On May 29, 2013, I held a seminar on strategic planning at one of our coworking partner sites, The Yard. It was a great event, and many smart questions were asked from the audience. So, I thought it would be good to recap some of the main points of why strategic planning is important and how to develop a solid plan.

WHAT IS STRATEGIC PLANNING?

• Aim to improve the results of your company over a specified time period
• Starts with a macro view of your company
• Concerned with vision, mission, and direction of the company (long-term focus; minimum 5 years out)
• Understanding where you are currently
• Defining the steps necessary to achieve your strategy
• How to efficiently allocate your resources
• Monitoring & measuring progress through quantifiable measures
• Communicating progress and results to stakeholders

HOW TO DEVELOP A STRATEGIC PLAN

• Step 1- Develop a mission statement
  • Define mission, vision, and beliefs
  • Answer question of why you exist as an organization
  • What is the purpose of your company?
  • What is it that you want your company to accomplish?
  • How will the company accomplish it?
  • What are the core values of the company?

• Step 2 – Determine where your company is right now
  • Understand differentiation factors
  • Examine market data – industry information, competitor performance and profile, customer surveys
  • Examine internal data – know your KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
  • Understand customer concerns
  • Understand stakeholder concerns

• Step 3 – Synthesize the information through strategic analysis tools
  • SWOT Analysis
  • Balance Scorecard

• Step 4 – Develop strategic objectives
  • Determine where you want the company to be in the future
  • What is the clearest path to achieving the goal?

• Step 5 – Identify short-term goals
  • Goals should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Actionable / Attainable, Realistic / Relevant, and Time bound)

• Step 6 – Cascade goals from top down (company –> department –> individual)
  • Communicate goals to all teams members, so everyone know what their piece is

• Step 7 – Develop strategies & tactics
  • Day to day operational activities that need to be accomplished

• Step 8 – Resource requirements and allocation
  • How much will it cost to implement plan?
  • How many people need to be assigned to the job?
  • How much time is needed from the team?

• Step 9 – Monitoring and decision making
  • Identify review process (factors to examine, how often to examine, and other benchmarks)
  • Does the plan need to be adjusted?
  • What is the reason for not meeting the plan?
  • What additional actions need to be done?