A Flexible Strategy Execution Framework for Today’s Business

Do you have a strategy execution framework with the agility to continue to deliver on-strategy even faced with disruption, uncertainty, and changes to programs and initiatives? When supply chain, market, competitor, or other unforeseen events occur, companies can either pivot or fall behind in attempts to stay in the game. How often have organizations set their annual plans, but then when faced with disruptions, found that their plans were no longer actionable?

At the same time, businesses that are not actively evolving and growing their processes and operations will find it increasingly difficult to keep up with the market and competitors. According to Gartner, 80% of strategists say there are more complex, organization-wide initiatives than three years ago, driven by business model transformation. Disruptions are happening more frequently, and the market is shifting at hyper-speed, which adds up to unprecedented uncertainty. With Dynamic Planning at the core of a strategy execution framework, organizations can tackle and effect change with dexterity.

“Companies that previously had been slow to adopt to digital transformation now find themselves on a ‘burning platform.’” – Alan Murray, CEO, FORTUNE Media

As we read in headlines every day, companies are having to make quick decisions that could have long-lasting impact on their business success. Ensuring a balance between the work that needs to be done immediately, and what your company needs for continuing achievement is critical.

Those companies that intentionally work to better understand the short- and long-term impact of decisions and adapt as conditions change ultimately fare far better than their competition. It’s time to rewire strategy to delivery to provide the foundation from which to make strategic decisions based on data, not knee-jerk reactions or best guesses. Bringing together portfolio management with a flexible strategy execution framework paves the way for organizations to successfully traverse the challenges that transformation and constant change brings.

A flexible strategic execution framework positions organization to make the best business decisions now and emerge competitive on the other side.

The truth is, most organizations already struggle with strategy execution, and thus dealing with pivots becomes even more arduous, as the C-Suite, Executives, Finance, and Enterprise Portfolio Management Offices (EPMOs) lack the coordination or visibility to reallocate funding, reprioritize, and realign teams – not to mention the agility to do this quickly.

With changes coming at light speed, planning can’t be an annual process anymore. Dynamic Planning means embracing change and equipping your organization for opportunity that lies ahead. Uncertainty becomes a catalyst for success in the market when others fail to pivot fast enough.

The key is to have adaptive portfolio management capabilities in place that facilitate Dynamic Planning and rapid reprioritization.

With Dynamic Planning capabilities, EPMOs can continuously translate strategy to delivery amid fluctuating priorities , financials, and resources. They can reevaluate current and proposed investments and initiatives, generate what-if scenarios, and compare trade-offs between alternatives.

Finance, collaborating with EPMOs, can create more flexible funding models in response to change. As executives make strategic decisions based on these insights, EPMOs and Finance can work with the organization to shift funding and resources, ensuring a quick response to reprioritization.

For the C-Suite and Executives

What is impeding rapid maneuverability in opportunistic or disruptive conditions? Current planning processes and toolsets do not establish a clear, continuous link between planning and delivery or provide access to timely information. As a result, companies are not able to easily realign the organization at speed.

Unable to break free of inertia, businesses risk declines as well as missing out on innovation and growth opportunities. Re-planning and reprioritizing are top of mind for executives. They are seeking insights into:

• How are we investing to position our company for both today’s new reality and for future growth?
• How are we ensuring we are not risking long-term success with short-term cost cuts?
• What are we spending on investments and what are we getting? How are we managing this spend?
• How will we re-align the organization to deliver on new priorities?
• Can our planning processes keep up with change and disruption?

Global enterprises need to plan for change, create organizational focus on the outcomes that matter, and enable on-strategy delivery. When a crisis hits, leaders bound forward and reimagine paths to revenue while staying the course on viable growth initiatives, process improvements, and long-term strategies.

Infuse Dynamic Planning capabilities into your strategy execution framework and rewire strategy to delivery – support your business with the ability to analyze current strategies, impacts of change, funding of investments, and reprioritizing the new work to achieve transformation without the risk of veering off course when disruption occurs.

For Finance Leaders

Dynamic Planning provides the capabilities to determine how changes in your strategic direction impact your portfolio investment funding.

Leaders across business and IT finance, FP&A, and capital planning may ask questions like:

• We are having to make and account for so many changes. How do we stay on track?
• We spend so much time collecting and consolidating data that by the time we forecast, it’s out of date. How can we be more proactive?

Knowing your current spending on each strategic initiative offers insight to determine how much you should be spending based on the revised direction. Finance leaders can work with EPMOs and portfolio managers to model the reallocation of funding across portfolios and compare scenarios.

With revised investments, Finance can reprioritize in the context of the entire portfolio and work with EPMOs to set strategic roadmaps. By modeling different priorities and weighing alternatives, you can evaluate the trade-offs of accelerating, descoping, delaying, rejecting, or canceling each investment.

For EPMOs

Impacts to the annual plan can come from a variety of places – from market and competition, technology advances, conflicting priorities, or intake of new demand. Spreadsheets can’t keep up with change. Strategy quickly becomes outdated and disconnected from delivery and your strategy execution framework needs to adapt.

Does your EPMO have the capability to:

• Take in new, unplanned strategic initiatives into the portfolio?
• React fast enough to sudden (and unexpected) changes in funding?
• Determine what programs to delay or keep investing in when things get tight?
• Ascertain the impacts of decisions such as, for example, a hold on contractor spend on your portfolio or defunding an investment?
• Work with PMO leadership to ensure your remote workforce is delivering on strategy?

If not, now is the time to embrace a more adaptable portfolio management approach (if you have one, can you fully leverage existing features in your software tool to do this?). Your guidance should consider both the short and long term. EPMOs should be exploring how the organization can be more competitive and innovative as we get beyond the current crisis.

Maximize The Benefits of Dynamic Planning

With Dynamic Planning, you have a strategy execution framework that can:

Drive better decisions for short-term and long-term

• Determine what to put on hold, accelerate, or cancel based on financial and strategic impact
• Evaluate trade-offs by modeling scenarios with the right data and analytics
• Shift sequencing to balance against capacity constraints

Rapidly reprioritize and pivot quickly

• Leverage flexible funding approaches to easily reallocate
• Operationalize the new plan for teams to realign and deliver
• Reduce time for producing scenarios and forecasts from weeks to hours

Planview – Your Partner in Creating Business Agility

When change strikes, Planview can automate your strategy planning framework to align your strategy with work on an ongoing basis, speed delivery, and drive ROI. By connecting critical groups together, driving visibility, and providing a single source of truth, Planview can empower your organization to gain quick wins, create agility, and plan continuously, as disruptions come more than once every year.

Planview offers cloud-based software, implementation, and coaching for a quick start to transfer your plans from disconnected spreadsheets into a single solution. Executives, Finance, the EPMO, and ancillary teams can collaborate and uplift capabilities in flexible funding models, scenario planning, impact analysis, and visibility to steer strategic change and align delivery.

Want to see more about how you can dynamically plan, rapidly reprioritize, and proactively prepare for disruption? We’ve helped hundreds of companies make Dynamic Planning a part of their strategy execution framework. Gain quick wins and create agility for your business, with Planview by your side.