|
Strategic Planning is a process that maps out the overall direction of an organization. Strategic planning was first developed by the military to ensure uniformity, consistency and completeness in attaining military objectives. The beginnings of Strategic Planning can be traced back to Sun Tzu - The Art of War. The text was written over 2000 years ago and is still arguably the most read text on strategy in existence. This seminal work can be viewed at http://www.sonshi.com/learn.html.
Regardless of an organization's size or complexity, strategic planning is essential. Organizations that do not strategic plan are often unable to cope with evolutionary and/or revolutionary changes in their business environments. Anticipating and proactively planning for change is probably the most subtly important activity an organization can undertake.
Modern organizations use strategic planning as a means to meet their business objectives - whether it is a business attempting to establish a competitive advantage or a government organization intent on bringing efficient, effective and accountable social change or allocation of public funds.
It is important to note that the most effective firms do not see strategic planning as an onerous annual event where senior management develops a "pie-in-the-sky" wish list. Modern firms understand that "gut checks" and adjustments need to occur on the fly. If your environment changes, you had better adapt quickly. More often than not this means retaining your vision and mission, and recalculating your objectives, strategies and in particular your tactics. Staying at the leading edge also requires a commitment to honestly and effectively measuring your success and failures and developing new ways to leverage your strengths; create and take advantage of opportunities; guard against threats; and minimize or insure yourself against your internal weaknesses.
Template Strategic Plan:
Vision - a brief statement of where the organization plans on being, usually with a 3 to 5 year time horizon, what the organization does, why it does it, when it does it, whom it does it for and (where appropriate) when it is done.
Strategic Objectives - a defined set of goals that guide the strategies and action planning done by an organization. Objectives are often framed as specific, measurable, aggressive and appropriate, realistic, and time-limited (the SMART framework).
Strategies - overarching, objective-oriented means to achieve a specific objective or series of objectives. Normally there will be one or more strategies specified per objective.
Implementation - Doing it (the "How")
Also referred to as tactics, actions, project or work plans; these "action-oriented" statements lay out the steps required to meet the specified strategies and consequently objectives. It is important to map out each action required, who is responsible, when it needs to be done, how and where it will occur. Implementation plans direct "how" a strategy will roll out and be achieved. Many organizations have moved toward a "projectized" environment, wherein project management principles and processes articulate how a specific strategy or objective is realized.
Benchmarking and Comparisons - establishing targets outside of an organization's expertise or control can be disastrous. Therefore, organizations should undertake efforts to set objectives that can be reached (with a "stretch"), but are not completely outside of the realm of possibility.
Monitoring and Evaluation - success is limited and failure is reasonably assured if monitoring of performance in relation to strategic objectives is not performed regularly. Evaluation criteria and activities should reflect the company's vision, and regular periodic check-ups are necessary to ensure you are on the right track. Evaluation criteria provide the opportunity to feedback into refinements of the strategic plan. Many organizations have turned to a Balanced Scorecard approach (Kaplan & Norton, 1996) to achieve their goals.
Refinement - is the process of integrating measurement outcomes into the overall plan, in order to refine and improve the organization's position or performance. Strategic plans should neither be static, nor completed documents. While the core document should stand the test of time (if carefully thought out and configured), environmental changes (internal and external) will necessitate changes in the plan from time to time. It is essential that inflective changes in the business environment (e.g., recession, new technology, change in consumer behaviour) are taken into account and that the organization's Strategic Plan and subsequent planning processes be renewed and updated. Organizations that fail to anticipate and plan for changes in the business environment through strategic planning processes run the risk of being left behind.
|
