Never a Better Time for Strategic Planning!

Good morning, everybody. Dennis Engelbrecht with the Digging Deeper Pod series. Thanks for tuning in today.

As I head off this afternoon to help a client with strategic planning, it occurred to me that there probably has never been
a better time to either do your strategic planning or update your strategic planning. And in thinking about this, we really
are coming off a major life disruption. And obviously, this pandemic for all of us has been something none of us have
experienced before in our careers. And it's had quite an impact on our markets, certainly almost all markets have changed.
Living patterns have changed. Work lifestyle has changed. All of these things have changed. And as we've finally gotten to
the point we are today; a lot of the financial clouds have cleared. We kind of know if we're going to get any PPP forgiveness
or get any employee retention credits. So, the impact on our business both from the market side and also then the
government side, all of those things seem to be coming much clearer now. So, we're at a point where we can create a
more certain pathway into the future.

In addition to that, really have a lot of members. And I know even myself going through this pandemic period has been a
sort of moment of clarity if you will, sort of rethinking life goals, where we want to be, what we want to accomplish in our
lives. And perhaps you've had that kind of experience too. A lot of people I've talked to really have had some changes and
others not so much. But in any case, we've gotten through this period and now there hopefully is better clarity for you on
where you want to go in the future. And then also of course, the times have brought us some new challenges, particularly
in terms of supply chain and price rises, those sorts of things.

So, the point of all this is, it's probably a great time to get a new roadmap into the future for your business and for yourself.
Certainly, with the pandemic and people rethinking their lives, mission, vision and values, those items have probably never
been more important to your employees. So, rethinking those and making sure those are in line with where you want to
be as a business, certainly that's important. And then getting a clear market strategy around sectors, delivery methods,
services offered, whether you want to deal more in the private side or the public side with your work, your geographic
strategies, your differentiation, how you're separating your company from others, that certainly could be a new thing that
you're looking at in light of where business and markets are today.

And then once you've explored those avenues, then trying to get your marketing, business development, estimating
strategy in line with where you're trying to get to. Getting your organizational strategy in line both in terms of structure.
We always like to create a future organizational chart to see what that looks like in the future and make sure that we've
got a step-by-step plan to get us from where we are today to where we want to be in that future. And then certainly, the
pressure on people. People retention and getting new people is if not more challenging than it's ever been today, certainly
as challenging as it can be. So, what are your strategies around that? What are your strategies around compensation, for
example, and bonus and incentives and things like that to help retain people or attract new people to your organization?
And what strategies are you employing to recruit people and get them in both at the skill level, but even at the bottom of
your organization, bringing them up as apprentices or PEs into your organization. So, getting those strategies clarified
today is also very important.

And then as I mentioned, a lot of the financial clouds have moved on and we've got some clarity around where your equity
is today and that helps us perhaps set some new financial goals for the future and some new capital strategies in terms of
where you want your company to be in the future. And then finally, even business succession. I know for many of you, it's
been hard to proceed with succession over this last year and a half because of all the uncertainties. But now, with the
clarity, that is starting to come for most of us. It is a good time to get back on business succession. So, all of that together,
we're talking about strategic planning and a good strategic plan can give you answers in most of these areas. So really
encourage you to do it now. Never been a better time.

Again, Dennis Engelbrecht. Thanks for tuning in.