Is there a role for your Operational Activities in your strategic business plan? Absolutely, there is! Without a clear classification and identification of the Key Work Processes that consume your daily operation’s financial, human, and capital resources, you will overlook a key component of your Strategic Business Plan – which is your Business Alignment Model. In this article, will refer to the term Key Work Process in order to be consistent with language found in the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award – AKA “The Baldrige Award”.
The operational section of your business plan (regardless of the nomenclature you utilize), must be at the summary level, and clearly support your Strategic Goals, Mission, and Vision. When we are integrating our operational functions into our strategic business plan, we like to keep the inventory of categories limited – four to six is an easily manageable number.
Certainly, each category will cascade down to dozens of operational processes, all of which should be well documented with metrics, process flows, ROI, and information about the successes and challenges of each process. Additionally, there will be a significant amount of details attached to these operational activities in the form of project plans, charts, reports, and meeting minutes. This is critical information for the team responsible for these activities to maintain. But, please, let’s keep these details out of your official strategic planning document – and out of the Boardroom.
So, back to integrating our operation into our strategic business plan. An example of a manageable inventory of Key Work Processes for a non-profit agency might look like the following:
- Marketing & Communication
- Fundraising
- Grant Writing
- Fund Allocation or Distribution
- Infrastructure & Technology
- Accounting & Finance
Sometimes the Key Work Processes naturally align with business units. However, if you have an effective cross-functional business environment, many of these higher-level processes will be influenced, supported, and managed by a variety of departments or individuals. Most of this depends on the size and “communication maturity” of your agency. When cross-functionality is achieved, the challenges of silos and barriers to communication begin to erode, and progress accelerates.
Let’s dig a bit deeper for a moment, and then we will jump back to the strategic business plan, and close out our discussion for today. We will use the Fundraising work process as an example. The sub-processes may look something like:
- Golf Tournament
- Annual Member Pledges
- Casino Night
And, of course, each of these processes will have a variety of supporting tactics. You might balk at the idea of creating such an inventory. Your first response may be that you already know your operation and have a clear idea of what is value-added, and what is not. Maybe so, but does everyone understand? And, are you willing to jettison non-value added activities to make way for new strategies? If not, you’re your ROI model for your new strategic goals must include the acquisition of new resources – unless, of course you are blessed with enough excess capacity to manage the goal. A luxury most businesses and agencies no longer have. But, remember, the further you cascade down your list of operational activities, the further away from the Boardroom you should be.
Creating and exhaustive operational inventory, and linking it to your plan, keeps the business plan alive. When you make room in your operation to address strategic goals, you are far more likely to experience success. To the contrary, if your processes have too much drag on your business, your future goals will continue to remain in the future. However, from a “documentation” perspective, let’s leave the top-level operational activities (Key Work Processes) in the plan, and the underlying details in the hands of the staff in which you trust with the stewardship of your daily operation.
One challenge is to determine when operational discussions should take place, and when strategic discussion are more appropriate. If your Board of Directors begins discussing carpet color for an office remodel, or whether a newsletter should be printed on bright-white paper or recycled stock – you have slipped into a micromanagement environment. To the contrary; staff should ensure their daily operation is aligned with the strategic direction of the board, and not simply continued the old way – because “We’ve always done it that way”. Operational v. Strategic discussions has a fine line – a line that easily misunderstood and often ambiguous.
So remember: Be sure to keep your operational discussions as general as possible. You must address them in the business plan – as they consume all of your resources. However, try not to go past the second level of processes in the Boardroom or in your strategic business plan. Leave that work to the great staff that is committed to the success of your agency’s daily operation.
By Ron Woodbury