Updated on January 20, 2023

In the current environment of rapid transformation and uncertainty, how do you stay agile and anticipate the changes needed to secure your organization’s long-term viability? Strategic planning can help you achieve this.

Today more than ever, organizations rely on strategic planning to stay the course as they navigate change and uncertainty. Factors like labour shortages, inflation and the threat of a possible recession, supply difficulties, digital transformation and climate change are leading to major shifts. These factors are reshaping your organization’s internal and external environment, often in significant ways, requiring you to review your business model.

How can strategic planning help you?
How to approach strategic planning?
Five tools to make strategic planning a success

How can strategic planning help you?

Strategic planning helps you determine the direction where you want to take your business and what you need to do in order to get there. It defines your vision and values, your priorities and goals, and the concrete actions that will help you achieve your goals. A good strategic plan provides members of the organization with clear guidelines, specific objectives and performance indicators to monitor results.

Traditionally, strategic planning covers a period of three to five years, with an annual review. But in a world that is constantly changing, that’s not enough anymore. Businesses can’t afford to ignore change or wait it out to see what happens. They need to move into dynamic mode and to adapt on the go. Organizations that fail to respond fast enough risk seeing a decline in their performance.

How to approach strategic planning?

The solution is to combine strategy with flexibility. You will be able to address immediate concerns while staying aligned with major long-term objectives.

This approach allows you to adjust plans and reorder priorities in response to changes and disruptions. It continually links strategy to execution and generates useful data that can help you make decisions, like the best way to reallocate resources, optimize recruitment or increase sales.

As a result, management and employees are empowered to take intelligent risks, seize opportunities, respond to threats quickly, adopt new technologies and implement new ideas while understanding the impact of their decisions on the business as a whole.

Five tools to make strategic planning a success

1. Prepare a strategic diagnosis for your business

A 360-degree diagnosis of your business will help you analyze the resources, skills and environment at your organization and guide you in the right direction.

2. Establish a planning oversight committee

This committee will be responsible for monitoring strategic planning through indicators, evaluating the results and adjusting the action plan when necessary.

3. Get your organization thinking more cohesively

Dynamic planning forces different departments and teams to break from tradition by leaving their silos behind and function in a more informed and coordinated way.

4. Use a dashboard

Visual tools and dashboards allow you to keep the entire business informed of performance levels and the progress made toward your goals.

In the current environment, businesses need to plan for flexibility so they can continually adapt to evolving needs without losing sight of their objectives and original mission.

5. Communicate clearly with your employees

When strategic planning is approached in a more dynamic mode, things evolve, priorities are reorganised. This can be frustrating for your employees if your business is not communicating with them clearly. Help your team understand the reasons and the advantages behind the new approaches, and plan follow-up meetings.

Our experienced team can help you get moving in the right direction by making adjustments to your plans and actions. Contact us for personalized assistance.

In a recent conversation with our president, Janie C. Béïque talked about engagement, vision and corporate social responsibility.

When deciding whether or not to invest in a company, Fonds de solidarité FTQ looks at certain criteria it considers essential, namely human values and the quality of its management team.

Beyond having solid management skills, today’s leaders need to demonstrate strong leadership through their corporate vision, employee engagement and social responsibility principles, said Janie C. Béïque, President and Chief Executive Officer of Fonds de solidarité FTQ.

“Eighty percent of our decision to invest in a company is based on the management team. We look at their level of dynamism, objectives, action plan, cohesion, vision and values,” she explained during a one-on-one discussion with Emilio B. Imbriglio, President and Chief Executive Officer of Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton.

“Financial partners want to throw their support behind business leaders who are competent, conscientious, thorough, transparent and effective at communicating with stakeholders. Another key consideration is the diversity and complementary skills within the management team,” said Mr. Imbriglio.

The ability to engage employees

Janie C. Béïque believes that business leaders need to be attentive to employee engagement. “An organization’s best asset is its workforce. And, if you want to manage people, you have to have a people-first approach. It’s important that leaders be genuine and show some heart as managers,” said Ms. Béïque, who became the first woman to lead the Fonds in April 2021.

Employee engagement has become doubly important in light of the current labour shortage, the fast pace of technological advancements and the ecological transition. Fonds de solidarité FTQ offers support and consulting services to help Quebec companies overcome these three pressing challenges.

Organizations are faced with the need to make changes “in a structured way or risk losing employees,” said Ms. Béïque. “To promote employee engagement, organizations should be clear about why they’re introducing changes and what their objectives are.” That’s the key to a successful transformation.

For example, a company that introduces automation should reassure employees by explaining how the change will give them more time to work on value-added tasks while enabling them to gain new skills and grow within the company.

Employees also expect senior management to take personal interest in social issues and identify corporate values that are aligned with fundamental social responsibility principles, explained Ms. Béïque.

“It’s extremely important to appeal to the employee experience. People want to work for a company that has values, an organization with a soul.”

This is a major factor in today’s battle for workers, a struggle that is increasingly being played out at the international level due to the shift to remote work.

Helping businesses grow

Ms. Béïque explained that core social responsibility principles have been part of the Fonds’ DNA ever since it was created in 1983. For example, the organization she heads is a signatory of the Statement by the Quebec Financial Centre for a Sustainable Finance, just like Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton.

“We invest in dreams and support management teams with strong values and ambitions. When we decide to back a company, we take it in its current stage and help it grow,” based on its unique set of challenges, Ms. Beïque explained.

She added that the Fonds de solidarité FTQ has several tools to help Quebec companies grow, regardless of their industry, size or geographic region. The organization has a network of 17 offices and regional solidarity funds, 87 local funds and 94 sectoral funds. Its team of investment professionals specializes in 20 different economic sectors.

“The Fonds de solidarité FTQ is a remarkable economic model because of its dual mandate. It aims to generate returns in order to build retirement savings for Quebecers, while also helping Quebec businesses make decisions that will pay off over the long term, not just in the short term,” said Ms. Béïque.

The organization has some 723,500 shareholders and invests more than $1 billion in the province’s economy every year.

Ms. Béïque believes that Quebec entrepreneurs are lucky to have such a robust ecosystem of financing companies behind them. These companies are now working together more than ever before to ensure that businesses of all sizes and from all sectors have access to capital and comprehensive financing that covers their short-, medium- and long-term needs.

“We have complementary strengths, and by working together we’re able to build stronger companies,” she said of Quebec’s financial ecosystem.

Updated on March 30, 2022

On March 11, 2022, the Department of Finance released draft legislation on the Luxury Tax proposed in Budget 2021. The Luxury Tax applies on the sale and importation of certain new cars, aircraft over $100,000 and boats over $250,000.

The proposed implementation date of this tax has been adjusted from January 1, 2022 (as proposed in Budget 2021) to September 1, 2022. Vendors and importers will need to either charge or pay the tax on any vehicles, vessels, and aircraft manufactured after 2018 that have not been registered in Canada.

For more information, download our recent newsletter. You can also read our previous publication on the same subject, which summarizes the rules for cars affected by this new tax.