Demystifying Strategic Planning: Insights from a Seasoned Expert

In this discussion, Cosmic Creative Director Eric Ressler is joined by Katie Burkhart, the mastermind behind MatterLogic. Together Eric and Katie discuss ways of defining strategic planning, the purpose and process of effective strategic planning for social impact organizations, the essential components of a strategic plan both internally and externally, and the key differences between a strategic plan and a brand strategy.

“Strategy is not choices you make every three to five years at a grandiose level, it’s making choices every single day about what you do as a business and how you go about doing it.”

Episode Highlights:

• Reframing strategy and planning to address an organization’s core work and actions. [1:05]

• Questions every strategic plan needs to answer so that your design agency can do effective work. [6:55]

• Distinguishing between a strategy and a plan, and the need to include both in day-to-day actions. [10:00]

• The power of effective narrative and storytelling in creating clarity around strategy. [15:01]

• Improving positioning by defining your niche and identifying how you see yourself. [18:08]

• The synergistic intersection of values and a more informed strategy. [22:21]

• An organization’s strengths can be identified through its origin story and the perception of how they are accomplishing their work. [27:25]

• The potential value and challenges of partnerships from the brand perspective. [31:08]

Quotes:

“You have a core as a business and you need to make choices based on that core. That’s what strategy is.” – Katie Burkhart [1:50]

“Strategy is not choices you make every three to five years at a grandiose level, it’s making choices every single day about what you do as a business and how you go about doing it.” – Katie Burkhart [1:58]

“The simpler a strategy is, the more easily any given team member can articulate that strategy with understanding, the more likely it is that strategy will actually come to fruition.” – Eric Ressler [14:42]

“Generally we're a big fan of partnerships if there is a potential for a mutually beneficial outcome of that work.” – Eric Ressler [32:55]

“If you have a clear strategy, a clear point of view as an organization, an effective way of telling that impact story in an emotionally driven way that's also clear at the same time, then you have more opportunities to say yes this is a good fit for us, no this grant isn't a good fit for us, or to even educate funders or donors around where the priorities stand and how you can take those resources and most effectively apply them to your issue area.” – Eric Ressler [35:55]

Resources:

Katie Burkhart LinkedIn

MatterLogic

Eric Ressler LinkedIn