LCG Vision and Commentary

30 November 2008

Organisational Mission and Strategy
Part 2: Strategies, Goals and Action Plans

Strategies are the broadly defined five or six key approaches an organisation will use to accomplish its mission driving towards a vision. Goals and Action Plans cascade from each strategy.

(05 March 2008) At a meeting for investment analysts, Pfizer presented strategies to accelerate and refocus its pipeline and exploit new opportunities for global growth.

"We have made real changes in how we operate our business — in our structure, culture and leadership — so that we have a much stronger foundation in place for pursuing the many opportunities before us," said chairman and chief executive officer, Jeff Kindler.

"We are delivering and accelerating our pipeline, and we will seize promising growth opportunities spanning geographies, therapeutic areas and products.”"

The growth strategies include optimizing the company's patent-protected portfolio; generating revenue from established products; accelerating growth in emerging markets; focusing on continuous improvement and innovation; and investing in complementary businesses.

Goals and Action Plans

After determining key organisational strategies, several goals need to be formulated to develop several goals that enable you to accomplish each of your strategies.

Goals should be SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-based.

Specific

A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal. To set a specific goal you must answer the six "W" questions:

• *WHO:  Who is involved?
• *WHAT:  What do I want to accomplish?
• *WHERE:  Identify a location.
• *WHEN:  Establish a time frame.
• *WHICH:  Identify requirements and constraints.
• *WHY:  Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.

EXAMPLE: A general goal would be, "Get in shape." But a specific goal would say, "Join a gym club and workout 3 days a week."

Measurable

Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set. When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs you on to continued effort required to reach your goal.

To determine if your goal is measurable, ask questions such as......How much? How many? How will I know when it is accomplished?

Attainable

When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you can make them come true. You develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them. You begin seeing previously overlooked opportunities to bring yourself closer to the achievement of your goals.

You can attain most any goal you set when you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out those steps. Goals that may have seemed far away and out of reach eventually move closer and become attainable, not because your goals shrink, but because you grow and expand to match them. When you list your goals you build your self-image. You see yourself as worthy of these goals, and develop the traits and personality that allow you to possess them.

Realistic

To be realistic, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work. A goal can be both high and realistic; you are the only one who can decide just how high your goal should be. But be sure that every goal represents substantial progress. A high goal is frequently easier to reach than a low one because a low goal exerts low motivational force. Some of the hardest jobs you ever accomplished actually seem easy simply because they were a labour of love.

Your goal is probably realistic if you truly believe that it can be accomplished. Additional ways to know if your goal is realistic is to determine if you have accomplished anything similar in the past or ask yourself what conditions would have to exist to accomplish this goal.

Timely

A goal should be grounded within a time frame. With no time frame tied to it there's no sense of urgency. If you want to lose 10 kgs, when do you want to lose it by? "Someday" won't work. But if you anchor it within a timeframe, "by May 1st", then you've set your unconscious mind into motion to begin working on the goal.

Make action plans and goals as detailed as you need them to be integrating individual steps into your planning system. An effective planning system, whether it uses a personal computer, paper or pen system will keep your goals and action plans on track and on target.

Be one of the organisations whose employees understand the mission and goals that enjoy a 29 per cent greater return than other firms? Involve as many people as you can in the journey and you will enjoy the greater return.

With your vision, mission and values, strategies, goals and action plans developed and shared, you will win both personally and professionally!

To our health,
--- MDES

"Patience is also a form of action"
Francois Auguste Rene Rodin
1840 - 1917, Artist