Strategic Planning
What is strategic planning?
Strategic planning is the process of defining an organization’s strategy and making solid decisions in order to guarantee following this strategy.
Strategic planning involves setting priorities, focusing energy and resources, enhancing operations, ensuring that employees and other stakeholders are working toward common goals and agreeing on intended outcomes, and assessing and adjusting the organization’s direction in response to a changing environment. This process produces fundamental decisions and actions that shape what an organization is, who it serves, what it does, and why it does it, while focusing on the future.
An effective strategic plan not only clarifies where the organization is headed and what actions are required to make progress, but also clarifies how the organization will know if it is succeeding.
A good strategic planning process should answer the following questions:
- Where does the company currently stand?
- How did the company get to where it is today?
- What are the company’s future goals?
- How to get these goals achieved?
- What are the challenges to be faced in order to achieve the goals?
- What skills and resources are needed to achieve them?
The key elements to be defined for a good strategic plan:
- Mission
- Vision
- Values
- Objectives and goals
Strategic planning tools:
SWOT analysis:
one of the most commonly used tools when it comes to strategic planning. It is an ideal first step in identifying the opportunities and risks facing your business. Identifying them helps you develop a strategic plan that promotes growth and anticipates threats.
The acronym SWOT stands for:
- Strengths
- Weaknesses
- Opportunities
- Threats
PESTEL analysis:
This analysis focuses on the external factors that can affect your business and the solutions to be provided. It is a tool that helps you define which external factors favor the success of your company.
The acronym PEST stands for:
- Political factors
- Economic factors
- Sociological factors
- Technological factors
- Environmental factors
- Legal factors
Benefits of Strategic Planning:
- Allows companies to be proactive rather than reactive
- Sets up a sense of direction
- Increases operational efficiency
- Helps to increase market share and profitability
- Makes the business more durable
“If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail” – Benjamin Franklin
If you felt interested, you can join one of The Team’s strategic planning training.
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