Strategic Planning is a process where organizations define a bold vision and create a plan with objectives and goals to reach that future. A great strategic plan defines where your organization is going, how you’ll win, who must do what, and how you’ll review and adapt your strategy.
The strategic management process is about getting from Point A to Point B more effectively, efficiently, and enjoying the journey and learning from it. Part of that journey is the strategy and part of it is execution. Having a good strategy dictates “how” you travel the road you have selected and effective execution makes sure you are checking in along the way. On average, this process can take between three and four months. However no one organization is alike and you may decide to fast track your process or slow it down. Move at a pace that works best for you and your team and leverage this as a resource. For more of a deep dive look into each part of the planning phase, you will see a link to the detailed How-To Guide at the top of each phase.
1-2 weeks (1 hr meeting with Owner/CEO, Strategy Director and Facilitator (if necessary) to discuss information collected and direction for continued planning.)
| Action | Who is Involved | Tools & Techniques | Estimated Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Determine organizational readiness | Owner/CEO, Strategy Director | Readiness assessment | |
| Establish your planning team and schedule | Owner/CEO, Strategy Leader | Kick-Off Meeting: 1 hr | |
| Collect and review information to help make the upcoming strategic decisions | Planning Team and Executive Team | Data Review Meeting: 2 h |
Who is going to be on your planning team? You need to choose someone to oversee the implementation (Chief Strategy Officer or Strategy Director) and then you need some of the key individuals and decision makers for this team. It should be a small group of approximately 12-15 persons.
Collect the following information on your organization:
Review the data collected in the last action with your strategy director and facilitator.
Conclusion:
Want More? Deep Dive Into the “Evaluate Your Strategic Position” How-To Guide.
| Action | Who is Involved | Tools & Techniques | Estimated Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conduct a scan of macro and micro trends in your environment and industry (Environmental Scan) | Executive Team and Planning Team |
|
2 – 3 weeks |
| Identify market and competitive opportunities and threats | Executive Team and Planning Team |
|
2 – 3 weeks |
| Clarify target customers and your value proposition | Marketing team, sales force, and customers |
|
2 – 3 weeks |
| Gather and review staff and partner feedback to determine strengths and weaknesses | All Staff |
|
2 – 3 weeks |
| Synthesize into a SWOT Solidify your competitive advantages based on your key strengths |
Executive Team and Strategic Planning Leader |
|
Strategic Position Meeting: 2-4 hours |
Strategic issues are critical unknowns that are driving you to embark on a strategic planning process now. These issues can be problems, opportunities, market shifts or anything else that is keeping you awake at night and begging for a solution or decision.
Conducting an environmental scan will help you understand your operating environment. An environmental scan is also referred to as a PEST analysis, which is an acronym for Political, Economic, Social and Technological trends. Sometimes it is helpful to also include Ecological and Legal trends as well. All of these trends play a part in determining the overall business environment.
The reason to do a competitive analysis is to assess the opportunities and threats that may occur from those organizations competing for the same business you are. You need to have an understanding of what your competitors are or aren’t offering your potential customers. Here are a few other key ways a competitive analysis fits into strategic planning:
Learn more on how to conduct a competitive analysis here.
Opportunities are situations that exist but must be acted on if the business is to benefit from them.
Threats refer to external conditions or barriers that may prevent a company from reaching its objectives.
Strengths refer to what your company does well.
Weaknesses refer to any limitations a company faces in developing or implementing a strategy.
Customer segmentation defines the different groups of people or organizations a company aims to reach or serve.
A SWOT analysis is a quick way of examining your organization by looking at the internal strengths and weaknesses in relation to the external opportunities and threats. By creating a SWOT analysis, you can see all the important factors affecting your organization together in one place. It’s easy to read, easy to communicate, and easy to create. Take the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats you developed earlier, review, prioritize and combine like terms. The SWOT analysis helps you ask, and answer, the following questions: “How do you….”
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Want More? Deep Dive Into the “Developing Your Strategy” How-To Guide.
| Action | Who is Involved | Tools & Techniques | Estimated Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Determine your primary business, business model and organizational purpose (mission) | Planning Team (All staff if doing a survey) |
|
2 weeks (gather data, review and hold a mini-retreat with Planning Team) |
| Identify your corporate values (values) | Planning Team (All staff if doing a survey) |
|
2 weeks (gather data, review and hold a mini-retreat with Planning Team) |
| Create an image of what success would look like in 3-5 years (vision) | Planning Team (All staff if doing a survey) |
|
2 weeks (gather data, review and hold a mini-retreat with Planning Team) |
| Solidify your competitive advantages based on your key strengths | Planning Team (All staff if doing a survey) |
|
2 weeks (gather data, review and hold a mini-retreat with Planning Team) |
| Formulate organization-wide strategies that explain your base for competing | Planning Team (All staff if doing a survey) |
|
2 weeks (gather data, review and hold a mini-retreat with Planning Team) |
| Agree on the strategic issues you need to address in the planning process | Planning Team |
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2 weeks (gather data, review and hold a mini-retreat with Planning Team) |
The mission statement describes an organization’s purpose or reason for existing.
Your values statement clarifies what your organization stands for, believes in and the behaviors you expect to see as a result.
A Vision Statement defines your desired future state and provides direction for where we are going as an organization.
A Competitive Advantage is a characteristic(s) of an organization that allows it to meet their customer’s need(s) better than their competition can.
Your strategies are the general methods you intend to use to reach your vision. No matter what the level, a strategy answers the question “how.”
Want More? Deep Dive Into the “Build Your Plan” How-To Guide.
| Action | Who is Involved | Tools & Techniques | Estimated Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Develop your strategic framework and define long-term strategic objectives/priorities | Executive Team Planning Team | Strategy Comparison Chart Strategy Map | Leadership Offsite: 1 – 2 days |
| Set short-term SMART organizational goals and measures | Executive Team Planning Team | Strategy Comparison Chart Strategy Map | Leadership Offsite: 1 – 2 days |
| Select which measures will be your key performance indicators | Executive Team and Strategic Director | Strategy Map | Follow Up Offsite Meeting: 2-4 hours |
If your team wants to take the next step in the SWOT analysis, apply the TOWS Strategic Alternatives Matrix to help you think about the options that you could pursue. To do this, match external opportunities and threats with your internal strengths and weaknesses, as illustrated in the matrix below:
| External Opportunities (O) | External Threats (T) | |
|---|---|---|
| Internal Strengths (S) | SO Advantage Strategies: Strategies that use strengths to maximize opportunities. | ST Protective Strategies: Strategies that use strengths to minimize threats. |
| Internal Weaknesses (W) | WO Conversion Strategies: Strategies that minimize weaknesses by taking advantage of opportunities. | WT Defensive Strategies: Strategies that minimize weaknesses and avoid threats. |
Evaluate the options you’ve generated, and identify the ones that give the greatest benefit, and that best achieve the mission and vision of your organization. Add these to the other strategic options that you’re considering.
Long-Term Strategic Objectives are long-term, broad, continuous statements that holistically address all areas of your organization. What must we focus on to achieve our vision? What are the “big rocks”?
Once you have formulated your strategic objectives, you should translate them into goals and measures that can be clearly communicated to your planning team (team leaders and/or team members). You want to set goals that convert the strategic objectives into specific performance targets. Effective goals clearly state what, when, how, and who, and they are specifically measurable. They should address what you need to do in the short-term (think 1-3 years) to achieve your strategic objectives. Organization-wide goals are annual statements that are specific, measurable, attainable, responsible and time bound. These are outcome statements expressing a result expected in the organization.
Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are the key measures that will have the most impact in moving your organization forward. We recommend you guide your organization with measures that matter.
Outcome: 5-7 measures that help you keep the pulse on your performance. When selecting your Key Performance Indicators, begin by asking “What are the key performance measures we need to track in order to monitor if we are achieving our goals?” These KPIs include the key goals that you want to measure that will have the most impact in moving your organization forward.
Cascading action items and to-dos for each short-term goal is where the rubber meets the road – literally. Moving from big ideas to action happens when strategy is translated from the organizational level to the individual. Here we widen the circle of the people who are involved in the planning as functional area managers and individual contributors develop their short-term goals and actions to support the organizational direction. But before you take that action, determine if you are going to develop a set of plans that cascade directly from the strategic plan, or instead if you have existing operational, business or account plans that should be synced up with organizational goals. A pitfall is to develop multiple sets of goals and actions for directors and staff to manage. Fundamentally, at this point you have moved from planning the strategy to planning the operations; from strategic planning to annual planning. That said, the only way strategy gets executed is to align resources and actions from the bottom to the top to drive your vision.
Department/functional goals, actions, measures and targets for the next 12-24 months
Now in your Departments / Teams, you need to create goals to support the organization-wide goals. These goals should still be SMART and are generally (short-term) something to be done in the next 12-18 months. Finally, you should develop an action plan for each goal. Keep the acronym SMART in mind again when setting action items, and make sure they include start and end dates and have someone assigned their responsibility. Since these action items support your previously established goals, it may be helpful to consider action items your immediate plans on the way to achieving your (short-term) goals. In other words, identify all the actions that need to occur in the next 90 days and continue this same process every 90 days until the goal is achieved.
| 1 Increase new customer base. |
| 1.1 Reach a 15% annual increase in new customers. (Due annually for 2 years) |
| 1.1.1 Implement marketing campaign to draw in new markets. (Marketing, due in 12 months) |
| 1.1.1.1 Research the opportunities in new markets that we could expand into. (Doug) (Marketing, due in 6 months) |
| 1.1.1.1.1 Complete a competitive analysis study of our current and prospective markets. (Doug) (Marketing, due in 60 days) |
| 1.1.1.2 Develop campaign material for new markets. (Mary) (Marketing, due in 10 months) |
| 1.1.1.2.1 Research marketing methods best for reaching the new markets. (Mary) (Marketing,due in 8 months) |
Want More? Deep Dive Into the “Managing Performance” How-To Guide.
| Action | Who is Involved | Tools & Techniques | Estimated Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Establish implementation schedule | Planning Team |
|
1-2 hours |
| Train your team to use OnStrategy to manage their part of the plan | HR Team, Department Managers & Teams |
|
1 hr per team member |
| Review progress and adapt the plan at Quarterly Strategy Reviews (QBR) | Department Teams + Executive Team |
|
Department QBR: 2 hrs Organizational QBR: 4 hrs |
Implementation is the process that turns strategies and plans into actions in order to accomplish strategic objectives and goals.
Once your resources are in place, you can set your implementation schedule. Use the following steps as your base implementation plan:
Monthly strategy meetings don’t need to take a lot of time – 30 to 60 minutes should suffice. But it is important that key team members report on their progress toward the goals they are responsible for – including reporting on metrics in the scorecard they have been assigned. By using the measurements already established, it’s easy to make course corrections if necessary. You should also commit to reviewing your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) during these regular meetings.
Never lose sight of the fact that strategic plans are guidelines, not rules. Every six months or so, you should evaluate your strategy execution and plan implementation by asking these key questions:
Restricting the meeting to reporting on measurements can help you stay on task and keep the meeting within 30 minutes, but if you can commit to a full hour, the meeting agenda should also include some time devoted to working on one specific topic or on one of the quarter’s priorities where decisions need to be made. Once agreed upon, this topic should be developed to conclusion. Holding meetings helps focus your goals on accomplishing top priorities and accelerating growth of the organization. Although the meeting structure is relatively simple, it does require a high degree of discipline.
Step 4: Annual Updates The three words strategic planning off-site provoke reactions anywhere from sheer exuberance to ducking for cover. In many organizations, retreats have a bad reputation because stepping into one of the many planning pitfalls is so easy. Holding effective meetings can be tough, and if you add a lot of brainpower mixed with personal agendas, you can have a recipe for disaster. That’s why so many strategic planning meetings are unsuccessful. Executing your strategic plan is as important, or even more important, than your strategy. Critical actions move a strategic plan from a document that sits on the shelf to actions that drive organizational growth. The sad reality is that the majority of organizations who have strategic plans fail to implement. Don’t be part of the majority! In fact, research has shown that 70% of organizations that have a formal execution process out-perform their peers. (Kaplan & Norton) Guiding your work in this stage of the planning process is a schedule for the next 12 months that spells out when the quarterly strategy reviews are, who is involved, what participants need to bring to the meetings and how you will adapt the plan based on the outcomes of the reviews. You remain in this phase of the strategic management process until you embark on the next formal planning sessions where you start back at the beginning. Remember that successful execution of your plan relies on appointing a strategy director, training your team to use OnStrategy (or any other planning tool), effectively driving accountability, and gaining organizational commitment to the process.
Strategic Planning is a process where organizations define a bold vision and create a plan with objectives and goals to reach that future. A great strategic plan defines where your organization is going, how you’ll win, who must do what, and how you’ll review and adapt your strategy.
Business Strategic Planning is a process where your business defines a bold vision of the future and creates a plan to reach that future. It helps your business define where you’re going, how you’ll get there, how you’ll grow, and what you must do to reach your desired future.
A great strategic plan determines where your organization is going, how you’ll win, what roles each team member has in the execution, and your game plan for reviewing and adapting your strategy. Elements include a current state analysis, SWOT, mission, vision, values, competitive advantages, growth strategy, growth enablers, a 3-year roadmap, and annual plan with goals, KPIs, and OKRs.
Typically, the average strategic planning process takes about 3-4 months, but depending on your organization, it could take more or less time. Every organization is different, so you should work at a pace that works for you.
There are four overarching phases to the strategic planning process that include: determining position, developing your strategy, building your plan, and managing performance. Each phase plays a unique but distinctly crucial role in the strategic planning process.
Prior to starting your strategic plan, you must go through this pre-planning process to determine your organization’s readiness by following these steps:
Ask yourself these questions: Are the conditions and criteria for successful planning in place now? Can we foresee any pitfalls that we can avoid? Is there an appropriate time for our organization to initiate this process?
Develop your team and schedule. Who will oversee the implementation as Chief Strategy Officer or Director? Do we have at least 12-15 other key individuals on our team?
Research and Collect Current Data. Find the following resources that your organization may have used in the past to assist you with your new plan: last strategic plan, mission, vision, and values statement, business plan, financial records, marketing plan, SWOT, sales figures, or projections.
Finally, review the data with your strategy director and facilitator and ask these questions: What trends do we see? Any obvious strengths or weaknesses? Have we been following a plan or just going along with the market?
Determining your positioning entails conducting a scan of macro and micro trends in your environment and industry, identifying marketing and competitive opportunities and threats, clarifying target customers and value propositions, gathering and reviewing staff and partner feedback for strengths and weaknesses, synthesizing the data into a SWOT, and solidifying your competitive advantages.
Developing your strategy includes determining your primary business model and organizational purpose, identifying your corporate values, creating an image of what success would look like in 3-5 years, solidifying your competitive advantages, formulating organization wide-strategies that explain your base, and agreeing on strategic issues you need to address in the planning process. .
Once you get to the strategic plan development process in the planning process, you must begin developing your strategic framework and defining long-term strategic objectives, set short-term SMART organizational goals, and select the measure that will be your KPIs (key performance indicators.)
The last phase of strategic planning is implementation, execution, and ongoing refreshes. This step entails establishing an implementation schedule, rolling out your plan, executing against your key results, and reviewing process and refreshing your plan quarterly. p>
The ideal execution schedule for your strategic plan will differ from team to team or organization to organization, but generally, you should try to set 4 quarterly reviews, a mid-year executive survey, 12 monthly check-ins, and a year-end plan review and annual refresh.
