Last-minute strategic tips for 2021

 

This odd year is ending, and you must decide on how next year will look. It is common knowledge, by now, that long term planning is not working, and many articles claim that strategic planning as we know it is doomed and must be changed.

With a vaccine on its way and new-normal standards adopting and adapting known processes, it is likely to imagine a better year next year.

Now, more than ever, planning becomes essential, despite what I mentioned earlier. Why? Because some, if not many, of us have a limited budget for next year’s operations. Budget allocation becomes a challenging task, and we do not want to get it wrong.

I have been a manager for many years, so believe me when I say I can sympathize with you on that. But, as a manager, I never stopped considering the Three “soft” crucial elements an organization needs to survive and thrive:

1. Nurture and develop our human resources. It is crucial when our business relies on people’s performance.
2. Develop a 360-degree view of our surroundings. As time passes, every manager realizes that he/she cannot complete all their missions by themselves. We are part of an ecosystem that is evolving and getting more complex any minute.
3. Adopt a Deep-Inspection approach by analyzing last year’s performances, focused on decision making due to our prior planning for the passing year. Did we do good? Where did we get wrong? Can we learn something from that?

It is fair to ask me now, “we heard you. What would you do?” My answer is that to address next year’s planning, keep focused! By that, I mean: this year we do not have the luxury of ‘scattering’ with our plans. Many organizations usually have a ‘free’ element in the year’s planning. It is not R&D, rather an additional section of exploring. Well, in 2021, there is no place for this section and approach.

Focusing on next year’s plans; We must tighten the linkage between the organization’s vision and its objects, missions, and goals. 2020 showed us that a tight and well-kept organization unity helped businesses to float over their troubled COVID-19 seas.

What had happened to the advantage-leverages so many organizations had? Well, many of them had just wiped out!!

I expect to see ecosystems starting all over because of the decrease in competitiveness and leverages. My advice for them to next year’s plan is to consider the option of joint-ventures (partnering or purchasing) with direct or indirect competitors because they experience the same problems, and it is the right time to grow by uniting sources and knowledge.

Whether joining hand or fighting for repositioning in the market, organizations need to take some immediate actions at the beginning of 2021. It must be a prioritized section in next year’s plans.

1. Rebuild your competitive leverage — Since many lost their competitive advantages during the COVID19 era, it is essential to figure out how you exit the crisis in terms of win-lose and what had remained. The market changed, customers and consumers act differently, technologies embarked, and the financial structure looks different too. It is just the right time to set an array of competitive and market intelligence research to understand what has changed and to reveal new opportunities.
2. Adopt the right technology — Many processes in your ecosystem had gone through a massive technology change, and it does not mean new technology. It means they adopted existing technologies for new purposes. Unless you want your position in the ecosystem to get hurt, your organization needs to recognize this change, identify, and adopt new tech.
3. Enhance the quality of the performance of your human resources — Performances are the signal for a healthy decision-making process. We can value decisions by their outcomes and by analyzing the way people take them. Effective decisions result from logical and consistent thinking patterns. Every organization operating in the new-normal post-COVID-19 era needs to sharpen the thinking competencies of the employees, including the c-level managers. How to sharpen? By mentoring and training programs adjusted to the vision and the goals for next year. Intelligence thinking patterns are essential tools and competencies for managers and leaders if you want to lead your organization safely into the future.
4. Repositioning the L&D function in the organization — Upscaling corporate skills, enhancing employees’ empathy for the organization, preserving the loyalty and transparency of your employees, and much much more. They all a consequence of putting L&D personnel in the strategic front of the organization alongside marketing, finance, etc. Make sure that next year’s L&D budget does not decrease but increases. Build a robust training program, design a comprehensive corporate training framework starting from newcomers through experts, soft skills through hard-core technical training, workshops, and experiences, etc. We know that organizations passed 2020 with success because they did not dismiss taking the time, sources, and attention to training and HR development.

It is almost December, the year is ending, and big decisions are on the way. Sadly, many organizations will not step into 2021. Those who will step-in have to do it carefully and keep in mind these buzz words I mentioned in this article:

Keep focused, 360-degree awareness, Deep inspections, Competitive Intelligence, rebuild competitive advantages, Technology adaptation, L&D repositioning, Intelligence thinking patterns, Corporate training program.

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