Planning

Strategic planning is one of the most important functions management needs to undertake. A strong strategic planning process and well written plan should guide your organization forward in all aspects of your daily business activities. Unfortunately, many plans are not very effective. A well conceived plan will:

• Support the delivery of your mission, vision, and values in the marketplace.
• Use good assessment data on the current state of your business so you actually develop a plan that addresses needed changes to better position your company.
• Have a clear strategic intent for the overall plan. For example, the plan could be designed for growth, diversification, or quality improvement.
• Address all the key management functions in any company (leadership, planning, customers/markets, communication, measurement/knowledge management, process management, results).
• Define a limited number of high level goals with well thought out tactics.
• Be supported by operational plans that enable people at the departmental level to define their needed actions.
• Include, but not be limited to, a financial budget.
• Be more than a laundry list of initiatives.

If you don't know where you're
going then any road can get you
there!

Our strategic planning approach helps you develop strategies that will close the gap between the current state of your business and the future you want to create. We walk your team through all relevant information and data and determine the priorities of action. We help your managers develop operational plans and identify key measures and metrics. And we make sure you have a system in place to regularly review how you are doing in implementing the plan.

Our Strategic Planning Process

Basic outline of the steps involved in the creation of a Strategic Business Plan (BP):

• A gathering of all the key data, information, and the right people to create a meaningful living Strategic Plan.
• A series of three or four 4- to 6-hour sessions with your Leadership Team and selected resources to create Strategic Intents, Strategies, base tactics, and goals in all key areas of your business.
• A 6- to 7-hour work interactive session with both your Leadership and Management Teams together to flesh out the tactics/action plans that support the Strategic Intent and Strategies.
• Two more sessions with the Leadership Team to finalize the Strategic Intents, Strategies, Tactics, and Goals.
• Final recommendations for a successful rollout to your teams.

Basic Contents of the Plan:
Your Mission, Vision, Values, Business Drivers, Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT Analysis) and then the plan itself which includes:
Strategic Intent(s)/Focus: This is a statement of what you are planning to accomplish—your intent as a result of your long range look at where you wish to take the business/ organization.
Strategy(ies): In most cases there would be more then one strategy to enable each Strategic Intent. Your Strategies are the process, systems, and structures that must be put in place to maximize the success of your actions/tactics. They are a long range plan of action to achieve your Strategic Intents/Focuses.
Goals: How would you know you were successful? Goals/Objectives are the key measurements you are being held responsible for that let you know if the strategies are successfully in place and are accomplishing what you expected?
Tactics (Action plans/steps): These are the “how to steps/actions” to accomplish your Strategic Intents, Strategies, and Goals/Objectives. Tactics/Action plans are what you do on a daily basis to move you over time to successfully implement your Strategies.

It is never too late to plan! In fact, it should be a yearly action with quarterly followups to make sure your organization is going where it needs to go. We have a systematic planning approach that will take the worry and stress out of the process and help you achieve the results you desire. Contact us to discuss how we can help you.