Strategic Planning

Banking has historically been a highly regulated industry and strategic planning was not a top priority at community financial institutions. Competition was limited and regulators determined much of what a bank could and could not do. Today, with competition coming from insurance, mutual funds, brokers, investment bankers, finance companies, and many others, community financial institutions must work harder to differentiate themselves from the omnipresent competition.

Strategic planning is a dynamic process and community financial institutions place value on outside firms guiding strategic leaders through the planning process. The Kafafian Group designed this service to allow the best ideas to surface and to focus participants on executing the strategies that turn ideas into results. Our unique experiences with hundreds of financial institutions on various assignments, from profitability analysis to mergers & acquisitions, have brought a unique blend of knowledge to provide valuable insights to strategic leaders.

Our service begins by assessing the institution’s current situation, identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. We infuse discipline into this process by discarding perceived attributes that cannot withstand scrutiny. In this manner, the institution avoids the pitfall of trying to fix a perceived weakness or pursue a non-existent opportunity. Based on the situation analysis we then help strategic leaders identify those strategic objectives critical to their success. Through a planning retreat and structured interviews, we uncover the goals and strategies necessary to achieve success on the critical issues. Our process evolves into developing financial projections with strategic leaders based on the objectives to be pursued and past financial performance.

Does your institution develop strategic direction to your satisfaction? We provide:

1. Objectivity - The benefit of using TKG to facilitate and document the strategic planning process is the fact that we are not stakeholders in pursuing any particular strategy. We facilitate balanced discussions within the strategy team, considering all perspectives, and support the process further with interviews of each strategy team member. This objective approach ensures balanced inputs from all participants that result in better strategic decision making.
2. Discipline - Senior managers may find it useful to be equal participants in the strategic planning process rather than facilitating it. In so doing, they can avoid the perception of pursuing an agenda by challenging ideas or allowing personal relationships to suppress creative thinking. By using our service, we challenge ideas and promote creative thinking. Our focus is on uncovering the right strategy for you based on thorough discussion among all strategic leaders.