Speaker 1: Hi. Today I'd like to share about developing strategy and executing business goals. So firstly, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Sarah Pantaleo. And my background is that I was the CEO of Laboquerra. So I did that for many, many years. I'm currently a non-executive director on the Franchise Council of Australia Board, Family Business Australia, Global Gardens of Peace, and I also am the executive director of the Maura Kelly Creative Health Foundation. But today I'm with you in my capacity as founder of Afari SP. Afari means business in Italian, just to honour my Italian heritage. So SP is for sustainable profitability. However, it also happens to be my initials. So hello, I hope you enjoy today. What we're going to cover today is the steps to develop your business strategies and tips on how to execute. I hope you enjoy today. Please feel free to message me and let me know how you enjoy it. So basically, what is strategy? You know, the definition is that strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve long-term goals. But the considerations for building strategy are that you need to have insight into your business. And if you're creating a brand new business and you start from scratch, you need to have insight on your product and customers that you are trying to attract. But you also need to have foresight. And basically, you need to be able to create functional view of the future, events, possibilities and opportunities. But you also need to prepare for any possible adversity. So you do need to know your risks. So when we talk about strategic foresight, key trends that you need to take into account today in 2021, we're in the information age. Technology is moving very, very fast. It's moving exponentially. And so you really need to be aware of what are the trends right now. And right now we've got robotics, codification of money. But with that comes a lot of issues with cyber attacks. So you need to take into consideration cyber security. There's lots going on at the moment, as we all know. With COVID, there's been lots and lots and lots of health sciences advances with vaccines. But there's a lot of sciences that we need to think about. And the one trend that's been going for many, many years is we're connected all the time. And COVID has really, really expanded that because now we are working from home and we are always, always on. So you need to understand that in your business and understand out there because that may impact your employees and who joins your business. There's a lot of considerations in this strategic foresight because the inside is in your business. The foresight is external to your business. But also you need to take the considerations for the long-term thinking. So what are some of the assumptions for the future? You need to challenge those. You need to be able to test strategies to meet the future challenges. But you also need to be open to emerging and disruptive practices and technologies. The biggest disruptive item that happened, obviously, is COVID in the last 18 months. But anything else can happen. There are evolving trends, there are evolving risks to being in business. But what's really, really important about having the strategic foresight, you need to consider, you need to visualise the alternative future and what it might look like. So it means you need to work out different scenarios for your business, what they look like and where they will lead. So how do you plan? How do you do your strategic planning process? I just thought I'd put it into a diagram to make it a little bit simpler for you to understand. But initially, you need to be aware that you need to plan. There's many, many businesses that go through life where they might have a great idea, they run with it, they can get to a certain point, but they may not be able to grow it if they don't have that awareness that they do need to plan. But then once you have that awareness, you need to formulate some strategic goals. And this is where you use that insight and foresight, you analyse the external environment, you analyse the internal environment, and you identify the strategic opportunities. But at the same time, you need to work out any threats. And it's not to say that you really, you won't do, you'll be afraid to move on with your business. But what it might mean with the threats is that you need to mitigate any risks that come up. And you also need to do a gap analysis in your business, make sure that you do loads and loads of research on your competitors, why you stand out, so that you're really, really clear on that. And then where there is a gap, it might be an opportunity for you to perhaps market to an audience. But be prepared for change, be agile. So you need to develop alternative strategies. What if it doesn't work? So you need to have the different scenarios and be able to pivot and change with what's necessary. But what's really, really important, a lot of people don't execute strategies. It's really important that you create an implementation action plan, and you execute. And along the way with executing, it's really, really important that you get buying, if you've got a company that has employees, you must get buying for anybody. If you're on your own, bounce it off someone, maybe your accountant, whatever it may be. But make sure that you execute, because many, many strategies don't get executed. And what's really, really important, as you can see in the last item, is measuring and then assessing whether it's working or not. So you need to set up what success looks like. Because if you don't know what it looks like, you don't know how to measure it. And you measure, assess. If it doesn't work, stop doing it. And this is why it is a continuous cycle. So on that, we're setting goals. So pardon me, I just, forgive me, I just wanted to talk about setting the strategy. And some of the items when you're setting the strategy, when I am working with businesses, I find some of them don't have a clear purpose. So really make sure that you have purpose, vision, mission, and set of value statements. And you're really, really clear on who you are. Because if you don't have that defined, it is very, very easy to fall into a trap of doing different types of marketing that don't really align. But once you have a clear purpose, it's like a compass. And then you can set your strategic goals around that when you're setting it. But do ensure that you set short, medium, and long-term actionable and realistic plans. Because what happens sometimes, we've got loads and loads and loads of ideas. And we would like to implement everything. But what actually happens is they may not be realistic in some cases. Or you might not have the resources. And if you don't have the resources, you can't execute. So it's really, really important not only that you align your strategic goals, but it is also important that they're actionable and realistic. And I keep talking about the measurement. Measurement is really, really important. But I will say this to you. Ensure that you bring the team along for the search, the journey, pardon me. And celebrate the wins. Do celebrate the wins. Because sometimes we don't do that enough in business. And so now I'd like you, when you're setting your purpose and when you're setting your compass, some of the considerations are, one, you might have a very clear one that you got into business for this reason. For me, I got into my business because I didn't want to just not make a difference. I wanted to have a business where I could mentor and guide business leaders. But I also wanted to make it about triple line profitability. We are part of a community, hence why I say in my byline, building sustainable businesses with a conscience. And what I mean by that is because for me, my purpose is to make a difference. But, you know, if you're not sure, if you don't have a clear purpose where you got into business, some of the things you can think about, what are you best at? Are you there to solve people's problems? Are you building a premier brand? Are you managing a product portfolio? Are you the best at speed to market? And then from there, get a clear, compelling vision. And get something that resonates with your customers and your niche. It's like many, many years ago when people were building visions, they would make it to be the biggest and largest. And what's really changed and it's turned upside down is that your vision really needs to be about the customer and what you're trying to achieve for the customer. So don't forget about that when you're doing your vision. Now, what are the strategy pitfalls? And some of them I've touched upon them. That you want to do it all. But the reality is, and I spoke to you about the short, medium and long-term strategies. And what you may want to decide is choose something that is realistically able to be executed at this time and then plan for your medium and long-term if you can't execute it. But really, you need to make a choice and you need to prioritise. Otherwise, you may not execute any of them when you're trying to do it all. So in the middle is not executing. And that's one of the pitfalls that I've seen time and time again. Great ideas, unable to execute. And also, if they're not going to be customer focused. Because you might be executing but you may not get a great return on investment. And a couple of the other pitfalls that I want to talk about is not being agile. And as we spoke about, you know, the imminent one is COVID. And if you didn't have technologies that allowed you to go online, you wouldn't have been able to work from home. You would have found it really difficult. So when you are creating some of these strategies, you need to allow for flexibility. And don't try to be something for everybody. Be very clear about who your niche is. And service them well. Identify that niche and service them well. I cannot stress that enough. So some of the tips that I want to give you that I've already touched upon is ensure you involve your team. Make it realistic and executable. Only one accountable person with collaborators and clear deadlines. Early in my career, I used to say, okay, two people were accountable so they could work on a big project together. And usually it didn't happen because one person thought the other person was going to do it. And then it didn't happen. So I say in my business, when I was at Laboquetta, we created some really clear key result areas for each department. And they understood the responsibility for that department. But then with the executable plans, we knew exactly who was accountable to make it happen for every single project, every single action. And there was clear deadlines. And if deadlines couldn't be met that would impact somebody else, the communication was very clear. So with that, communicate, communicate, communicate. Clear accountability. Clear set of actions. And they need to be aligned to your strategic goals. I cannot, cannot stress that enough. So make the plan part of what you do every day. Early in my career, we basically used to say, okay, we've got to have a strategy day. And then the strategy day wouldn't happen because we were too busy. So what I then set out to do with the team, when we sat down and reshaped how we set strategy, was that we set a three-year strategy plan with three-year strategic high-level goals. And then there was a 12-month action plan with clear accountabilities. And then it went into our operation of what we do and we start working in progress reports and it went into the team leaders working in progress day-to-day. So that became the budget, the action plan, everything around that. And I know I'm repeating myself, but measure, measure, measure, review and act. If something isn't working, stop doing it. It's okay. The fact of the matter is not everything is going to go well. So it's really, really, really important that you do that. So finally, I just want to say that if you need help and you're struggling in executing your plan, I build businesses with a conscience. And I work, I have half-day workshops and I have full-day workshops or one-on-one mentoring programs to help leaders set their strategies. So here are my contact details. Feel free to send me an email. There's contact details on my website. Connect with me on LinkedIn. Hope you enjoyed that. This is me, Sarah, real from home, wishing you a happy day.