Tuesday, February 05, 2013

What is strategic planning?

Strategic planning is something many people think they know because they have seen it done badly.  Strategic planning is NOT:

-SWOT analysis
-A list of objectives
-A book prepared for your board of directors
-Budgeting
-A nice looking document that no one looks at after completion
-A balanced scorecard
-A mission statement

Strategic planning is a process of setting the course and direction for an organization or other endeavor.  A well done strategic plan focuses the resources of the endeavor on those activities which will yield the best results.  For businesses, this means optimizing profitability, survive-ability and growth-ability.  

The best way to assess the quality of a strategic plan is to ask these questions:

-What did you do as a result of the plan?
-What difference did it make for your organization?

Considering the answers to these questions, how would you improve YOUR strategic planning?

7 comments:

Tao said...

It is all too common that people think that the strategy part of planning is just to "have a strategy" rather than not. You definitely need someone who can have good vision of the future of the company and customers to be involved.

Don Hester said...

Often plans are not very meaningful or realistic. Having plans that strategic and attainable are very important.

Becky McNeer said...

Thank you for this post!! I'm in the process of getting one together now!

Liflecken said...

Any organization needs a plan, and having it strategically customized to its needs is even better.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the clarity. Great post!

Unknown said...

Thank you for the tips and reminder.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the tips and the reminder.