How to improve strategic planning ?

Quelques extrait d'un article intéressant, surtout, d'après moi parce qu'il pointe un élément qui me semble essentiel : la stratégie n'est pas (qu') une affaire de chiffres mais de vision long terme...

• Almost all large companies undertake a time-consuming strategic-planning process that leaves many executives frustrated with the results.
• Executives in the satisfied minority work for companies that go beyond budgets and financial targets to give the annual process a more important role in developing strategy.
• One approach is to start the exercise not by examining the numbers but by identifying the long-term issues facing the company; another is to ensure that strategic-review meetings involve frank conversations among the ultimate decision makers.
• Some companies use tailored strategic metrics to track the implementation of the annual plan, and others link its implementation to human-resources systems that influence the behavior of the managers who execute the strategy.
• Things to ask in any business unit review

1. Are major trends and changes in your business unit’s environment affecting your strategic plan? Specifically, what potential developments in customer demand, technology, or the regulatory environment could have enough impact on the industry to change the entire plan?
2. How and why is this plan different from last year’s?
3. What were your forecasts for market growth, sales, and profitability last year, two years ago, and three years ago? How right or wrong were they? What did the business unit learn from those experiences?
4. What would it take to double your business unit’s growth rate and profits? Where will growth come from: expansion or gains in market share?
5. If your business unit plans to take market share from competitors, how will it do so, and how will they respond? Are you counting on a strategic advantage or superior execution?
6. What are your business unit’s distinctive competitive strengths, and how does the plan build on them?
7. How different is the strategy from those of competitors, and why? Is that a good or a bad thing?
8. Beyond the immediate planning cycle, what are the key issues, risks, and opportunities that we should discuss today?
9. What would a private-equity owner do with this business?
10. How will the business unit monitor the execution of this strategy?

R Dye , O Sibony, 2007 Number 3, McKinsey Quarterly

Facteurs pour le succès des M&A (Merger & Acquisition = Fusion/acquisition)

A retenir: - "M&A is a tool, not a strategy" [...] We found that companies whose deals reaped long-term rewards use M&A to support strategy, not as a strategy in itself. - Les sociétés qui on fait de M&A réussies ne les font pas pour des raisons défensives ou pour bloquer des concurrents. - Un des éléments les plus importants est la Due Diligence (audit) de la société qui sera rachetée Dans le graphe ci-dessous, en bleu, les sociétés qui ont réussi, en marron, les sociétés qui se sont plantées, répondent à la question : "quel est votre objectif pour vos acquisitions ?" Quelques commentaires complémentaires concernant les facteurs de succès des M&A : - When M&A practitioners plan and execute a merger, they go to great lengths to tilt the odds in favor of creating shareholder value. - Some favored techniques—such as assembling a world class M&A team, modifying the organizational design of the acquiring company, and adding systems to smooth integration—can help but do not guarantee success. - Interviews with executives at some of the most acquisitive US companies showed that those reaping the greatest long-term rewards from the markets often take a distinctive approach to M&A. - The markets are more likely to reward companies that focus on their strategic goals and choose acquisitions that complement their distinctive capabilities The McKinsey Quarterly Chart Focus NewsletterJuly 2007