Strategic Planning: A Business Primer for

Information Professionals

Amy Affelt, Lexecon

Lauren Meader, Covington & Burling

Jan Sykes, Information Management Services, Inc.

SLA – 2004

What is a strategic plan?

Document detailing:

– Where we are now

– Where we want to be

– How we are going to get there

How others describe it:

– Strategy delineates a territory in which a company seeks to be unique. (Michael Porter)

 – Process for envisioning the future;

developing procedures/operations to achieve that future (Goodstein, Nolan & Pfeiffer)

Myths

• My industry is changing too fast to have a strategic plan

• I am too busy to take time to prepare a strategic plan

• Information Center is a support function and does not need a strategic plan

• My strategic plan is for my department only

What is the benefit of a strategic plan?

• Compass for action

• Measurement system for monitoring progress

• Resource attraction and resource allocation

Why do you need a strategic plan?

• Defines core values

• Communicates common understanding of goals &

unified plan of action on which to base business

decisions

• Provides framework for evaluating new ideas

• DRIVER—integrated into how you run your

operation 

Who should be involved in preparing a strategic plan?

• Information Center Manager

• Information Center Staff

• CXO level

• Customers

Disciplined approach to:

• Reflection on the business environment

• Markets/Clients served

• External influences (technology, competition, economy)

• Plans for reshaping the organization to meet objectives

Planning process is a time to:

• Brainstorm

• Share knowledge about events & activities that impact your business

• Think creatively about the future

New conversations give new insights• New hires• Exceptional employees• Thought leaders• Suppliers• Customers• Leadership team

• Environmental scanning• Informal benchmarking

Key components

• Vision/Mission statements• Situational analysis• Strategic direction of organization • Competition• SWOT• Budget• Goals/Strategies• Critical success factors

Useful resources:

Drucker, Peter. Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices. (Harper Business, 1973, 1974)

 

Goodstein, Leonard, Nolan, Timothy and Pfeiffer, J. William. Applied Strategic Planning: How to Develop a Plan that Really Works. (McGraw-Hill, 1993)

 

Hamel, Gary. Leading the Revolution (Harvard Business School Press, 2000)

 

Porter, Michael. Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors (Free Press, 1980).

Formulation of Strategy

Library as a Business Unit

Company ABC

Library Marketing R&D

Librarian

Librarian

Librarian

Librarian

First, Pretend You’re the CEO

Then, Think Like a Librarian

Remember, you are a Business Unit Manager

Case Study: Corporate Executive Board

• content firm– mix of a for-profit think tank and a consulting firm

• membership based, Global 3000 companies• multiple product oriented business units

– companies joined a BU, not firm as a whole

• three primary products– custom research– syndicated research– meetings, seminars, on site training

Firm Strategy

• Simply, increase membership, thereby increasing revenues.

• How? Promoting custom research.

What can the Business Unit Do?

• What can the library do to help increase membership and promote custom research?

- Make custom research a better quality product- Librarians can help produce custom research faster

More product being produced faster.

How to Make the Case

out of the box

add value

empower ROI

best-of-breed HiPo

path to profits

innovicide krudzu

leveraging assets metadecision

Strategic Plan- Summary

• Hire fewer custom researchers

• Hire more librarians

• Spend less on online resources

• Spend less time using resources

• Save money on staffing

• Better quality product being produced faster- again, firm goal is business unit’s goal

Presentation to Executive Mgmt

Get Their Attention:

“This proposal will allow the firm to save $300,000 annually and help make custom research a better product which will result in increased membership.”

Firm Strategy Changes, So Too Must the Business Unit’s

Strategy for doing better what we do today changed based on client feedback.

Business environment, technology and industry changed resulting in syndicated research being more important to the member company.

How Can the Library Help

• New focus on syndicated research

• Librarians became part of research team, attended brainstorming meetings, performed almost all secondary research

• higher level of work, more analytical

Did custom research suffer?

Did custom researchers suffer?

Different Year, Different Business Environment..

• Again, firm strategy changed based on client feedback.

• publicly traded, thus answering to stock holders

• growth/increased revenues more critical

• firm had approx. 12 business units

• cross selling key to growth

• more attention to adding BU’s

Case Study- Professional Strategy

• doing better what I do today

• finding a unique way to enter a market or compete in a fundamentally different way

• foresight- don’t fit the future to what I have today