The Strategic Planning Process in 4 Steps

Strategic Planning is when a process where organizations define a bold vision and create a plan with objectives and goals to reach that future. A great strategic plan defines where your organization is going, how you’ll win, who must do what, and how you’ll review and adapt your strategy development.

By definition, what is a strategic plan? What needs to be included?

A strategic plan or a business strategic plan should include the following:

Strategic Planning Video - What is Strategic Planning?

Overview of the Strategic Planning Process:

The strategic management process involves taking your organization on a journey from point A (where you are today) to point B (your vision of the future).

Part of that journey is the strategy built during strategic planning, and part of it is execution during the strategic management process. A good strategic plan dictates “how” you travel the selected road.

Effective execution ensures you are reviewing, refreshing, and recalibrating your strategy to reach your destination. The planning process should take no longer than 90 days. But, move at a pace that works best for you and your team and leverage this as a resource.

To kick this process off, we recommend 1-2 weeks (1-hour meeting with the Owner/CEO, Strategy Director, and Facilitator (if necessary) to discuss the information collected and direction for continued planning.)

Strategic Planning Guide and Process

Questions to Ask:
Outcome:
Action Grid:
Action Who is Involved Tools & Techniques Estimated Duration
Determine organizational readiness Owner/CEO, Strategy Director Readiness assessment
Establish your planning team and schedule Owner/CEO, Strategy Leader Kick-Off Meeting: 1 hr
Collect and review information to help make the upcoming strategic decisions Planning Team and Executive Team Data Review Meeting: 2 h

Overview of the Strategic Planning Process

Step 1: Determine Organizational Readiness

Set up your plan for success – questions to ask:

Step 2: Develop Your Team & Schedule

Who is going to be on your planning team? You need to choose someone to oversee the strategy implementation (Chief Strategy Officer or Strategy Director) and strategic management of your plan? You need some of the key individuals and decision makers for this team. It should be a small group of approximately 12-15 people.

Step 3: Collect Current Data

All strategic plans are developed using the following information:

Step 4: Review Collected Data

Review the data collected in the last action with your strategy director and facilitator.

Conclusion: A successful strategic plan must be adaptable to changing conditions. Organizations benefit from having a flexible plan that can evolve, as assumptions and goals may need adjustments. Preparing to adapt or restart the planning process is crucial, so we recommend updating actions quarterly and refreshing your plan annually.

Strategic Planning Pyramid

How to Identify Strategic Issues

Strategic Planning Phase 1: Determine Your Strategic Position

Want more? Dive into the “Evaluate Your Strategic Position” How-To Guide.

Action Grid

Step 1: Identify Strategic Issues

Strategic issues are critical unknowns driving you to embark on a robust strategic planning process. These issues can be problems, opportunities, market shifts, or anything else that keeps you awake at night and begging for a solution or decision. The best strategic plans address your strategic issues head-on.

Questions to Ask:

Step 2: Conduct an Environmental Scan

Conducting an environmental scan will help you understand your operating environment. An environmental scan is called a PEST analysis, an acronym for Political, Economic, Social, and Technological trends. Sometimes, it is helpful to include Ecological and Legal trends as well. All of these trends play a part in determining the overall business environment.

Step 3: Conduct a Competitive Analysis

The reason to do a competitive analysis is to assess the opportunities and threats that may occur from those organizations competing for the same business you are. You need to understand what your competitors are or aren’t offering your potential customers. Here are a few other key ways a competitive analysis fits into strategic planning:

Learn more on how to conduct a competitive analysis here.

Step 4: Identify Opportunities and Threats

Opportunities are situations that exist but must be acted on if the business is to benefit from them.

What do you want to capitalize on?

Questions to Ask:

Threats refer to external conditions or barriers preventing a company from reaching its objectives.

What do you need to mitigate? What external driving force do you need to anticipate?

Questions to Answer:

Step 5: Identify Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths refer to what your company does well.

What do you want to build on?

Questions to Ask:

Weaknesses refer to any limitations a company faces in developing or implementing a strategy.

What do you need to shore up?

Questions to Answer:

Step 6: Customer Segments

How to Segment Your Customers

Customer segmentation defines the different groups of people or organizations a company aims to reach or serve.

Who are we providing value to?

Questions to Ask:

Step 7: Develop Your SWOT

How to Perform a SWOT

A SWOT analysis is a quick way of examining your organization by looking at the internal strengths and weaknesses in relation to the external opportunities and threats. Creating a SWOT analysis lets you see all the important factors affecting your organization together in one place.

It’s easy to read, easy to communicate, and easy to create. Take the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats you developed earlier, review, prioritize, and combine like terms. The SWOT analysis helps you ask and answer the following questions: “How do you….”

How to Write a Mission Statment

Strategic Planning Process Phase 2: Developing Strategy

Want More? Deep Dive Into the “Developing Your Strategy” How-To Guide.

Action Grid

Step 1: Develop Your Mission Statement

The mission statement describes an organization’s purpose or reason for existing.

What is our purpose? Why do we exist? What do we do?

Questions to Ask:
Outcome: A short, concise, concrete statement that clearly defines the scope of the organization.

Step 2: Discover Your Values

Your values statement clarifies what your organization stands for, believes in and the behaviors you expect to see as a result. Check our the post on great what are core values and examples of core values.

How will we behave?

Questions to Ask:
Outcome: Short list of 5-7 core values.

Step 3: Casting Your Vision Statement

How to Write Core Values

A Vision Statement defines your desired future state and directs where we are going as an organization.

Where are we going?

Questions to Ask:
Outcome: A picture of the future.

Step 4: Identify Your Competitive Advantages

How to Write a Vision Statment

A competitive advantage is a characteristic of an organization that allows it to meet its customer’s need(s) better than its competition can. It’s important to consider your competitive advantages when creating your competitive strategy.

What are we best at?

Questions to Ask:
Outcome: A list of 2 or 3 items that honestly express the organization’s foundation for winning.

Step 5: Crafting Your Organization-Wide Strategies

What is a Competitive Advantage

Your competitive strategy is the general methods you intend to use to reach your vision. Regardless of the level, a strategy answers the question “how.”

How will we succeed?

Questions to Ask: