Dynamic
Business
Planning
John Satta
Product Planning Manager
Boston SPIN
16 May 2000
QSS’ business
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We help companies meet their business objectives
through integrated planning, building and buying of
strategic products, systems and software
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What are the challenges?
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Rapidly changing markets demand quick
response
More stakeholders participate in strategic
decisions
Increased need for customer focus
Complex demands on internal resources
Quickly evolving technologies
Survival demands visibility
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Responses
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The planning process must be continual,
not periodic
Use dynamic planning to communicate across
the organization
Get (and keep) stakeholders involved
Plan for change in the face of uncertainty
Practical considerations and pitfalls to avoid
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Planning must be continual
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Most planning efforts are fantastic
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not based on reality
wishful thinking
ignore the fact of changing environments
Example: the annual budgeting process
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an annual “game”
wastes resources
justify foregone conclusions
Reference: Gartner Group Insider Article Sept 1999
Rapidly changing conditions demand
frequent course corrections
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Traditional strategic management
• Management team
has limited visibility
into results
Business Objectives
• Business objectives
not clearly linked to
strategic initiatives
e-mail, informal discussions, meetings,
documents, presentations, etc.
Cross-functional Strategic Initiative Team
• Teams are forced to
work with limited
navigation
• Islands of
information
Document
Corporate
Management Communications
Presentation
Development
Project
Management
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• Isolated teams
using independent
tools
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All efforts are global and interrelated
Supplier 1
Technology 1
Technology 2
Supplier 2
Opportunity 1
Project 1
Competitor 2
Project 2
Opportunity 2
Project 3
Opportunity 3
Research
Competitor 1
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Planning as communication
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Vision and direction should be
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set at the top
based on reality
Changing conditions are an opportunity:
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to reassure that we are aware of reality
to communicate how we are responding
to solicit input and feedback
Everyone should know the plan
and their contribution to it
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Top down meets bottom up
Vision
Wisdom
Knowledge
Information
Data
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Characteristics of Outstanding Leaders
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Establish an encompassing, articulated
direction for the organization
Set the working agenda and focus the
organization’s attention and effort
Personal commitment to leading the change
Teach knowledge and skills throughout the
ranks
Wholesale empowerment of their people
Portfolio Management for New Products
Cooper & Edgett
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Involve stakeholders
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Publish the plans
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piques curiosity
Given enough eyeballs,
 Keep them up to date almost every problem will be
characterized quickly
 inspires confidence
and the fix obvious
 Actively solicit feedback
to someone
 generates interest
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Listen to the feedback
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The Cathedral and the Bazaar
Eric S. Raymond
that’s how you inject REALITY
Quickly respond to the feedback
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increases confidence, engenders more feedback
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For each product, initiative and project
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Development and availability timelines
Business objectives
Opportunities
Current status
Future projections
Competitive situation
Internal dependencies
Supplier dependencies
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Planning in the face of uncertainty
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How does one really “expect the unexpected”?
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If you don’t consider the possibilities, you’re relying on luck
Compare alternate scenarios
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status quo
conditions get worse
conditions improve
The end result
is not a picture of tomorrow,
but better decisions about the future
The Art of the Long View
Peter Schwartz
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We must plan for changing conditions
Technology
Newer
Technology
Project
Project
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Balance planning and action
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Conventional Ideal
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Guesswork
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ready, aim, aim, aim, aim...
Consider the unthinkable
to be able
to react rapidly
Successive approximation
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ready, fire, aim
Analysis paralysis
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ready, aim, fire
ready, aim, fire, aim, fire, aim, fire...
Rapid reaction
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ready, fire, aim, fire, aim, fire, aim, fire...
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Practical considerations
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Consistent terminology
 Start small
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Get buy-in
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nothing succeeds like success, even modest success
Be prepared to sell and re-sell and sell again
Have plans
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start-up, roll-out, maintenance
gathering the information is no small feat
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Develop processes
 Don’t under-estimate the effort
It is a lot of work,
but consider the alternative
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Pitfalls to avoid
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Aversion to change
 “Not invented here”
 Intellectual honesty is in short supply
No Excuses Management
by TJ Rodgers et al
• No Secrets
• No Surprises
• No Politics
• No Distractions
• No Confusion
• No Waste
• No Illusions
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PDMA-reported portfolio problems
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Pipeline overload
Resource allocation
No priorities
Indecision
Slow development
Changing direction
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Obstacles to success
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Ignorance
Lack of skills
Faulty or mis-applied processes
Over confidence
A lack of discipline and/or leadership
Big hurry
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Gridlock
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we’re in a rush, so we cut corners.
too many projects
not enough resources to get the job done right
Absence of clarity regarding roles and
responsibilities
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Case study: Motorola Communications
Enterprise
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Adopting enterprise-wide planning to:
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Accelerate time to market
Ensure quality of products and services through increased
attention to customer needs
Sharpen focus on technology developments and
competition
Optimize use of resources
Users
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Strategic planners
Facilitators
Product planners
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Brand managers
Forecasters
Developers and engineers
“Provides the enterprise with 10x-100x improvement
in operational efficiency”
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Case study: Motorola Communications
Enterprise
50
Motorola’s Forecasted Adoption
Rate of Enterprise-wide planning
32,000
users
40
30
20
10
1,000
users
1999
2000
2001
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Multi-enterprise collaboration
Enterprise C
Visibility into others’ plans...
Enterprise B
Enterprise A
Customer of B
enables precision responses
Supplier to B
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Interesting Statistics
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50% of all new product development projects
fail
 99% of all ‘corner office’ initiated new product
development projects fail
 30-50% of largest companies make revenues
on products developed in the last 3-5 years
Portfolio Management for New Products
Cooper & Edgett
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Make the Success Factors More Visible
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Leaders must lead
Review and overhaul your processes
Define standards of performance expected
Build in tough go/kill decision points with
defined criteria
Use true cross functional teams
Train continually
Reduce cycle times, but don’t become a speed
freak
Reduce the number of projects underway
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References
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Mentioned
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john_satta@qssinc.com
www.qssinc.com
Inside Gartner Group newsletter www.gartner.com
The Art of the Long View - Peter Schwartz
The Cathedral and the Bazaar - Eric S. Raymond
No Excuses Management - TJ Rodgers et al
Product Development & Management Association
www.pdma.org
Portfolio Management for New Products - Cooper & Edgett
Others
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Built to Last - Collins and Porras
Competing for the Future - Hamel and Prahalad
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The results...
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Improved business information: Understand
where to invest:
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What are our key technologies?
What are our major dependencies?
What are our core strengths?
What are our critical weaknesses?
Integrated planning: Think globally
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Are we researching the technologies we are going to
need?
Are we co-ordinating with our suppliers?
Are we co-ordinating with our customers?
Proactively plan for all conditions
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Questions...?