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Strategic Planning
A
Three Step Process
What
do we want to become?
Where
are we now?
What
must we do to get there?
Though
the planning process seems to be a simple three-step process, it is far from
simple. Each one of the steps is a multi-faceted process requiring great
diligence and commitment on the part of senior management (planning team).
It is senior managements' responsibility to plan for the future. Strategic
planning is necessary for success and provides a great return when structured and
carried out properly.
First
it is the responsibility of senior management because no one else can do that
job for them. Second, strategic planning develops a forward focus toward a
planned future that alerts the organization to future opportunities and
threats. Third, a plan properly carried out trickles down the
organizational chart to all employee levels. Preparing the organization
for a stronger more focused team effort throughout the organization.
Strategic
planning can save a company at the brink of insolvency and/or provide control
when a company is in an explosive growth strategy. What makes up the
multi-faceted nature of each step? Let us examine each step in more
detail below:
Where
do we want to be?
The
Leadership Team of your organization must decide what the company is to
become. The bible states this perfectly, "where
there is no vision the people are perishing" (Proverbs 29:18). A company
that has no forward vision will be without proper restraint to reach future
objectives. Until you clearly understand what your organization is to
be, you cannot begin to develop the roadmap to get there.
It is imperative that senior
leadership be visionary
focused. This visionary process can be fun yet demanding. Developing a vision involves creativity,
a full understanding of your business, and the ability to look beyond things
as they currently stand.
Just
as when you were a little child you dreamed of what you
wanted to become. As you grew and matured a desire and passion for what
you would become began to develop within you. However, the desire wasn't
enough to make it happen.
You
first had to establish goals for your life based on your dream. You had
to realize that you weren't properly trained to fulfill your dream. Then
you had to assess where you were at that specific point in time in relation to
your dream. The same is true for a business or any other form of
organization.
Where
are we now?
Leadership must evaluate where the organization stands at the present time. The
financial position and history of the organization must be evaluated to properly assess the
current situation including recent trends. The current market position
(market share, product/service mix, competition and etc.) must be
determined. This step often requires some hard work digging through old
records and reports to build a reliable information base for future planning
decisions. The administrative structure of the business must be
formulated with documented current procedures.
What
must we do to get there?
In this part of the process you would
now know where your organization is heading and how you stand in relation to
your vision. It is time to prepare our
strategies for reaching the goals and objectives we have set. The
planning team will by using all
they know about the company and industry, applying creativity and innovation
through strategic thinking, forge new directions to carry the organization
into the future.
This step often involves others
outside the main planning team. Each member of the planning team should
involve his subordinates in developing strategies for their business unit.
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