Now more than ever, strategic planning is playing a critical role in how companies are preparing for the future. The recent Covid-19 pandemic has forced leadership teams and staff to take a different view on strategy and what strategic planning looks like.
Our President, Dave Guetig, recently joined Phil Keil, Zweig Group’s Director of Strategy, and Jeff Brunings, OnStrategy’s Senior Strategist, for the Elevate AEC Virtual conference’s Emerging Shifts Leaders are Making to Adapt Strategy During Market Uncertainty webinar. The webinar covered the recent shifts that the architecture, engineering, and construction industry is seeing related to strategic planning and best practices to build a robust and successful strategic planning process. Galloway’s focus on client satisfaction and corporate culture has evolved into ongoing strategic initiatives for the company, and participation in the webinar is a testament to the success that stems from adaptive strategic planning.
ADAPTIVE STRATEGIC PLANNING IS KEY TO SUCCESS
Even before the pandemic, the most effective organizations — those that achieve the greatest sustained impact over a long period of time — kept an eye on the environment in which they worked, revising their strategy in response to changing markets, client needs, and other external factors. What makes Galloway unique is our focus on a flexible, adaptive strategy that is constantly evaluated throughout the year, rather than on the typical annual basis, and spreading accountability throughout the organization. As a full-service architecture and civil engineering firm with numerous disciplines in-house, clearly articulating our strategic blueprint to navigate from design to implementation has been a key factor in making Galloway’s planning process historically successful.
The three pillars of Galloway’s strategic plan have remained the same over the years: People, Client Experience, and Growth. While we may need to assess and change tactics from month to month to best accomplish the initiatives under those goals, our core focus never waivers.
COMMUNICATING AND BUILDING EMPLOYEE BUY-IN
Zweig Group has found that consistently across the architecture and engineering industry, strategic direction is not communicated effectively to staff at all levels of companies. Even a great strategic plan will go nowhere without buy-in and understanding from everyone in the organization.
Understanding the importance that all employees play in achieving strategic goals, Galloway takes pointed steps to effectively communicate and spread out accountability. “Our perspective is that our staff can drive initiatives under 2/3 of our strategic plan,” Dave Guetig explains. “Strategic planning is a dynamic process – we’ve never been a company to have a plan sit on a shelf.” This willingness to embrace being adaptive and spreading accountability has helped to empower the entire Galloway team and has allowed for goals to be consistently met, year after year.
Most recently, the strategic planning process led to the addition of traffic engineering services to the spectrum of capabilities Galloway offers. Through focusing on the future needs of clients and preparing for the potential changes in project needs, the Galloway team continues to bring a truly multidisciplinary mindset to every project.
LEADING WITH A FUTURE-FOCUSED MINDSET
To help ensure that Galloway continues to be at the forefront of strategic planning best practices, we are pioneering the usage of OnStrategy software. OnStrategy will streamline the strategic management process, making it easier to track progress towards goals and pivot when internal or external factors impact the industry.
“I think that the OnStrategy software is going to help us as a company become more accountable to the execution of our strategic plan,” Dave stated, further explaining that the software will allow for a more efficient way to track initiatives. With this effective tool, our team will be able to quickly evaluate our internal and external environment and pivot as needed to provide the best experience for employees, clients, and the community.
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