Frequently Asked Questions

We definitely would recommend our process due to the completeness of the plan it develops, although it is also important to point out that we have tailored Plan4 to every customer in some way or fashion - all the way back to our initial projects. We even offer our Strategic Planning First-aid as an fast and inexpensive approach to help get in-house planning efforts on track for companies that do not want outside consultants involved in the actual development of strategy.

In summary, our clients do not complain that our process overwhelmed them. They do, however, express appreciation for having gone through our planning process and feel that in all of its comprehensiveness - they were well looked after and are now much better positioned for the future.

By the conclusion of a Method Frameworks engagement, we make sure that the vision, strategy and plan are succinctly shared, communicated and understood across and down through the organization. It is essential for all managers, employees and key business partners understand the basics of the strategy and how they fit in.

The overall strategic plan may be large, but we break down all levels of the plan to digestible-sized documents that are clear in their articulation of vision, strategy, supporting goals and the impacts to the audience reading that document. The plan master is of course a larger and more comprehensive grouping of information, but it is the components that flow from the overall plan that get relied upon during execution. In regard to communication of the plan and its messaging, we help clients every step of the way by building a communications campaign for the strategy roll-out. This includes very targeted detail for each audience, including articfacts such as:

• Strategic Plan Outcomes Architecture and how that translates across the organization
• Strategic Change Agenda describing each strategic pillar and the focus areas therein
• Organization Strategic Outcome, stated as easy to understand strategic directives
• Initiative Map that details actions for each strategic outcome

The value of having a good process is that it can be applied successfully wherever it is needed. We’ve applied our Plan4 process successfully across a wide array of industries, such as: transportation, high-tech, manufacturing, hospitality, business services, government and financial services. The process itself accounts for the fact that every organization is unique. We also offer Strategic Planning First-aid to companies that only want an assessment of their planning process, but want to make corrections themselves and do their planning internally.

Strategic: Large strategic planning engagements involve enterprise-level planning. Sometimes these engagements involve organizational restructuring, merger & acquisition (M&A) planning, long-term and short-term strategic business planning, enterprise resource planning (ERP) initiatives, and planning governance improvement or implementation. A medium-sized engagement might involve less than the entire enterprise (e.g. 3+ departments working collaboratively in planning around a major initiative or achievement of an organizational goal). A small engagement might involve only executive management and be focused on facilitated planning and problem solving, direction analysis, or something specific such as new growth option or communications planning.

Operational: Large operational planning engagements are usually focused at the division or department level and are typically dealing with functional areas of the business, such as human resources. departmental process improvements, field sales strategy development, departmental strategy alignment with the enterprise strategy, or departmental reorganizations. Medium-sized operational planning engagements can address a variety of business issues, but typically relate to examples like business continuity planning within a department or process improvement analysis and change planning within a department such as finance or accounting.

Technology: Technology planning is a broad category and covers a wide range of services from IT strategic planning to technology conversions and commercial off-the-shelf software implementations. Like the operational planning offering, engagements can sometimes be contained within the departmental context, such as an IT or technology department– but not in every case.

The answer is a qualified, "yes". We choose to work with clients that we feel can and will benefit from engaging Method Frameworks to help their organizations plan to achieve their goals. We look for receptivity to new thinking and a willingness to change as key determinants in selecting clients to work with – not size.