Strategic Planning
Most organizations know when they need help with Strategic Planning. They turn to SYMMETRICS when facing these types of issues:
• If we don't get this team focused in the right direction , we'll never get anywhere
• We need a clear strategic plan that everyone buys into
• To be a success, we're going to need a powerful positioning in the marketplace
Facilitation
Facilitating strategy development through group decision-making is an art that requires many skills, but above all requires a firm understanding of what the strategic output should look like.
SYMMETRICS believes it should look like your strategic plan on a few pages.
After each workshop, participants are asked to evaluate the session. Deborah's rating as a facilitator averages 9.5 out of 10, reflecting the value clients see in her efforts.
For examples of Strategic Planning assignments, click on your interest area below:
A break-out plan was what this pharmaceutical Global Clinical Team needed as they addressed the opportunity for new therapeutic markets for a core brand . Over 30 individuals from Marketing, Medical and Regulatory worldwide needed to be involved in prioritizing the development plan for several potential new market segments. And time was of the essence. Deborah Pankhurst designed the decision-making process and led the group in preparing a concise information package, identifying risk factors, and arriving at a consensus in a 2-day group meeting about priority markets. A summary of key decisions along with the verbatim output was in the client's hands within 72 hours of the meeting, in time to develop a recommendation that was embraced by the Board. This plan has driven growth for the brand for the past three years, adding an estimated $500MM to the brand's worldwide sales.
When a mid-sized U.S. based pharmaceutical firm was nearing approval for their first new product launch in several years, they knew they needed to get the launch plan right. Deborah developed a planning process that established a Brand Team and engaged all members in developing the Situation Assessment, creating the Launch Plan including the Brand Positioning, and preparing a detailed activity timeline to launch. A follow-up session with the scientific team ensured that the ‘scientific story' for this novel entity was well articulated. Coaching sessions with key managers rounded out Deborah's role. This process has now formed the foundation for the organization's subsequent new product launches and has dramatically improved the effectiveness and efficiency of the management team.
A mid-sized Canadian specialty pharma company found itself with a robust pipeline but limited resources and infrastructure to realize its potential. The management team had undergone change with recent new hires, and the new group had not yet come together as an effective leadership team. Deborah was asked to help the company develop a long-range strategic plan that would help focus the company against a handful of key priorities that the leadership team could embrace, and give direction for allocating scarce resources. Deborah first led a series of workshops for each of the company's franchise areas that identified and sized the opportunities going forward. She then worked with the Senior Management team to develop a Corporate Situation Analysis that formed the foundation for a two-day off-site session. There, the team made critical decisions around the Product Portfolio, Franchise Risk, Key Success Factors, Operating Style and Key Priorities with identified champions. Deborah then assisted the major functions in the company in the development of their Departmental plans and resulting resource allocation. She has also helped the company's major sales force to re-vamp its tactics for the firm's core business to better address competitive threats. The company now has the focus it needs to realize its ambition of becoming a top ten player in the Canadian industry.
“All the feedback I have been getting on your help has been very very positive. We were very happy with your contribution.” Alain Goulet, Pfizer
“Thanks again for a wonderful job. The feedback has been excellent!”
Mark Nawacki, Pharmacia
Start-up companies have unique challenges that can also benefit from business planning. A privately-held biotechnology firm asked Deborah to help them sort out their strategic options going forward from a wide array of potential directions that the firm could take. Deborah created a process for the management team that involved assessing the desired and fall-back outcomes for each component of the company's development plan, assessing the viability of various financing options, and then setting key milestones for future decision points. The team also identified competency requirements and whether these should be sourced externally or brought inside. The major activities and milestones were then consolidated into a multi-functional activity timeline that acted as a basis for the team to monitor its own progress. The company now has a clear and common vision for its future that it can share with investors and employees alike.
Advisory boards are a tool that many healthcare organizations find helpful when developing scientific or marketing programs, or for the design of therapeutic guidelines. Deborah has helped to plan sessions, design agendas, facilitate discussions, and consolidate learning for numerous ad boards on a wide variety of topics. She has been commended by professionals for her willingness to ‘dig deep' to get to the heart of issues while maintaining a positive and engaging atmosphere.
“Thanks for a great workshop – I had a lot of pharmacists personally give me positive comments about your workshop.” Barbara Reynolds, Astellas Pharma
When a government agency undertook an initiative to assist Canada 's kidney transplant community in developing a registry for difficult-to-match kidney transplant patients, they needed an experienced individual who could work with world-leading specialists to get concrete results in a short time frame. Deborah assisted the team of agency and transplant experts in developing an agenda for a major 3-day task force meeting, guiding the preparation of background information, moderating international speakers, and facilitating the design of a Canadian registry with the full consensus of participants. After preparing a detailed report, she then helped to obtain and consolidate feedback from additional stakeholders across the country. The proposed registry has the potential to significantly reduce wait times and save lives of kidney transplant patients who in the past have had limited chance of being successfully transplanted.
Deborah’s experience as a Board member leading the strategic planning process for an independent school was invaluable when she assisted a large school targeted to students aged 18 months to 18 years with setting their strategic direction. Working closely with the Head and his senior team, she guided the group in the development of a Situation Analysis that gave a fresh perspective to the challenges facing the organization. Then through a series of workshops involving staff, faculty and Board members she helped the team articulate a vision, clear objectives, a brand positioning and top priorities for operational planning. Having clear alignment between the Board and the management team has re-invigorated the school in its quest for excellence and expansion.
Planning in a mature market with a complex portfolio of brands poses its own set of challenges. How to rationalize the product offering? How to allocate resources? How to identify and fill market gaps? How to obtain synergies? A leading gaming corporation turned to Deborah Pankhurst to help answer these questions for their $2B brand portfolio. She developed a detailed portfolio planning model including life stage assessment, spending and new product timing guidelines, viability assessment and resource optimization. The model is now an indispensable part of decision-making by the Marketing team, both as part of Annual Business Planning and in assessing opportunities.
How to revitalize a restaurant chain that most Canadians have grown up with? Almost 20 individuals from Marketing, Operations, Training, IT, Real Estate and Finance along with major franchisees needed to be involved in developing a new vision and key operational strategies for this well-established Canadian business. Deborah Pankhurst guided the team in the development of a focused Situation Assessment and designed the decision-making process which she facilitated at a corporate retreat. A summary of key decisions in a plan format was delivered to management within 72 hours of the meeting, and was then followed by meetings with the President to help develop linkages that would ensure the plan was operationalized.
Even data-rich organizations can often be missing important information about their customers, stakeholders or competitors that can make or break the success of their plans. SYMMETRICS' unique expertise is linking research design to the specific strategy decisions that must be made. We focus a great deal of attention in the design stage to developing hypotheses that the research will test. This is key to creating insight.
Insightful research has made a world of difference to a small healthcare organization, whose flagship brand is targeted to a select group of specialists. The company had achieved good success with this innovative product in the U.S. market, but found that acceptance in Canada was behind expectations. SYMMETRICS successfully completed primary research amongst hard to reach specialists that clearly identified treatment practices and product perceptions that are quite different from other markets. The learning has formed the basis for developing a compelling brand positioning, more focused key selling messages and improved physician targeting. This study was so helpful that it has been repeated for several years with various target audiences. The brand is now #1 in its category.
Improving the skills of managers in understanding shopper behaviour was a top priority of this packaged goods multinational. For this assignment, Deborah Pankhurst built a model of shopper understanding linked to Category Management for worldwide application by the firm, a leader in its markets. With a unique combination of understanding in market research, buying behaviour, marketing and category management, Deborah was able to document her underlying knowledge in a user-friendly model that has been gratefully received by managers from North America to the Middle East .
When helping to develop the strategy for this U.S. managed markets team, it was clear that a better understanding of customer needs was required. SYMMETRICS designed a comprehensive study of payers that identified clearly what their priorities were and their current image of this client and their competitors. Armed with this information, Deborah worked with the team to develop a short list of “Customer Stance” alternatives that positioned the firm's offering, which SYMMETRICS in turn subjected to confirmatory research. A clear winner emerged. Senior Management was so impressed with the teams' efforts that they asked them to take the lead in developing a new Corporate campaign for the entire firm. |
