Questions and Answers

As a subsidiary of a larger company, there are certain corporate criteria we must meet. How do we accommodate this in the planning process?

Mandates can come from a number of sources. As you suggest, subsidiary companies may have non-negotiable corporate objectives they must meet. Likewise, a company's board of directors may establish similar guidelines or the mandates may simply emanate out of the wishes and desires of a company's ownership. Regardless of the source of mandates, you must take them into account in conjunction with the Strategic Planning process. The best approach is simply to have a discussion at the beginning of the process with the appropriate stakeholders and identify any mandates, which exist. All planning team members should be made aware of the mandates so that potential conflicts can be spotted and resolved during the planning process. In many cases you should incorporate the mandates into the company's Goals (Page 6.2 in the Simplified Strategic Planning process). Additionally you may want to discuss corporate mandates as a part of your team's strategic issues discussion (5.2).

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