon, and the mission, vision and values of the company have been examined, the leadership team’s personal goals can be detailed. The present company goals can then be examined to determine how they fit with the personal goals. There is seldom congruence between the personal and company goals and in this case the deficiencies can be seen. With all the short-term pressure applied to senior executives, it is difficult to strike a strategy that is long term and is aimed at attaining goals that meet both business and personal targets.
6. Part 1 Month 6 Leadership Goals – At this point the leadership team is prepared to formalize their personal goals and determine if they are aligned with the company’s goals, as the executive did in module 3. As the desired case is for the goals to be aligned, any non-aligned situations required examination. Assuming there are no cases of such serious misalignment as to make for a mutually unachievable situation, we will develop goals that will be more aligned with personal goals or modify the personal goals to more conformity with the company goals. As in module 3, starting with the leadership team’s own long-term goals, we will build a goal tree that displays how the long-term personal goals and company goals relate to each other. These are the two main branches to the goal tree, company and personal. The branches may be the same length, or they may differ. If the personal goals are longer term than the company’s goals, the interim period goals must be developed. In this case the company is more short term focused and the company’s goals will have to be constructed in steps. These steps can be considered as independent, or as seamlessly transitioning on to the other. We will determine how they progress and construct goals for them in either case. If the company goals are longer term than the personal goals, an analysis of the difference will be conducted in order to determine how best to achieve both goals set. All cases will be examined and the output from this module will be a formalized statement of the executive’s personal goals. Also, the company goals that result from the executive’s goals will also be formalized.
7. Part 1 Month 7 Goal Consensus – The objective of this module is to share the personal goals of the executive and leadership team, so as to gain transparency and to be able to properly analyze all goals as a part of an executive leadership team grouping. It is very likely that various members of the group will have vastly different personal long-term goals. Depending on family differences, ages, and personal considerations, goals will be formulated to achieve objectives that are not all similar. Younger members of the team may have school age children that they need to support through college. Older members may be concerned with estate planning issues. More junior members are still active in their seeking an upward career path while the more senior members may have already achieved senior levels. Some of the goals will be financial in nature and should be reasonably mutually attainable. Others may be diametrically opposed. If two or more members have as a personal goal to assume the presidency of the company, there is an obvious conflict. In time, these mutually exclusive goals can be resolved and depending on the timing both may be realizable. It is not necessary that the goals be the same, but that they be compatible. If the team can build a consensus on the personal goals of the members, consensus meaning if your goal is not what I would prefer it to be, but I can live with it. In some businesses, especially those that are family owned, building consensus may be trying. However, no matter how trying it may be, a consensus of attainable personal goals is necessary as the company is the fountain head for all financial rewards. If the company cannot fund all of the personal goals the company will not be successful.
8. Part 1 Month 8 Company Vision – With personal goals formally articulated, the executive team will address the company’s long-term vision. This vision is a view as to where the company will be in five, ten, twenty-five or more years. Each company will have a different view as to what constitutes long-term. Public companies may think that five or ten years is long term. Others may feel that ten or twenty years is the proper outlook. Some who are dependent on natural resources may think that it is fifty or more years. Some privately owned companies may be more concerned with passing the company on to future generations and their long-term window may be multiple generations. With this module we will determine the definition of long-term first. If there is no consensus, we will pick an end point that is far enough in the future so as to not be pre-determined. This point is normally chosen to be twenty-five years. With the long-term point determined, it is now time to play the long-term personal goals into the company’s performance and predict what that performance needs to be to achieve the multiple goals. Increased revenue is sure to enter the discussion, as is earnings. These numbers will generate a discussion on what facilities are needed to produce the revenue. What resources, people and financial, are necessary to have the facilities necessary? What is the organization structure? How many people are employed? Is our business model robust enough to accomplish what we wish? These and other questions must be answered to see if the desired outcome is achievable. The twenty-five-year vision is the output of this module. The next module examines the nearer term year visions.
9. Part 1 Month 9 Vision Continued – The preceding module constructed the twenty-five long-term vision. This module completes our vision journey with construction of twenty, fifteen, ten, and five-year long-term visions. The theory upon which this portion of the strategic plan is built, is that in order to achieve your long-term goals certain accomplishments must be made in the short term. If the company manufactures hard goods and is at capacity, new facilities need to be found and ramped up in order to produce and sell more product. New facilities can take years to be fully productive and if this is the chosen path, it must be initiated with enough time to be operational when needed. The executive team knows full well the nature of expansions and will construct a vision for the interim years at five, ten, fifteen and twenty-year milestones. This is a tedious but necessary process that the team will have to accomplish. In addition, the executive team will have to identify any barriers to achieving the goals. If the company requires very specified skills for its associate force and they are only available in certain areas, this will limit the expansion to other areas. If the general population is presently at a very low unemployment rate and there are for all practical purposes, none to be employed, that must be addressed, and possible expansion assigned to a different geographic area. The company’s credit worthiness can also limit expansion. All of these and all the others mentioned that the executive team acknowledges need to be addressed. If they are not correctable than the vision cannot be achieved. The last item for the executive team in this module is the selection of a strategic planning and implementation team.
10. Part 1 Month 10 Strategic Team – This module’s main objective is to select the Strategic Planning Team, SPT, and to give it the blessing of the executive team members. The members of the SPT team will formulate the detail strategic plan for years one to five and the detailed tactical plan for its execution. The executive team will select members who exhibit those characteristics that will produce these plans and execute them. The membership can include executive team members, providing they can work with the other members of the SPT in a cooperative manner. The drafting of the strategic plan is a team task and we cannot allow one member to hijack the process. Detailed plans will be formulated that address the selection and notification of the new SPT members. A list of desirable attributes will be formulated, and the potential candidates compared with this list. Selection can be of high performers, fast track associates, or other promotable members. We will develop the rules for the team including its reporting nature to the executives.
11. Part 1 Month 11 Team Meeting – This will be the SPT’s first meeting. They will meet with the executive team and learn what their tasks are. The Strategic Planning process will be presented in detail so that there will be no surprises later. As they will be crafting the strategy for the company for at least the next five years, this is an important assignment and needs to be treated as such. With so much on their shoulders, there needs to be executive support and protection provided. Each has a full-time job, and this has to be considered. The Executive members will address any concerns of the SPT. The team will have the entire process presented and the time that they will have to allocate to team meetings and crafting the strategic plan. Their managers will be informed of the additional assignment and how it will impact their present roles. The managers will be encouraged to give their full support to the strategic plan, and the strategic plan activities. The SPT will report to the executive team for strategic planning. Their plans will be reviewed by the executive team, and no actions taken without their approval. The process to date of the executive team will be reviewed, and the SPT will get their questions answered. Full transparency is important when in a position for the STP members to succeed in. In order for the team to complete a meaningful strategic plan they must have access to everything they need. The objectives of the executives are some of the most important data points to know and understand.
12. Part 1 Month 12 Team Targets – The objective of this module is to ensure that the two teams, executive and strategic planning, are aligned and that the planning team knows and understands the leadership goals, targets and timelines for the project. The leadership team will have, in the prior modules, developed their goals for the strategic period. These will be delivered to the planning team and then the two teams will jointly develop the team’s goals. They will also develop interim targets, so as to monitor the teams progress toward the goals. Additionally, they will reach agreement on the timeline for the planning project. This will be especially important on reporting progress to the executive team. The goals that the team receives are their objectives in developing the strategic plan and the subsequent tactical plans for implementation. It is important that the planning team and the executive team be on the same page at all times. The two teams will decide how to communicate from the planning team to the executive team. Meetings between the two teams will be scheduled after each module, so that there is no confusion as to what has been accomplished, what are the next steps, and where in relation to the project timelines the team has progressed. Other meetings can be held between modules if there are issues that require resolution. Following this module, the planning team will be the major developer of the strategic plan and its implementation. The executive team will approve all actions and take the necessary steps to ensure their accomplishment and oversee the planning teams activities.

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Strategic Planning – Part 2- Year 2

1. Part 2 Month 1 Team Analysis – During the second year of the project, the strategic planning team performs the necessary analysis to determine operating strategies on which the strategic plan is built. The first analysis the team performs is to determine if the mission, vision and values of the company are in line with reality and if they will produce th