How to do strategic planning? – with Monday

Any serious company wishing to grow efficiently must have a plan and know how to do strategic planning. Strategic planning is often a topic that leaders and managers in companies hesitate to address due to its complexity and the commitment required during its implementation.

Thanks to technology and the software Monday.com, it is now possible to carry out strategic planning with great ease and flexibility. Not only is it easy, but our clients and the people involved in our new way of doing things find it all very satisfactory and enjoy executing the plan.

This simple guide to strategic planning using the software Monday is made for managers and entrepreneurs who wish to implement technology within their operations to increase their efficiency. You will learn the most important steps of strategic planning as well as have concrete examples of how Monday.com can assist you in tracking and executing your strategy.

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What is strategic planning?

Strategic planning consists of creating an action plan aimed at achieving a company’s objectives. Obviously, there are several methods of strategic planning; the one we will use in this article is the one that Gro employs in its client mandates.

In video: What is strategic planning?

The functions of a company (5 to 7)

Our vision of a company is that it consists of 5 to 7 functions. In most cases, a company will consist of 6 functions:

• Growth

• Operations

• Finance

• Human Resources

• Technology (IT)

• Leadership

We will start by describing each of these functions to fully understand their impact on efficient strategic planning.

Growth in strategic planning

Growth in strategic planning is primarily made up of 3 subcategories: Branding, marketing, and sales. In small businesses, it is often one person who is in charge of all three aspects of growth, as is the case at Gro. I am the founder of the company and I am also accountable for Growth, including Branding, sales, and marketing.

However, in larger organizations, the sales director is rarely the person in charge of marketing and vice versa. The actions of the strategic development plan related to growth could be as follows:

• Complete the new version of the website

• Update our brand image

• Launch new marketing campaigns

• Draft a guide

• Etc.

Operations in strategic planning

Operations are often divided into departments. For example, at Gro, we have 3 “Studios”: Growth, Efficiency, and Architecture. Each of these departments has different operational objectives. For instance, in the Efficiency Studio, we aim for 75% billable hours versus 70% in the Growth Studio.

Operations are often where companies lose the most traction. Good managers are scarce, and good planning can greatly assist your profitability.

Actions related to operations in strategic planning could include the following:

• Implement a new robot on the production line

• Achieve 75% billable hours for department X

• Maintain a "Churn Rate" of under 10% per year

• Etc.

Finance in strategic planning

No money, no candy. If there is not good communication between finance and the other departments, it is often the beginning of the end. To grow, operate, hire, etc., you need cash flow. Currently, with the grants offered by the government and our strong growth, our finance department is under significant demand.

We have significant needs, and we manage to maintain good cohesion in our actions thanks to planning and the use of the software Monday.com. Actions related to finance in strategic planning could be as follows:

• Obtaining a line of credit

• Company credit score and endorsers over 800

• Creating financial dashboards

• Creating annual budgets

• Accounts receivable +45 days under $150,000.

• Etc.

Human Resources in strategic planning

Probably one of the most pressing issues in most organizations in the current situation, human resources are often an aspect that is improvised and unplanned. Since it is people who make a company thrive, planning your resources should be done with great care.

We use Monday not only for our strategic planning but also for managing HR in general. Our new employees give us a 5-star rating on our onboarding. This success is undoubtedly attributed to our strategic planning. Actions related to human resources in strategic planning could include the following:

• Finalize the employee handbook

• Recruit a new recruiter

• Prepare the Team Building calendar

• With a retention rate above 80% per year

• Etc.

Technology and IT

We are well-positioned to discuss this. Technology is often at the heart of the most important decisions for a company, but too often planning is neglected. The implementation of software can have impacts in all departments. Good change management and planning can increase your chances of success in your IT projects.

Actions related to technology could include the following:

• Purchase computer equipment

• Check the security of the IT ecosystem

• Implement a CRM for the sales team

• Implement Monday for strategic planning and managing our operations

• Etc.

Leadership (Yes, Leadership)

How can Leadership be a function within your company and what will we consider to be related to it? The strategic planning, precisely. The Leadership function has the mission of ensuring cohesion between departments and achieving the company's objectives.

It also consists of the mission, vision, and values of an organization. In recent years, there has been frequent talk of Company Culture. In some organizations, culture is linked to human resources, and sometimes, as at Gro, it is up to Leadership to create and ensure the sustainability of a good company culture. Actions from the strategic plan related to Leadership may include:

• Implement weekly management committee meetings

• Create a guide on company culture

• Establish a Board of Directors

• Create the strategic planning for the following year

• Etc.

The elements of strategic planning

Now that we understand the 6 main functions of a company, we need to look at the elements that make up strategic planning. To build a solid plan, it is essential to have identified your mission, vision, and values. They must be reflected in your SMART objectives (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time-bound).

Then, these objectives must be measurable using KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). Finally, the accountability of actions must be explained clearly using the What-Why-How-When-Who structure for each action. Let's start with Mission – Vision – Values.

Mission – Vision – Values

At first glance, this may seem superfluous and unnecessary. However, when Leadership establishes and communicates these three elements well, it can have impacts beyond our imagination. At Gro, our mission is as follows: Helping companies to grow and become efficient through technology.

Our vision is to become the Canadian reference in the implementation of Monday and Pipedrive software, in addition to helping 200 companies simultaneously in their growth with Martech.

Our values are Leadership, Transparency, Authenticity, Growth, and Professionalism. Each of our actions must be related to these values. We have clearly defined what each of these values means to us and communicate it to our entire team every week. This greatly facilitates their decision-making and ensures a solid corporate culture.

SMART objectives

SMART objectives ensure that accountable individuals remain focused on strategic planning… with good Leadership. Without technology and with a piece of paper, one can devise a strategic plan if the company can rely on a good Leader and SMART objectives. Here are some examples of SMART objectives:

• Achieve a billable hours rate of 75% for the Growth Studio by January 1, 2022.

• Stay below $150,000 of accounts receivable + 45 days.

• Ensure an employee retention rate of over 80% for the entire year of 2022

Accountability (What – Why – How – When – Who)

When we set missions, we have made it a habit to ensure that there is a structure to be well understood. It was Axel, our director of the Growth Studio, who taught us this method. Here is a clear example:

We will create a strategic development plan to ensure that the entire company is aligned on direction and achieving our objectives. We will plan 3 workshops of 3 hours at the office to create the plan. We will use the software Monday to help us be efficient in creating and executing the plan. These workshops will take place in December 2021, and Carl, Charles, Axel, and Guylaine will be responsible for completing this project.

The KPIs

The KPIs for Key Performance Indicators are measurement units we will use for the ongoing evaluation of our company. The main objective of selecting KPIs is to create a cascade of data that are essential to each other for a successful strategic planning.

In other words, we want to ensure that the efforts related to the “Marketing” function align with those related to operations or finance, and vice versa. Here’s an example I copied from our strategic planning with simulated figures:

1. Sales are the fuel of any company. Too many sales, a company can burn out… not enough sales, it can simply go out. Sales will obviously have a direct impact on billing, which is why these KPIs are currently linked by an arrow. I could have added marketing KPIs earlier, such as: number of leads, number of demos, number of bids, etc.

Why did we choose this KPI

If we make $110,000 in sales, that will lead to $120,000 in billables. Technically, if the next KPIs are also respected (those lower down), the company will operate properly.

2. When cash comes in, we then need to measure profitability. In the case of a service agency like ours (with low fixed costs), we focus on billable hours. In other words, what percentage of billable hours our team has delivered in the month.

Why did we choose this KPI

If we bill $120K per month and achieve 75% billable hours, the company will make enough gross profit to be profitable and financially healthy. That is why the green arrow connects the ratios to profit.

3. Finally, if we bill our clients but aren’t paid quickly enough, despite all the sales efforts (for point 1) and operations (for point 2), our cash flow could drop dangerously low and severely impact the company’s functioning.

Let’s keep in mind that cash flow is the oxygen of a company. Having too many sales can be risky, but not having enough cash flow is detrimental. That’s why having lines of credit to support the necessary cash flow for a company’s growth is very important. However, caution is necessary. When lines of credit are used to finance quieter months in terms of sales, it’s a big “red flag”.

Gro has been self-financed from the start, but with our current growth, our cash flow is often too low. We have applied for a line of credit to compensate for the growth effect. However, this line will only be used to better manage cash flow and not to compensate for months of lower sales.

Technology and strategic planning

One of the most complex aspects of strategic planning is traction. Traction means keeping momentum and control over our strategic planning. There are several methods, such as EOS or Scaling Up, to help entrepreneurs and companies stay focused on executing their plans. At Gro, we use several aspects of the EOS method. However, we have modified EOS to add a bit of magic dust and a solid technological twist.

Note well: We are not affiliated with EOS or Scaling Up, nor are we trainer coaches. We strongly recommend the company Coaching Zenyth if you eventually wish to implement EOS in your organization. The next part of the article will focus on the software Monday.com and how it can be used in creating and maintaining good strategic planning.

The software Monday.com

The software Monday.com is a WorkOs; in fact, it is currently the only WorkOs software in the world. A WorkOs, for Work Operating System, is software that allows for planning, management, and coordination for the typical 6 functions of a company.

At Gro, we use Monday to manage our client projects, manage our marketing, manage our finances, our human resources, etc. Everything is centralized on Monday except accounting, which is on Quickbooks and our CRM, which is on Pipedrive. However, we have connected Quickbooks and Pipedrive to Monday through their APIs.

You should see Monday.com as the brain and backbone of a company, while other software will be the organs. Sometimes (often), Monday can replace other software (CRM, ATS, Project management), at other times, we will use software with more niche functionalities (such as an ATS) that we will then integrate with the rest of the digital ecosystem (your software), if necessary.

I highly recommend reading the following article on Monday software if you have more questions about WorkOs and other management software.

How to create strategic planning in Monday

We have created and implemented Monday for strategic planning in several companies, such as the University of Montreal, the city of Vaudreuil-Dorion, service companies, etc. I will share one model in this article, a simple and effective one. In a future article, I will share the more complex version we use for