Strategic Planning:

Simply put, strategic planning determines where an organization is going over the next year or more, how it's going to get there and how it'll know if it got there.  The focus of a strategic plan is on the entire organization and the entire organization must become part of the plan and “buy into” the plan.  The CEO is only one of the participants of the planning and the entire organization must participate in its development.

There are a variety of perspectives, models and approaches used in strategic planning. The way that a strategic plan is developed depends on the nature of the organization's leadership, culture of the organization, complexity of the organization's environment, size of the organization, expertise of planners, etc. 

For the very small businesses we use “The One Page Business Plan^TM”; a very simple process that gives you a real plan in only a few pages.  For the larger companies we use a simple but complete process that involves the entire management team.

Development of the strategic plan greatly helps to clarify the organization's plans and ensure that key leaders are all "on the same script". Far more important than the final strategic plan document is the strategic planning process itself.

Organic strategic planning starts by articulating the organization's vision and values.   We continue with a simple but thorough analysis of strengths and weaknesses of the business, of you as its leader, and of the management team. 

The process of developing goals, strategies and tactics is done considering the resources available, status of the business and timing needed for any corrective activity.  The action plans to achieve the vision and goals must be practical and effective while adhering to the values articulated.

Strategic planning serves a variety of purposes in an organization, including to:

• Clearly define the purpose of the organization and to establish realistic goals and objectives consistent with the mission in a defined time frame within the organization’s capacity for implementation.
•  
  Communicate those goals and objectives to the organization’s constituents.
• Develop a sense of ownership of the plan.
• Ensure the most effective use is made of the organization’s resources by focusing the resources on the key priorities.
• Provide a base from which progress can be measured and establish a mechanism for informed change when needed.
• Provide clearer focus of organization, producing more efficiency and effectiveness.
• Produce great satisfaction among planners around a common vision.
• Increase productivity from increased efficiency and effectiveness.
• Solve major problems