Aiming true: Executing your strategic plan successfully

As I said in the February 2016 issue of Managing Partner, in my first article in this series, 'it is important to be clear about your strategy'. When I am asked why that is, I can't improve on what Seneca the Younger said almost 2,000 years ago: 'Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind.' In other words, clarity of strategy enables clarity of execution. Seneca's words are as relevant now as they were then. Business is all about strategy and execution, and both are key. This article offers seven practical guidelines to assist in achieving the necessary clarity in strategic planning and execution. They are not the only seven, but they ought to form a sound framework as a starting point for any firm.

1. Have a plan

Flowing straight out of that introduction, therefore, is the fundamental need actually to have a strategic plan.

One of the first pieces of work I did for a client for whom I started to act about four years ago, was to help the firm develop its strategic plan.

I have since heard my client's managing partner explain that the process was one of the most important things that his partnership had done because, once they had the strategic plan in place, it became so much more straightforward to evaluate opportunities and to prioritise investment by reference to relevance to their strategic plan.

In my experience it is by no means uncommon for a professional services firm not to have a strategic plan in written form. Debate it, agree it, and then write it down. That will not only ensure that a firm doesn't fall into what might be called 'Seneca's trap', but also ensure that there is less risk, say a year down the line, of squabbles between partners over what the plan is, or is not!

2. Be realistic

'To attempt the impossible is not a good strategy. It is just a waste of resources.'

Brian Pitman, former chief cxecutive, Lloyds Bank

It is important to distinguish between a firm's vision and its strategy because, for me, the latter is the route map to the achievement of the former.

In professional services firms, vision statements (all too often articulated as a variation of 'to be the best…') rarely have partnerships made up of true visionaries, of the calibre of the late Steve Jobs, available to them to design and deliver the strategies necessary to execute them. Equally, however, it would be a mistake not to aspire realistically, and thus risk underachieving on realistic potential.

The 'aspirationally realistic' place between those two extremes is neither easy to identify nor easy to maintain. Aspiration is commendable but, beyond a certain point, and certainly in any finite period, it becomes unrealistic and therefore counterproductive in that, in the environment of most 'real world' professional services firms, no-one, whether partners, clients or staff, will believe that it is possible to execute an unrealistic strategy focused upon a (realistically) unattainable vision. Resources deployed in execution will therefore be resources wasted. 'Buy in' and commitment will be lacking. Being realistic is therefore very important.

3. Follow the 80:20 rule

'Our goal is to be broadly right, not precisely wrong.'

Lorren Wyatt, former director of human resources, Birmingham Midshires Building Society

My interpretation of this guideline may speak more to lawyers than it does to other types of professional. Whether because lawyers are professionally trained to eliminate risk or mistakes or for some other reason, lawyers in particular are very good at seeking to craft the perfectly considered and worded strategy and then debate the very best way to execute it. In the meantime, the rest of the world moves on and opportunities pass them by!

Winston Churchill made the same point a different way when he said: 'Do not let the better be the enemy of the good.' Professional services firms tend to be populated by really bright people. Any group of really bright people can always polish and improve a strategy or execution plan, but once a strategy or plan is 'good enough' what matters far more is that the firm moves on to execution - actually getting on with it.

4. Bring a positive attitude to the issues

'If your sword is too short, take one step forward.'

Admiral Marquis Togo Heihachiro

Very closely aligned to the 80:20 rule is the need to bring a positive attitude to the issues, because there will always be issues! 'We don't have enough money in the business development budget', 'we haven't been trained for this', 'we don't have enough resources' - readers will no doubt have heard many of the issues (often also capable of being described more candidly as excuses!) being trotted out.

All firms have issues, from the Magic Circle law firms and the Big 4 accountancy firms all the way down to high street practices and sole practitioners. I have yet to meet a firm - whatever its size, sector or location - that did not have its own challenges.

The key to success in strategic planning and execution is whether or not a firm brings a positive attitude to its issues. Does it take one step forward or does it give up and stop trying?

5. Maintain realistic objectivity as you measure progress

I was proud of my own firm when I ran it (I'm still proud of it now!) and I'm proud of what my clients are achieving (particularly when I've had the privilege of being able to help them) now that I am in practice as a management consultant.

It is, however, always necessary to guard against overestimation of your position or progress, whether in terms of market position or progress in executing a plan.

I have observed leadership teams, or entire partnerships, succumb to inaccurate illusions of progress or position rather than maintaining realistic views of progress or position.

It is perfectly possible to be positive while maintaining a realistic view of progress and position. The two are not incompatible! Indeed, the presence of both is vital.

6. Teamwork, teamwork, teamwork

'I'm tired of hearing it said that democracy doesn't work. Of course it doesn't work. We are supposed to work it.'

Alexander Woollcott, American critic and commentator for The New Yorker magazine

To be able to work in a partnership environment is a privilege. The degree of autonomy, empowerment and ability to participate and contribute is considerable, whatever the cynics might say to the contrary.

With those considerable privileges comes a real obligation: to be a member of the team and to play a part in making sure that the strategy and execution work. A professional services firm is a 'team game' environment.

The RAF definition of the old Avro Shackleton four engined maritime reconnaissance bomber was 'twenty thousand rivets flying in loose formation'. I've always thought that that was also a pretty good working definition of a professional services firm. Get the rivets (people) aligned and operating as a team and you have a very capable machine. Allow them to get in each other's way and the rivets will all fall to earth in a heap of unproductive metal.

That might sound trite, but it is important. As the proverb says 'one bad apple spoils the barrel', so a partnership that is not aligned and functioning as a team will not deliver as effectively in terms of executing a strategic plan. It's down to each and all of us to play our part, and not just to 'management'.

7. Take a long term view

Just as the reason why the great businesses of the world are better than anybody else is because they execute better than anybody else so, for the most part, they also did not become great overnight.

Strategic planning and execution is like painting the Forth Bridge: the process never ends.

The issues, challenges and priorities will change over time, with the economic cycle and as the market moves, but there will never be a time when there are not issues, challenges and priorities! So no strategic plan is 'set in stone' and no execution route is immune from external influences: they do not 'end' and they are not 'forever'.

Both should therefore be reviewed on a regular (and not too frequent - remember the 80:20 rule!) basis to make sure that they remain appropriate and fit for purpose.

For the overwhelming majority of practitioners in professional services firms, the firm was there before they arrived and it will still be there after they leave.

Our challenge as individuals is to ensure that we hand over the firm in better shape than it was in when we joined it.

Mark Jones leads the Professional Practices Consultancy at Addleshaw Goddard LLP (www.addleshaw
goddard.com)