Tweet

Developing a Strategic Plan

Guest post by: Robert Whipple

Article Overview: Developing a specific Strategic Plan is fundamental to organizational progress. Once an organization has a concrete set of values, a vision, a mission, and a set of behaviors, it is time to document the strategic plan with tactics. This article gives a brief outline of the process.

Developing a Strategic Plan

Having a philosophical framework in place is a good start, but you also need a detailed plan for moving forward. The plan will include the most important business drivers for your organization, how you intend to measure and improve them, along with the needed strategies and tactics. For non-leaders, the plan will constitute a personal map for improvement.

Start by identifying the key drivers for your organization. These are things that, if done well, will propel your business toward the vision. Customer satisfaction is a key driver for most businesses, as is profitability. Others may include things like quality improvement and improving cycle time. Develop a handful of key drivers. If the list is too long, it will confuse rather than focus. I will use an example of a typical key driver, "improving profitability," to demonstrate the process of creating a strategic plan.

Identify how you will measure progress in each of the key driver areas. Measuring things is crucial for forward momentum. The old adage, "what gets measured, gets done," is literally true. Strive to identify 2-3 ways to measure each key driver area from differing angles. The measure provides a focus for energy and also data on which successes can be noted and reinforced. Possible measures for our current example might be "manufacturing margin" (revenue minus cost of goods sold) and "return on investment" (revenue divided by total investments.) These can be plotted against short-term and long-term goals to identify progress and celebrate it when appropriate.

Now identify improvement opportunities. These will be ways to make each measure move in the desired direction. For this example, you might identify a productivity improvement program in manufacturing or a new advertising campaign to increase sales. Each measure should have a few improvement opportunities that will drive progress.

You are now in a position to document strategies required to accomplish these improvements and to identify specific tactics. In our example, you might identify a strategy to engage in a Lean Manufacturing program to improve margins. The next step would be to identify associated tactics, such as hiring a consultant, training all employees in lean concepts, instituting a new reward system based on implementation of lean principles, etc. You may have several strategies and dozens of tactics for each key driver. Finally, you make the commitment and begin executing your plan.

Assess the relative priorities of the tactics so there is a cohesive plan consistent with the vision in the event of resource constraints. A plan that is well documented, internalized, supported, and communicated will drive the business rapidly toward the vision. It also lets people know what to do and, more importantly, what not to do. It provides a roadmap for focused effort.

Related Articles
  “Strategic Marketing Tips From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
  More Business Coaching Strategic Planning Success Stories
  Ten Confessed Marketing Sins From Clients To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
  “Ten Strategic Marketing Actions To Ensure Success In Your New Year, From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
  A Series of Strategic PR Tips and Prescriptions, Part 1 From The PR Doctor
  How to crystalize business growth options through Strategic Planning
  What Is Strategic Business Planning?
  “Ten More Benefits From Strategic Planning, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach Ten More Benefits From Strategic Planning, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
  “Ten Strategic Actions To Ensure That You Reach Your Goals, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
  A Series of Strategic PR Tips and Prescriptions, Part 3 From The PR Doctor
  Strategic Planning Must Include a Strategic Action Plan Filled with WAY SMART Goals
  Got Business Challenges, Issues, Opportunities? - Then Get Strategic Thinking Business Coaching
  Strategic Planning - What It Is & Why It Is Important
  The Importance of Strategic Marketing Consulting in Marketing Vendor Management
  “Ten Strategic Tips For An Effective Internet Marketing Strategy From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
  “Strategic Benefits of Business Coaching, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach ”
  Lessons Learned From Strategic Marketing From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
  “Seven More Reasons Why You Need Business Coaching - From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
  Do You have a Strategic Sales Action Plan?
  Strategic Planning What is your Businesses Reason for Existence

Article Tags: behaviors, culture, Leadership, mission, Strategy, success, tactics, trust, values, Vision



Related Forum Posts
Business Innovation - Hi Simon If you can finish off the Business Plan and think about your strategic direction or how you are going to use your product to convince people it's a great idea, it will set the foundation for your programming project. You see, when you are looking for funding you will need a Business Plan and Strategic Plan that will convince companies to invest into your new idea. Has anyone achieved this idea before using another industry besides health and fitness that you know of? You should also design some mockups as a "preview" for your programming project. This will also help reduce your programming costs as everyone will know exactly what you want if you have detailed mockups already completed including any functionality you require. Starting mockups for websites and software applications on paper is the best way if you're not a guru in graphic editing software.
Different Hats - CEO Sales & Marketing & Leadership Development Company Strategic Vision 10 Alliances & Growth Strategies 10 Hiring & Managing People 8 Mentoring 8-9 Strategic Planning for Clients 10 Execution of Marketing Campaigns 9-10 (i have great people who do the nitty gritty) Financial Management 9 Bookkeeping 3 (outsourced as I really hate the fine details like GST0 Administrative Follow Up 6-7 (again have great staff) Writing & Publishing 9 (getting better all the time!) Speaking 10 (so I have been told) Self Promotion 9-10 Web development & Promotion 6-7 (learning more and have brought on players who are 10+) Babysitting Employees (1 - wont do it, that's why I work so hard to hire and motivate the people I have) Great topic Kevin!! Jude
Re: Essential Leadership skills - Vision Values Mission Strategic Thinking Decision Making Communication Team Bonding People Development Coaching / Mentoring / Guiding / Grooming Presentation Thanks Robert
Re: NEW VIDEO - How to improve your business plan - Ask Evan - Thanks Evan, great intro into how the VC's see business plan. I will take a look, but hope that this video as number 1 in a series. It is unfortunate that these types of errors, the most basic of errors as you point out here are common to too many business plans, having reviewed a few hundred myself from both a development and funding perspective. As a mentor and workshop facilitator for Business Plan development for a number of start-up IT and multimedia companies, your presentation help support and show how the VC's see and evaluate a plan Shameful, that too many don't take the time to learn how to properly prepare, present and defend their plans. Over the years, I have enjoyed Business Plan competitions, and help re-work some of the winning proposals
Re: This ones a winner - Dear Sboggs Congratulations on your networking idea. The guys that want $20K might be trying to bleed you or perhaps their approach is just to complex and expensive. I'm a hardware guy so I can't help with your issue. Have you studied networking and programming? You might be able to make your idea fly with some training. You can buy a website and have it online in 20 minutes. Developing a web site that generates traffic requires some work.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Is the iPad useful? One CEO tells all ....

Five keys to business success

Purchasing Real Estate using the SBA 504 Loan

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.