The One Thing You Need to Know: The SCQuARE way to better business planning and decision making

By Ross Lovelock

A tried and tested formula for business planning

What is the one thing you need to know in business? What’s the single most important aspect of business to master in order to succeed and grow? It has to be planning. Whether you’re sitting down to plan a whole brand strategy or tasked with planning a single product and taking it to market, nailing the planning and decision making will ensure you have full buy-in from all stakeholders, a high level of market knowledge, know exactly what value your product or service brings and a thorough understanding of how the financials will work. In short, you’ll have an idea that succeeds. Ross Lovelock and his company SCQuARE have spent the last 20 years developing a formula for such planning. Ross has shared this formula with some of the world’s leading companies – now he’s going to share it with you. The One Thing You Need to Know is a complete business planning toolkit.

 

• A simple, implementable explanation of how to bring a product plan or a brand strategy together
• Will teach you the critical business skill of creating and selling plans
• Learn how to think through a complex business problem, create the right solution and then sell it through the corporate maze
• Explains exactly how to distil vast amounts of information into a compelling business story that will warrant a YES decision from the boss

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wiley
• Release date: Oct 7, 2013
• ISBN: 9781118755679

Book preview

Ross Lovelock's major gift lies in his obsession with objectivity. His combination of curiosity and humour, a reliance on hard facts and a quick impatience for rhetoric, have over and again proved invaluable in helping organizations correctly pinpoint and address their toughest challenges.

David W. Henderson , Chief Talent Officer and SVP, Human Resources MetLife

Ross Lovelock, an incredible creative and passionate CEO with huge intellectual capacity who knows the real business world inside out and who delivers the SCQuARE content in such an entertaining and powerful way that you can't step away from training without being infected by the SCQuARE way of thinking.

Ulf Werkmeister, Vice President, Human Resources, Unilever DACH

Ross is an acquired taste. I've been happy to acquire him to work on a number of important business challenges over the last decade. Like a fine wine, uncork him, let him and the team breathe and enjoy the taste of a completed plan and empowered team.

Vince Robinson, President, Nestle Walmart, USA

SCQuARE enabled our organization to reduce the time dedicated to developing our annual strategic plan from 6 weeks to 6 days. Moreover, the SCQuARE Framework ensures that all strategies are spelt out in absolute terms so that we constantly deliver on time and budget while delivering the business growth required.

Lindsay Kelly, Managing Director, EXIMO, Australia

The investment in SCQuARE repaid itself in the first 6 months. It reduced our ‘Planning for Growth’ cycle by over 50% … and that is being conservative. All of those that undertook SCQuARE were able to more rapidly identify the key problem or opportunity and address it rather than wasting time on solving the wrong problem.

Dominique Pomario, HR Manager, Recruitment & Development, Flight Centre Australia

Quite simply, SCQuARE works. After we introduced it, incredibly 9 out of 10 targets have been won! SCQuARE has proved a great sales tool.

Rod Hyde, Head Of Consumer Finance, HSBC Australia

I'm surprised to report that this is the single, best training of this type that I've ever attended. Many courses are useful, some are even interesting, but this one's value for the time spent is unparalleled. Thank you! We need to implement this corporate-wide.

Debra Barker, Global Head of Clinical and Medical Services, Novartis A.G.

From my perspective, the benefits of SCQuARE for us have been threefold: improved critical thinking skills, a consistent way to frame a business case for action, and more efficient communications and decision-making.

Don DeGolyer, President, Sandoz USA

SCQuARE enabled us to work through one of our most difficult challenges … The creation of a Global Brand Import model for Wal-Mart … this is now done and set to deliver an instant ROI.

JC Jove, VP Global Accounts, PepsiCo

SCQuARE is a near-perfect tool for strategic planning.

Seni Adetu, Group Managing Director & CEO, East African Breweries Limited

I think we all agree that this is a wonderful workshop for us to map out strategy for Revlon China. All of this is done collaboratively and intensively.

Edward Yu, General Manager, Revlon, China

SCQuARE enabled us to achieve in four days what would normally take six months!

David Teasdale, SVP & Asia Managing Director, Revlon

I first came to experience SCQuARE back in 2008 when I was working with another organization as head of training. I was delightfully surprised that the elements of SCQuARE were quite similar to what I practised in the Army, called Combat Appreciation. SCQuARE gives me breadth and depth in looking at issues and providing the platform for me to process my thoughts to influence my stakeholders. Hence, in January 2013, I was fortunate to be able to share this experience with my new team members in PETRONAS, and was happy to note, they feel the same way too.

Noor Iskandar Hashim, Director, Advanced Leadership Development Division, PETRONAS Leadership Centre, Malaysia

"SCQuARE is the best formal training course that I have attended in my career.

It changed the way I think about problems, enabling better solutions and making the process much quicker and less painful. I wish everyone had this knowledge, so that we can save time on endless discussions … SCQuARE eliminates these vicious circles."

Igor Makarov, Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, The Walt Disney Company CIS LLC, Russia

Attending the SCQuARE programme will go down as one of the most memorable events in my career.

Rajdeep Dattagupta, Planning Director, Pepsi, India

Ross Lovelock is a very clever and experienced consultant with whom I have worked in the past. His methods are innovative, creative and, above all, work to the benefit of his clients. Any book by Ross is as good as a book by the great Dr Eliyahn Goldratt.

Professor Malcolm McDonald, Emeritus Professor, Cranfield School of Management

Ross is an inspirational leader of change. He truly has a unique style that engages, challenges and inspires people to be better leaders in today’s complex and challenging business world.

Simon Hay, Global CEO, dunnhumby

Title page

This edition published in 2013 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd

© 2013 Ross Lovelock

Registered office

John Wiley and Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom

For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com.

Previous editions published in 2007 and 2012 by SQUARE International Limited.

The right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.

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Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-1-118-65316-6 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-118-75567-9 (ebk) ISBN 978-1-118-75566-2 (ebk)

DEDICATION

To David Jones, Peter Kendall and Wayne Mailloux

Three mentors who gave me a chance in my career when nobody

else would. Without their help and friendship I would not have

started SCQUARE and this book would not have been written.

‘I've got a lunchtime presentation tomorrow and my boss says he expects the usual tripe. Do you have any?’

fbetw-fig-5001

Foreword from Justin King

Chief Executive, J. Sainsbury Plc

Many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers. Many people of average intelligence are skilled thinkers. The power of a car is separate from how it is driven.

Edward de Bono

AT the heart of most businesses are people. In competitive markets, the organisations that win are those that are best at listening to and communicating with people.

Dialogue with customers is widely recognised as critical for business success. It is generally accepted that the organisation that is not listening to its customers is doomed to failure.

Equally important is dialogue with colleagues. Listening to colleagues is central to our way of working at Sainsbury's, whether via our ‘Tell Justin’ suggestion scheme or via the everyday discussions and projects of our management teams.

We have found that to help these management discussions and projects to be really productive – to help our people get everyone on the same page and get to yes – our managers benefit from a common and structured approach.

We have engaged the services of SCQUARE International over a number of years and the SCQuARE process is an extremely sound approach to ensuring that ideas, strategies and plans are robustly developed.

Importantly, when the SCQuARE process is shared more widely then it helps the alignment levels within the business. But, above all, SCQuARE ensures that the really bright ideas and plans get through the corporate maze to the top and this means better business, more motivated people and greater value creation.

Preface

‘Listen, I've got far too many worries to start worrying about worrying too much!’

fpref-fig-5001

Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you don't have any problems you don't get any seeds

Norman Vincent Pearle

NOW that I am in my fifties, when I look back on my career I see successes and failures and sometimes, great hopes dashed. I look back on times of different tempos – sometimes smooth and exhilarating and sometimes scary and worrying. But through all of these things I am reminded that worries get resolved and problems are sorted out – it's all the normal to and fro of all normal lives and normal people.

Even great men keep a sense of perspective. Sir Winston Churchill writing in Their Finest Hour recalls his worries about the progress of WWII and the problems in Europe. With his renowned wit he reminds us:

‘When I look back on all these worries I remember the story of the old man who said on his deathbed that he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened.’

and then, with true perspective, he goes on to plan for and lead the country to what we now recall as our finest hour.

Yes, worries and problems are the ‘stuff’ of life and the ‘stuff’ of careers and work – and like the old man in the story, you will have a lot of troubles that never happen! But, there are some troubles that you should not have and these are the main inspirations which prompted me to write this book and try to capture the word and the spirit of our approach to ideas, planning and persuading others.

Why I wrote this book

I wrote this book for four main reasons. First, early in my career I learnt a simple truth, a truth that has never let me down in over 25 years – simply being right, simply being logical, simply having all the facts, is not being persuasive.

Truly, the best ideas in the world are totally useless if you can't convince others to see what you see!

It occurred to me, very early on, that there is a synergy between ideas, plans and persuasion that creates the possibility of sound leadership and innovation – the two cornerstones of successful business. This insight led me to develop the SCQuARE process of turning good ideas into good plans and then convincing others of the way I was thinking. I hope that this book will