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• Business strategy |
• What is strategic planning? A 5-step gu ...

What is strategic planning? A 5-step guide

Strategic planning is a process through which business leaders map out their vision for their organization’s growth and how they’re going to get there. In this article, we'll guide you through the strategic planning process, including why it's important, the benefits and best practices, and five steps to get you from beginning to end.

Strategic planning is a process through which business leaders map out their vision for their organization’s growth and how they’re going to get there. The strategic planning process informs your organization’s decisions, growth, and goals.

Strategic planning helps you clearly define your company’s long-term objectives—and maps how your short-term goals and work will help you achieve them. This, in turn, gives you a clear sense of where your organization is going and allows you to ensure your teams are working on projects that make the most impact. Think of it this way—if your goals and objectives are your destination on a map, your strategic plan is your navigation system.

In this article, we walk you through the 5-step strategic planning process and show you how to get started developing your own strategic plan.

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What is strategic planning?

Strategic planning is a business process that helps you define and share the direction your company will take in the next three to five years. During the strategic planning process, stakeholders review and define the organization’s mission and goals, conduct competitive assessments, and identify company goals and objectives. The product of the planning cycle is a strategic plan, which is shared throughout the company.

What is a strategic plan?

A strategic plan is the end result of the strategic planning process. At its most basic, it’s a tool used to define your organization’s goals and what actions you’ll take to achieve them.

Typically, your strategic plan should include: 

Your company’s mission statement

Your organizational goals, including your long-term goals and short-term, yearly objectives

Any plan of action, tactics, or approaches you plan to take to meet those goals

What are the benefits of strategic planning?

Strategic planning can help with goal setting and decision-making by allowing you to map out how your company will move toward your organization’s vision and mission statements in the next three to five years. Let’s circle back to our map metaphor. If you think of your company trajectory as a line on a map, a strategic plan can help you better quantify how you’ll get from point A (where you are now) to point B (where you want to be in a few years).

When you create and share a clear strategic plan with your team, you can:

Build a strong organizational culture by clearly defining and aligning on your organization’s mission, vision, and goals.

Align everyone around a shared purpose and ensure all departments and teams are working toward a common objective.

Proactively set objectives to help you get where you want to go and achieve desired outcomes.

Promote a long-term vision for your company rather than focusing primarily on short-term gains.

Ensure resources are allocated around the most high-impact priorities.

Define long-term goals and set shorter-term goals to support them.

Assess your current situation and identify any opportunities—or threats—allowing your organization to mitigate potential risks.

Create a proactive business culture that enables your organization to respond more swiftly to emerging market changes and opportunities.

What are the 5 steps in strategic planning?

The strategic planning process involves a structured methodology that guides the organization from vision to implementation. The strategic planning process starts with assembling a small, dedicated team of key strategic planners—typically five to 10 members—who will form the strategic planning, or management, committee. This team is responsible for gathering crucial information, guiding the development of the plan, and overseeing strategy execution.

Once you’ve established your management committee, you can get to work on the planning process. 

Step 1: Assess your current business strategy and business environment

Before you can define where you’re going, you first need to define where you are. Understanding the external environment, including market trends and competitive landscape, is crucial in the initial assessment phase of strategic planning.

To do this, your management committee should collect a variety of information from additional stakeholders, like employees and customers. In particular, plan to gather:

Relevant industry and market data to inform any market opportunities, as well as any potential upcoming threats in the near future.

Customer insights to understand what your customers want from your company—like product improvements or additional services.

Employee feedback that needs to be addressed—whether about the product, business practices, or the day-to-day company culture.

Consider different types of strategic planning tools and analytical techniques to gather this information, such as:

A balanced scorecard to help you evaluate four major elements of a business: learning and growth, business processes, customer satisfaction, and financial performance.

A SWOT analysis to help you assess both current and future potential for the business (you’ll return to this analysis periodically during the strategic planning process). 

To fill out each letter in the SWOT acronym, your management committee will answer a series of questions:

What does your organization currently do well?

What separates you from your competitors?

What are your most valuable internal resources?

What tangible assets do you have?

What is your biggest strength? 

Weaknesses:

What does your organization do poorly?

What do you currently lack (whether that’s a product, resource, or process)?

What do your competitors do better than you?

What, if any, limitations are holding your organization back?

What processes or products need improvement? 

Opportunities:

What opportunities does your organization have?

How can you leverage your unique company strengths?

Are there any trends that you can take advantage of?

How can you capitalize on marketing or press opportunities?

Is there an emerging need for your product or service? 

What emerging competitors should you keep an eye on?

Are there any weaknesses that expose your organization to risk?

Have you or could you experience negative press that could reduce market share?

Is there a chance of changing customer attitudes towards your company? 

Step 2: Identify your company’s goals and objectives

To begin strategy development, take into account your current position, which is where you are now. Then, draw inspiration from your vision, mission, and current position to identify and define your goals—these are your final destination. 

To develop your strategy, you’re essentially pulling out your compass and asking, “Where are we going next?” “What’s the ideal future state of this company?” This can help you figure out which path you need to take to get there.

During this phase of the planning process, take inspiration from important company documents, such as:

Your mission statement, to understand how you can continue moving towards your organization’s core purpose.

Your vision statement, to clarify how your strategic plan fits into your long-term vision.

Your company values, to guide you towards what matters most towards your company.

Your competitive advantages, to understand what unique benefit you offer to the market.

Your long-term goals, to track where you want to be in five or 10 years.

Your financial forecast and projection, to understand where you expect your financials to be in the next three years, what your expected cash flow is, and what new opportunities you will likely be able to invest in.

Step 3: Develop your strategic plan and determine performance metrics

Now that you understand where you are and where you want to go, it’s time to put pen to paper. Take your current business position and strategy into account, as well as your organization’s goals and objectives, and build out a strategic plan for the next three to five years. Keep in mind that even though you’re creating a long-term plan, parts of your plan should be created or revisited as the quarters and years go on.

As you build your strategic plan, you should define:

Company priorities for the next three to five years, based on your SWOT analysis and strategy.

Yearly objectives for the first year. You don’t need to define your objectives for every year of the strategic plan. As the years go on, create new yearly objectives that connect back to your overall strategic goals . 

Related key results and KPIs. Some of these should be set by the management committee, and some should be set by specific teams that are closer to the work. Make sure your key results and KPIs are measurable and actionable. These KPIs will help you track progress and ensure you’re moving in the right direction.

Budget for the next year or few years. This should be based on your financial forecast as well as your direction. Do you need to spend aggressively to develop your product? Build your team? Make a dent with marketing? Clarify your most important initiatives and how you’ll budget for those.

A high-level project roadmap . A project roadmap is a tool in project management that helps you visualize the timeline of a complex initiative, but you can also create a very high-level project roadmap for your strategic plan. Outline what you expect to be working on in certain quarters or years to make the plan more actionable and understandable.

Step 4: Implement and share your plan

Now it’s time to put your plan into action. Strategy implementation involves clear communication across your entire organization to make sure everyone knows their responsibilities and how to measure the plan’s success. 

Make sure your team (especially senior leadership) has access to the strategic plan, so they can understand how their work contributes to company priorities and the overall strategy map. We recommend sharing your plan in the same tool you use to manage and track work, so you can more easily connect high-level objectives to daily work. If you don’t already, consider using a work management platform .  

A few tips to make sure your plan will be executed without a hitch: 

Communicate clearly to your entire organization throughout the implementation process, to ensure all team members understand the strategic plan and how to implement it effectively. 

Define what “success” looks like by mapping your strategic plan to key performance indicators.

Ensure that the actions outlined in the strategic plan are integrated into the daily operations of the organization, so that every team member's daily activities are aligned with the broader strategic objectives.

Utilize tools and software—like a work management platform—that can aid in implementing and tracking the progress of your plan.

Regularly monitor and share the progress of the strategic plan with the entire organization, to keep everyone informed and reinforce the importance of the plan.

Establish regular check-ins to monitor the progress of your strategic plan and make adjustments as needed. 

Step 5: Revise and restructure as needed

Once you’ve created and implemented your new strategic framework, the final step of the planning process is to monitor and manage your plan.

Remember, your strategic plan isn’t set in stone. You’ll need to revisit and update the plan if your company changes directions or makes new investments. As new market opportunities and threats come up, you’ll likely want to tweak your strategic plan. Make sure to review your plan regularly—meaning quarterly and annually—to ensure it’s still aligned with your organization’s vision and goals.

Keep in mind that your plan won’t last forever, even if you do update it frequently. A successful strategic plan evolves with your company’s long-term goals. When you’ve achieved most of your strategic goals, or if your strategy has evolved significantly since you first made your plan, it might be time to create a new one.

Build a smarter strategic plan with a work management platform

To turn your company strategy into a plan—and ultimately, impact—make sure you’re proactively connecting company objectives to daily work. When you can clarify this connection, you’re giving your team members the context they need to get their best work done. 

A work management platform plays a pivotal role in this process. It acts as a central hub for your strategic plan, ensuring that every task and project is directly tied to your broader company goals. This alignment is crucial for visibility and coordination, allowing team members to see how their individual efforts contribute to the company’s success. 

By leveraging such a platform, you not only streamline workflow and enhance team productivity but also align every action with your strategic objectives—allowing teams to drive greater impact and helping your company move toward goals more effectively. 

Strategic planning FAQs

Still have questions about strategic planning? We have answers.

Why do I need a strategic plan?

A strategic plan is one of many tools you can use to plan and hit your goals. It helps map out strategic objectives and growth metrics that will help your company be successful.

When should I create a strategic plan?

You should aim to create a strategic plan every three to five years, depending on your organization’s growth speed.

Since the point of a strategic plan is to map out your long-term goals and how you’ll get there, you should create a strategic plan when you’ve met most or all of them. You should also create a strategic plan any time you’re going to make a large pivot in your organization’s mission or enter new markets. 

What is a strategic planning template?

A strategic planning template is a tool organizations can use to map out their strategic plan and track progress. Typically, a strategic planning template houses all the components needed to build out a strategic plan, including your company’s vision and mission statements, information from any competitive analyses or SWOT assessments, and relevant KPIs.

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. business plan?

A business plan can help you document your strategy as you’re getting started so every team member is on the same page about your core business priorities and goals. This tool can help you document and share your strategy with key investors or stakeholders as you get your business up and running.

You should create a business plan when you’re: 

Just starting your business

Significantly restructuring your business

If your business is already established, you should create a strategic plan instead of a business plan. Even if you’re working at a relatively young company, your strategic plan can build on your business plan to help you move in the right direction. During the strategic planning process, you’ll draw from a lot of the fundamental business elements you built early on to establish your strategy for the next three to five years.

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. mission and vision statements?

Your strategic plan, mission statement, and vision statements are all closely connected. In fact, during the strategic planning process, you will take inspiration from your mission and vision statements in order to build out your strategic plan.

Simply put: 

A mission statement summarizes your company’s purpose.

A vision statement broadly explains how you’ll reach your company’s purpose.

A strategic plan pulls in inspiration from your mission and vision statements and outlines what actions you’re going to take to move in the right direction. 

For example, if your company produces pet safety equipment, here’s how your mission statement, vision statement, and strategic plan might shake out:

Mission statement: “To ensure the safety of the world’s animals.” 

Vision statement: “To create pet safety and tracking products that are effortless to use.” 

Your strategic plan would outline the steps you’re going to take in the next few years to bring your company closer to your mission and vision. For example, you develop a new pet tracking smart collar or improve the microchipping experience for pet owners. 

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. company objectives?

Company objectives are broad goals. You should set these on a yearly or quarterly basis (if your organization moves quickly). These objectives give your team a clear sense of what you intend to accomplish for a set period of time. 

Your strategic plan is more forward-thinking than your company goals, and it should cover more than one year of work. Think of it this way: your company objectives will move the needle towards your overall strategy—but your strategic plan should be bigger than company objectives because it spans multiple years.

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. a business case?

A business case is a document to help you pitch a significant investment or initiative for your company. When you create a business case, you’re outlining why this investment is a good idea, and how this large-scale project will positively impact the business. 

You might end up building business cases for things on your strategic plan’s roadmap—but your strategic plan should be bigger than that. This tool should encompass multiple years of your roadmap, across your entire company—not just one initiative.

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. a project plan?

A strategic plan is a company-wide, multi-year plan of what you want to accomplish in the next three to five years and how you plan to accomplish that. A project plan, on the other hand, outlines how you’re going to accomplish a specific project. This project could be one of many initiatives that contribute to a specific company objective which, in turn, is one of many objectives that contribute to your strategic plan. 

What’s the difference between strategic management vs. strategic planning?

A strategic plan is a tool to define where your organization wants to go and what actions you need to take to achieve those goals. Strategic planning is the process of creating a plan in order to hit your strategic objectives.

Strategic management includes the strategic planning process, but also goes beyond it. In addition to planning how you will achieve your big-picture goals, strategic management also helps you organize your resources and figure out the best action plans for success. 

Related resources

9 steps to craft a successful go-to-market (GTM) strategy

Unmanaged business goals don’t work. Here’s what does.

How Asana uses work management to effectively manage goals

Beat thrash for good: 4 organizational planning challenges and solutions

Designing a Strategic Planning System: Key Considerations

• September 20, 2023
• Business Strategy & Innovation

Designing a strategic planning system is a crucial task for organizations seeking innovation and growth. In this article, key considerations for creating an effective system are explored.

From goal-setting processes to environmental scanning, the importance of clear communication and adaptability is emphasized.

The role of subordinate managers and corporate planners, as well as the linkage between planning and budgeting, are also examined.

As planning systems evolve, the involvement of chief executives and the mitigation of pressures on division managers become vital.

Discover how to design a strategic planning system that fosters innovation and drives success.

Table of Contents

Key Takeaways

• The design of a strategic planning system should consider the level of specificity and communication of goals, especially for second-level managers.
• Environmental scanning is important for strategic planning system design, but the extent of scanning may vary based on company size and diversification.
• Subordinate managers in small and large companies have different focuses and perspectives, and cross-functional communication may be necessary for functionally coordinated action programs.
• The role of corporate planners and the linkage between planning and budgeting can vary based on company size and complexity, but both are crucial for effective planning.

Understand the Goal-Setting Process

The president in small companies shares thoughts about objectives and strategy with functional subordinates but does not make explicit performance goals. This approach to goal setting poses common challenges in goal setting and requires effective communication of performance goals.

One challenge is the lack of clarity in expectations, as functional subordinates may not have a clear understanding of what is expected of them. This can lead to confusion and inefficiency in the achievement of goals. Effective communication of performance goals is essential in providing a clear direction and aligning the efforts of the team towards a common objective.

It is important for the president to articulate the goals clearly, ensuring that they are measurable and achievable. This will enable the team to understand their individual roles and responsibilities, leading to improved performance and innovation.

Emphasize the Importance of Environmental Scanning

Division managers play a crucial role in providing inputs on the business environment to emphasize the importance of environmental scanning.

Strategic scanning and environmental analysis are essential components of designing a strategic planning system.

By actively engaging in environmental scanning, division managers can gather valuable information about external factors that may impact the organization’s strategic decisions and performance.

This includes identifying emerging trends, potential opportunities, and potential threats.

Through strategic scanning, division managers can contribute to the development of a comprehensive understanding of the business environment and provide insights that can inform the organization’s strategic planning process.

This analytical and detail-oriented approach enables the organization to adapt and innovate in response to changing market conditions, fostering a culture of innovation and growth.

Focus on Subordinate Managers’ Perspectives

Subordinate managers in small companies have a parochial point of view and a shorter time horizon. They tend to focus on their own areas of the business and may lack a broader perspective. This limited perspective can hinder innovation and strategic thinking.

To overcome this, it is crucial for these managers to engage in cross-functional communication. By collaborating with colleagues from different departments, they can gain a better understanding of the overall business objectives and strategies. This cross-functional communication allows for the exchange of ideas, expertise, and perspectives, leading to more innovative and effective decision-making.

It also helps subordinate managers to see the bigger picture and align their goals with the overall strategic direction of the company. By breaking down silos and promoting collaboration, companies can foster a culture of innovation and strategic thinking.

Define the Role of Corporate Planners and Linkage With Budgeting

Corporate planners play a crucial role in coordinating action programs and ensuring a clear linkage between planning and budgeting in both small and large companies. These planners are responsible for designing the planning system and facilitating the strategic planning process.

They work closely with division managers to gather inputs and develop divisional goals that align with the overall business strategy. In small companies, the president often assumes the role of corporate planner, while in larger companies, there may be a dedicated corporate planning department.

The planner’s main objective is to establish a strong connection between planning and budgeting, ensuring that the financial forecasts from the planning cycle translate into profit commitments in the operating budget. This tight linkage is essential to make strategic choices and allocate resources effectively.

Consider the Evolving Nature of Strategic Planning Systems

As the strategic planning process evolves, it is important to adapt the planning system to changing business environments and incorporate innovative approaches. This is crucial in order to effectively navigate the evolutionary changes that occur in the business landscape.

To consider the evolving nature of strategic planning systems, several key factors need to be taken into account:

Embrace flexibility: Strategic planning systems should be designed to be flexible and adaptable, allowing for the incorporation of new strategies and approaches as the business environment evolves.

Emphasize continuous learning: It is important to foster a culture of continuous learning within the organization, encouraging employees to stay updated on industry trends and developments. This will enable the organization to proactively adapt its strategies to stay ahead of the competition.

Foster collaboration and innovation: Strategic planning systems should promote collaboration among different departments and teams, encouraging the exchange of ideas and the development of innovative solutions. This will help in adapting strategies to meet the changing needs of the market.

Regularly review and evaluate: It is essential to regularly review and evaluate the effectiveness of the strategic planning system. By analyzing the outcomes and making necessary adjustments, the organization can ensure that its strategies are aligned with the evolving business environment.

Prioritize Division Manager Involvement

Division manager involvement is crucial in prioritizing the development and implementation of effective strategic plans.

The division manager’s perspective and participation are essential in ensuring that the strategic plans align with the goals and objectives of the division.

By actively engaging division managers in the planning process, organizations can tap into their expertise and insights, leveraging their understanding of the division’s strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities.

This collaborative approach allows for a more comprehensive and innovative strategic planning process, as division managers bring their unique perspectives and knowledge to the table.

Additionally, division manager participation helps to increase buy-in and ownership of the strategic plans, as they are actively involved in shaping and driving the implementation of these plans.

Overall, division manager involvement is a critical factor in designing a strategic planning system that promotes innovation and success.

Ensure Quick Estimation of Financial Implications

When designing a strategic planning system, one key consideration is ensuring the quick estimation of financial implications. This involves analyzing the potential financial outcomes of different strategic choices and determining their impact on the organization’s financial performance.

Here are four important aspects to consider in this process:

Timely analysis: The planning system should enable managers to quickly assess the financial implications of various strategic options. This requires access to relevant financial data and the ability to perform financial analysis in a timely manner.

Scenario modeling: The system should allow for the creation of different scenarios to evaluate the financial outcomes of different strategies. This can help managers make informed decisions by understanding the potential risks and rewards associated with each option.

Quantitative tools: The system should provide managers with the necessary quantitative tools to perform financial analysis. This may include financial modeling software, forecasting techniques, and sensitivity analysis tools.

Integration with budgeting: It is crucial to have a clear linkage between the planning and budgeting processes. Financial forecasts from the planning cycle should inform the development of the operating budget, ensuring that strategic choices are reflected in resource allocation decisions.

Lengthen the Time Horizon With Long-Range Financial Projections

Long-range financial projections can help organizations lengthen their time horizon and make more informed strategic decisions. By incorporating long-range forecasting into their planning process, organizations can gain a better understanding of future financial trends and potential risks. This allows them to develop strategies that are aligned with their long-term goals and objectives.

Strategic time horizons become more expansive when organizations have access to accurate financial projections that extend beyond the short-term. This enables them to anticipate changes in the business environment, adapt to market conditions, and identify new opportunities for growth and innovation.

Long-range financial projections provide valuable insights that can guide organizations in making proactive decisions and staying ahead of the competition. By embracing long-range forecasting, organizations can foster a culture of innovation and position themselves for long-term success.

Mitigate Pressures on Division Managers

To alleviate the burdens on division managers, corporate management should develop a planning process that provides support and guidance without overpowering the division manager’s role. This can be achieved by implementing the following strategies:

Implement a collaborative approach: Encourage division managers to actively participate in the planning process, fostering collaboration and collective decision-making. This not only helps to distribute the workload but also ensures that the plans are well-rounded and consider diverse perspectives.

Provide adequate resources: Mitigate stress by ensuring that division managers have access to the necessary resources, such as information, tools, and technology, to effectively carry out their planning responsibilities. This empowers them to make informed decisions and execute their plans efficiently.

Establish clear expectations: Set clear goals and objectives for division managers, providing them with a sense of direction and purpose. Clearly communicate performance expectations, while allowing flexibility for innovation and creativity within the planning process.

Foster a supportive culture: Create an organizational culture that values and supports the role of division managers in the strategic planning process. Recognize their efforts and provide opportunities for professional development, enabling them to grow and excel in their roles.

Guide the Chief Executive’s Role in the Planning Process

In designing a strategic planning system, it is crucial to guide the chief executive’s role in the planning process while encouraging division manager autonomy.

The chief executive plays a significant role in supporting and guiding the planning process, rather than taking over the division manager’s job. This involves providing the necessary resources and creating an environment that fosters innovation and strategic thinking.

However, it is important for the chief executive to avoid becoming too involved and interfering with the division manager’s autonomy. By allowing division managers to have ownership of their planning process, they are more likely to create realistic and effective plans that align with the overall strategic goals of the organization.

This encourages creativity and accountability at the divisional level, while still ensuring alignment with the organization’s strategic direction.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some common challenges that second-level managers face when designing a strategic planning system.

Challenges faced by second-level managers when designing a strategic planning system include uncertainty about guidelines, specific performance goals, and communication methods. Solutions involve clear goal-setting processes, environmental scanning, and involving subordinate managers in the planning effort.

How Can Small Companies Conduct Effective Environmental Scanning With Limited Resources?

Small companies can conduct effective environmental scanning with limited resources by focusing on their current situation and developing achievable goals for the forthcoming year. They can also leverage the knowledge and inputs of division managers to gather insights on the business environment.

What Are Some Key Differences in the Perspective of Subordinate Managers in Small Companies Versus Large Companies?

In discussing the perspective differences between subordinate managers in small and large companies, some key differences include parochial viewpoints and shorter time horizons in small companies, while larger companies have broader perspectives due to diversity of businesses and focus on achieving a strategic outlook. These differences pose managerial challenges in terms of cross-functional communication and coordination of action programs.

How Can the Linkage Between Planning and Budgeting Be Managed in Large Companies With Diverse Businesses?

Managing the linkage between planning and budgeting in large companies with diverse businesses requires careful coordination. Budgeting challenges arise due to the complexity and involvement of multiple divisions. Effective management ensures strategic commitments are aligned with financial resources.

What Are Some Potential Risks of the Chief Executive Becoming Too Involved in the Development of Business Plans?

The chief executive’s excessive involvement in business plan development poses risks of micromanagement and negatively impacting employee autonomy. It can hinder innovation, limit creativity, and discourage independent thinking, ultimately hindering the success of the strategic planning process.

How to improve strategic planning

In conference rooms everywhere, corporate planners are in the midst of the annual strategic-planning process. For the better part of a year, they collect financial and operational data, make forecasts, and prepare lengthy presentations with the CEO and other senior managers about the future direction of the business. But at the end of this expensive and time-consuming process, many participants say they are frustrated by its lack of impact on either their own actions or the strategic direction of the company.

This sense of disappointment was captured in a recent McKinsey Quarterly survey of nearly 800 executives: just 45 percent of the respondents said they were satisfied with the strategic-planning process. 1 1. “ Improving strategic planning: A McKinsey Survey ,” The McKinsey Quarterly , Web exclusive, September 2006. The survey, conducted in late July and early August 2006, received 796 responses from a panel of executives from around the world. All panelists have mostly financial or strategic responsibilities and work in a wide range of industries for organizations with revenues of at least $500 million. Moreover, only 23 percent indicated that major strategic decisions were made within its confines. Given these results, managers might well be tempted to jettison the planning process altogether.

But for those working in the overwhelming majority of corporations, the annual planning process plays an essential role. In addition to formulating at least some elements of a company’s strategy, the process results in a budget, which establishes the resource allocation map for the coming 12 to 18 months; sets financial and operating targets, often used to determine compensation metrics and to provide guidance for financial markets; and aligns the management team on its strategic priorities. The operative question for chief executives is how to make the planning process more effective—not whether it is the sole mechanism used to design strategy. CEOs know that strategy is often formulated through ad hoc meetings or brand reviews, or as a result of decisions about mergers and acquisitions.

Our research shows that formal strategic-planning processes play an important role in improving overall satisfaction with strategy development. That role can be seen in the responses of the 79 percent of managers who claimed that the formal planning process played a significant role in developing strategies and were satisfied with the approach of their companies, compared with only 21 percent of the respondents who felt that the process did not play a significant role. Looked at another way, 51 percent of the respondents whose companies had no formal process were dissatisfied with their approach to the development of strategy, against only 20 percent of those at companies with a formal process.

So what can managers do to improve the process? There are many ways to conduct strategic planning, but determining the ideal method goes beyond the scope of this article. Instead we offer, from our research, five emergent ideas that executives can employ immediately to make existing processes run better. The changes we discuss here (such as a focus on important strategic issues or a connection to core-management processes) are the elements most linked with the satisfaction of employees and their perceptions of the significance of the process. These steps cannot guarantee that the right strategic decisions will be made or that strategy will be better executed, but by enhancing the planning process—and thus increasing satisfaction with the development of strategy—they will improve the odds for success.

Start with the issues

Ask CEOs what they think strategic planning should involve and they will talk about anticipating big challenges and spotting important trends. At many companies, however, this noble purpose has taken a backseat to rigid, data-driven processes dominated by the production of budgets and financial forecasts. If the calendar-based process is to play a more valuable role in a company’s overall strategy efforts, it must complement budgeting with a focus on strategic issues. In our experience, the first liberating change managers can make to improve the quality of the planning process is to begin it by deliberately and thoughtfully identifying and discussing the strategic issues that will have the greatest impact on future business performance.

Granted, an approach based on issues will not necessarily yield better strategic results. The music business, for instance, has discussed the threat posed by digital-file sharing for years without finding an effective way of dealing with the problem. But as a first step, identifying the key issues will ensure that management does not waste time and energy on less important topics.

We found a variety of practical ways in which companies can impose a fresh strategic perspective. For instance, the CEO of one large health care company asks the leaders of each business unit to imagine how a set of specific economic, social, and business trends will affect their businesses, as well as ways to capture the opportunities—or counter the threats—that these trends pose. Only after such an analysis and discussion do the leaders settle into the more typical planning exercises of financial forecasting and identifying strategic initiatives.

One consumer goods organization takes a more directed approach. The CEO, supported by the corporate-strategy function, compiles a list of three to six priorities for the coming year. Distributed to the managers responsible for functions, geographies, and brands, the list then becomes the basis for an offsite strategy-alignment meeting, where managers debate the implications of the priorities for their particular organizations. The corporate-strategy function summarizes the results, adds appropriate corporate targets, and shares them with the organization in the form of a strategy memo, which serves as the basis for more detailed strategic planning at the division and business-unit levels.

A packaged-goods company offers an even more tailored example. Every December the corporate senior-management team produces a list of ten strategic questions tailored to each of the three business units. The leaders of these businesses have six months to explore and debate the questions internally and to come up with answers. In June each unit convenes with the senior-management team in a one-day meeting to discuss proposed actions and reach decisions.

Some companies prefer to use a bottom-up rather than top-down process. We recently worked with a sales company to design a strategic-planning process that begins with in-depth interviews (involving all of the senior managers and selected corporate and business executives) to generate a list of the most important strategic issues facing the company. The senior-management team prioritizes the list and assigns managers to explore each issue and report back in four to six weeks. Such an approach can be especially valuable in companies where internal consensus building is an imperative.

Bring together the right people

An issues-based approach won’t do much good unless the most relevant people are involved in the debate. We found that survey respondents who were satisfied with the strategic-planning process rated it highly on dimensions such as including the most knowledgeable and influential participants, stimulating and challenging the participants’ thinking, and having honest, open discussions about difficult issues. In contrast, 27 percent of the dissatisfied respondents reported that their company’s strategic planning had not a single one of these virtues. Such results suggest that too many companies focus on the data-gathering and packaging elements of strategic planning and neglect the crucial interactive components.

Strategic conversations will have little impact if they involve only strategic planners from both the business unit and the corporate levels. One of our core beliefs is that those who carry out strategy should also develop it. The key strategy conversation should take place among corporate decision makers, business unit leaders, and people with expertise essential to the discussion. In addition to leading the corporate review, the CEO, aided by members of the executive team, should as a rule lead the strategy review for business units as well. The head of a business unit, supported by four to six people, should direct the discussion from its side of the table (see sidebar, "Things to ask in any business unit review").

Things to ask in any business unit review

Are major trends and changes in your business unit’s environment affecting your strategic plan? Specifically, what potential developments in customer demand, technology, or the regulatory environment could have enough impact on the industry to change the entire plan?

How and why is this plan different from last year’s?

What were your forecasts for market growth, sales, and profitability last year, two years ago, and three years ago? How right or wrong were they? What did the business unit learn from those experiences?

What would it take to double your business unit’s growth rate and profits? Where will growth come from: expansion or gains in market share?

If your business unit plans to take market share from competitors, how will it do so, and how will they respond? Are you counting on a strategic advantage or superior execution?

What are your business unit’s distinctive competitive strengths, and how does the plan build on them?

How different is the strategy from those of competitors, and why? Is that a good or a bad thing?

Beyond the immediate planning cycle, what are the key issues, risks, and opportunities that we should discuss today?

What would a private-equity owner do with this business?

How will the business unit monitor the execution of this strategy?

One pharmaceutical company invites business unit leaders to take part in the strategy reviews of their peers in other units. This approach can help build a better understanding of the entire company and, especially, of the issues that span business units. The risk is that such interactions might constrain the honesty and vigor of the dialogue and put executives at the focus of the discussion on the defensive.

Corporate senior-management teams can dedicate only a few hours or at most a few days to a business unit under review. So team members should spend this time in challenging yet collaborative discussions with business unit leaders rather than trying to absorb many facts during the review itself. To provide some context for the discussion, best-practice companies disseminate important operational and financial information to the corporate review team well in advance of such sessions. This reading material should also tee up the most important issues facing the business and outline the proposed strategy, ensuring that the review team is prepared with well-thought-out questions. In our experience, the right 10 pages provide ample fuel to fire a vigorous discussion, but more than 25 pages will likely douse the level of energy or engagement in the room.

Adapt planning cycles to the needs of each business

Managers are justifiably concerned about the resources and time required to implement an issues-based strategic-planning approach. One easy—yet rarely adopted—solution is to free business units from the need to conduct this rigorous process every single year. In all but the most volatile, high-velocity industries, it is hard to imagine that a major strategic redirection will be necessary every planning cycle. In fact, forcing businesses to undertake this exercise annually is distracting and may even be detrimental. Managers need to focus on executing the last plan’s major initiatives, many of which can take 18 to 36 months to implement fully.

Some companies alternate the business units that undergo the complete strategic-planning process (as opposed to abbreviated annual updates of the existing plan). One media company, for example, requires individual business units to undertake strategic planning only every two or three years. This cadence enables the corporate senior-management team and its strategy group to devote more energy to the business units that are “at bat.” More important, it frees the corporate-strategy group to work directly with the senior team on critical issues that affect the entire company—issues such as developing an integrated digitization strategy and addressing unforeseen changes in the fast-moving digital-media landscape.

Other companies use trigger mechanisms to decide which business units will undergo a full strategic-planning exercise in a given year. One industrial company assigns each business unit a color-coded grade—green, yellow, or red—based on the unit’s success in executing the existing strategic plan. “Code red,” for example, would slate a business unit for a strategy review. Although many of the metrics that determine the grade are financial, some may be operational to provide a more complete assessment of the unit’s performance.

Freeing business units from participating in the strategic-planning process every year raises a caveat, however. When important changes in the external environment occur, senior managers must be able to engage with business units that are not under review and make major strategic decisions on an ad hoc basis. For instance, a major merger in any industry would prompt competitors in it to revisit their strategies. Indeed, one advantage of a tailored planning cycle is that it builds slack into the strategic-review system, enabling management to address unforeseen but pressing strategic issues as they arise.

Implement a strategic-performance-management system

In the end, many companies fail to execute the chosen strategy. More than a quarter of our survey respondents said that their companies had plans but no execution path. Forty-five percent reported that planning processes failed to track the execution of strategic initiatives. All this suggests that putting in place a system to measure and monitor their progress can greatly enhance the impact of the planning process.

Most companies believe that their existing control systems and performance-management processes (including budgets and operating reviews) are the sole way to monitor progress on strategy. As a result, managers attempt to translate the decisions made during the planning process into budget targets or other financial goals. Although this practice is sensible and necessary, it is not enough. We estimate that a significant portion of the strategic decisions we recommend to companies can’t be tracked solely through financial targets. A company undertaking a major strategic initiative to enhance its innovation and product-development capabilities, for example, should measure a variety of input metrics, such as the quality of available talent and the number of ideas and projects at each stage in development, in addition to pure output metrics such as revenues from new-product sales. One information technology company, for instance, carefully tracks the number and skill levels of people posted to important strategic projects.

Strategic-performance-management systems, which should assign accountability for initiatives and make their progress more transparent, can take many forms. One industrial corporation tracks major strategic initiatives that will have the greatest impact, across a portfolio of a dozen businesses, on its financial and strategic goals. Transparency is achieved through regular reviews and the use of financial as well as nonfinancial metrics. The corporate-strategy team assumes responsibility for reviews (chaired by the CEO and involving the relevant business-unit leaders) that use an array of milestones and metrics to assess the top ten initiatives. One to expand operations in China and India, for example, would entail regular reviews of interim metrics such as the quality and number of local employees recruited and the pace at which alliances are formed with channel partners or suppliers. Each business unit, in turn, is accountable for adopting the same performance-management approach for its own, lower-tier top-ten list of initiatives.

When designed well, strategic-performance-management systems can give an early warning of problems with strategic initiatives, whereas financial targets alone at best provide lagging indicators. An effective system enables management to step in and correct, redirect, or even abandon an initiative that is failing to perform as expected. The strategy of a pharmaceutical company that embarked on a major expansion of its sales force to drive revenue growth, for example, presupposed that rapid growth in the number of sales representatives would lead to a corresponding increase in revenues. The company also recognized, however, that expansion was in turn contingent on several factors, including the ability to recruit and train the right people. It therefore put in place a regular review of the key strategic metrics against its actual performance to alert managers to any emerging problems.

Integrate human-resources systems into the strategic plan

Simply monitoring the execution of strategic initiatives is not sufficient: their successful implementation also depends on how managers are evaluated and compensated. Yet only 36 percent of the executives we surveyed said that their companies’ strategic-planning processes were integrated with HR processes. One way to create a more valuable strategic-planning process would be to tie the evaluation and compensation of managers to the progress of new initiatives.

Although the development of strategy is ostensibly a long-term endeavor, companies traditionally emphasize short-term, purely financial targets—such as annual revenue growth or improved margins—as the sole metrics to gauge the performance of managers and employees. This approach is gradually changing. Deferred-compensation models for boards, CEOs, and some senior managers are now widely used. What’s more, several companies have added longer-term performance targets to complement the short-term ones. A major pharmaceutical company, for example, recently revamped its managerial-compensation structure to include a basket of short-term financial and operating targets as well as longer-term, innovation-based growth targets.

Although these changes help persuade managers to adopt both short- and long-term approaches to the development of strategy, they don’t address the need to link evaluation and compensation to specific strategic initiatives. One way of doing so is to craft a mix of performance targets that more appropriately reflect a company’s strategy. For example, one North American services business that launched strategic initiatives to improve its customer retention and increase sales also adjusted the evaluation and compensation targets for its managers. Rather than measuring senior managers only by revenue and margin targets, as it had done before, it tied 20 percent of their compensation to achieving its retention and cross-selling goals. By introducing metrics for these specific initiatives and linking their success closely to bonus packages, the company motivated managers to make the strategy succeed.

An advantage of this approach is that it motivates managers to flag any problems early in the implementation of a strategic initiative (which determines the size of bonuses) so that the company can solve them. Otherwise, managers all too often sweep the debris of a failing strategy under the operating rug until the spring-cleaning ritual of next year’s annual planning process.

Some business leaders have found ways to give strategic planning a more valuable role in the formulation as well as the execution of strategy. Companies that emulate their methods might find satisfaction instead of frustration at the end of the annual process.

Renée Dye is a consultant in McKinsey’s Atlanta office, and Olivier Sibony is a director in the Paris office.

This article was first published in the Autumn 2007 issue of McKinsey on Finance . Visit McKinsey’s corporate finance site to view the full issue.

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How to Design a Strategic Planning System

• Peter Lorange
• Richard F. Vancil

In this sequel to their well-received earlier collaboration for HBR, “Strategic Planning in Diversified Companies” (January–February 1975), Peter Lorange and Richard F. Vancil take the reader through the steps necessary to implement and carry forward a formal strategic planning effort. They identify six issues that top management has to deal with along the way: communication […]

Every business carries on strategic planning, although the formality of that process varies greatly from one company to the next. Conceptually, the process is simple: managers at every level of a hierarchy must ultimately agree on a detailed, integrated plan of action for the coming year; they arrive at agreement through a series of steps starting with the delineation of corporate objectives and concluding with the preparation of a one- or two-year profit plan. However, the design of that process—deciding who does what, when—can be complex, and it is vital to the success of the planning effort.

• PL Peter Lorange is the president of IMD International in Lausanne, Switzerland, where he is also a professor of strategy and holds the Nestlé Chair.
• RV Mr. Vancil is professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School and chairman of its Control Area faculty. His most recent HBR article was “Inflation Accounting—The Great Controversy” (March–April 1976). His book, Strategic Planning Systems, will be published next January by Prentice-Hall.

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Without a properly calibrated strategy, your business will suffer. However, with proper strategic planning, your business can create a clearly visible roadmap, which increases productivity, profitability, and sustainability.

While it sounds great in theory, strategic planning can be quite challenging in reality. For instance, if you develop a business strategy but some employees don't have a clear picture of it, or you get so consumed by processes that the company's objective is eclipsed. To avoid these pitfalls, there are strategic planning solutions available on the market that can help you sail smoothly.

This Buyers Guide details the considerations you need to take before making a purchase decision.

Here's what we'll cover:

What is strategic planning software?

Common features of strategic planning software, what type of buyer are you, benefits of strategic planning software, key considerations.

Strategic planning software is a tool that helps organizations identify and define short- and long-term goals and priorities. It helps users choose different paths to reach their desired goals and measure their progress. It also helps them gather and track information all in one place, from the formulation to the execution stage.

Overall, the software provides users the ability to create a detailed and transparent action plan for an organization's growth and helps users make more informed decisions.

Strategic planning process in  Aha! Software  ( Source )

Different vendors offer different features in their strategic planning software solutions. Selecting the right option for your business is easier when you know what common features to look for and what they can help you accomplish.

To further understand these features and learn about strategic planning software vendors, call our advisors at  855-998-8505  for free, no-obligation help. They'll help you narrow down your options by listening to your requirements and recommending the best-suited solutions for your business.

Before you start evaluating strategic planning software options, you'll want to know what buyer category you belong to. Most buyers will fall into one of the below categories:

Sole proprietors:  These buyers are mostly transitioning from paper records to digital platforms or have just started their business. Though they might not have a team with which to collaborate on strategy planning and execution, having a platform to define business strategy is crucial to growing their organization. They may look for an affordable system with basic features such as strategy maps and strategic frameworks to efficiently manage their planning processes.

Small and midsize businesses:  These buyers are often looking to improve their business efficiency and planning coordination. These buyers have teams that need to be on the same page and thus, need products that offer collaborative features. They'll require additional features such as user management and notifications.

Large businesses:  These buyers usually have dedicated project management departments, and handle a large volume of projects and business plans at any given time. They can opt for a complete project management suite that offers strategic planning as an integrated module.

While some of the benefits of strategic planning software may be clear from our discussion above, we've called out the most notable ones below:

Long-term goal planning:  Strategic planning software allows businesses to define roadmaps for achieving desired long-term goals. Businesses can breakdown these goals into monthly, quarterly, or yearly milestones to track progress and mediate processes to realign if required.

Increased transparency:  Strategic planning software gives all relevant stakeholders visibility into the larger organizational growth vision. This helps them identify their role within the vision and understand how their contributions help achieve the vision.

Here are some important questions to consider before you purchase strategic planning software:

Mobile app availability:  If you and your team are constantly on the move, then mobile apps can be useful for you. Check whether the strategic planning software you're considering offers access on mobile devices such as iOS- and Android-based smartphones or tablets. The mobile app will help you manage your business strategy from any location.

Customer support:  Find out if the vendor offers support 24/7, only during business hours, or not at all. Also, ask about available support options, such as email, phone, or live chat.

Note: The applications selected in this article are examples to show a feature in context and are not intended as endorsements or recommendations. They have been obtained from sources believed to be reliable at the time of publication.

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More Like this

Best strategic planning software review for 2024.

Strategic planning is an essential aspect of business growth and success, and the process has a higher success rate when it’s backed by a purpose-built application. Choosing the best strategic planning software just became more important than ever .

As strategic planning and methodologies become more and more popular, organizations and businesses are finding new ways they can implement the process on their own. The best way is through online, full-service software solutions that allow you to DIY the process yourself.

But in a sea of choices, how are you supposed to decide which strategic planning software is best for your organization?

With a growing demand in strategic planning software comes decision paralysis. There are so many applications to choose from, and each is equally as unique as the next! How do you even begin to determine which is the best strategic planning software for your business or organization? What attributes make up a strategic planning application that is right for you?

At OnStrategy, we are partial to our own application. We’d love to be your software vendor, but we wouldn’t be doing our due diligence if we didn’t provide advice and guidance on how to determine if you need a strategic planning software, what to look for when choosing the right strategic planning software to meet your business needs, and how our approach to strategic planning is different than our competitors .

DOWNLOAD THE FREE STRATEGY SOFTWARE GUIDE

We want you to select our application as your preferred strategic planning facilitation software solution because you know we’re the best and most comprehensive choice in the market. Read on for tips and advice on what to look for as you compare strategic planning software and see how OnStrategy stacks up against other leading strategic planning solutions in the industry.

Read on for tips and advice on what to look for as you compare OKR performance management software and see how OnStrategy stacks up against other leading OKR solutions in the industry.

A Brief Summary of Strategic Planning

Strategic planning looks at three primary components:

• Where are we now?
• Where are we going in the future?
• How will we get there?

It is ultimately the process that allows your organization’s current state to move forward into your idealized future state by helping you reach your big, bold vision. We have countless resources and informational articles to help you further educate yourself on the basics, like this article that breaks down how to write a strategic plan .

Many strategic plans look at elements such as mission statements, core values, vision statements, as well as the standard business elements like competitive advantages, strategic objectives, SMART goals, etc. and a good strategic planning software tool should include space for all of these strategic planning features.

How Do You Know if You Need a Strategic Planning Software?

Before deciding which application is the best for you, step back and make sure you need this software to begin with. You know you need an application when you can check off each of the following criteria:

You have at least 10+ people in your organization ready to implement a strategic planning process.

Strategic planning can be a heavy process to undertake. While strategic planning software tools make the process easier, if you have less than 10 people supporting your process [or in your entire organization], you might not see the benefit of implementing a dedicated tool to manage strategy.

Often, these software solutions can be expensive, so without a large and dedicated team to make it worth it, teams with less than 10 contributors could use a free tool like Smartsheet or Excel to manage their process.

You are a committed CEO or have a committed CEO for the strategy execution cycle.

From our experience, having CEO buy-in is critical for success in strategic planning. CEO buy-in is imperative, not only from a motivational standpoint but also from a logistic and facilitation standpoint. Without your leadership on board with the process, the decisions your team can make on behalf of the strategic plan are ultimately limited.

Your organization is committed to the strategy execution cycle.

Success with strategic planning requires a commitment to managing the entire process. While strategic planning itself may be a 3-month process, the implementation aspect is ongoing. Check-ins are required at least quarterly, and recalibration should be done yearly. Without that commitment, it’s an uphill battle to make this process work.

You need reliable strategy reports.

Reporting is the most critical feature of any leading software solution for strategic planning. Although you could easily utilize any Microsoft Office or Google Suite program to create a report, the primary benefit of using a strategic planning tool is that all the data lives in a dashboard, and some of the best programs have the capability to easily download the provided data into a succinct report. No need for extra work!

How to Compare Strategic Planning Software & What to Look for in a Software Solution

Now that you’ve determined you need strategy planning software, the fun begins! As you compare different offerings and options on the market, we consider these factors critical during any strategic planning tool evaluation:

Strategic planning apps should support strategy out of the box.

An app should be purpose-built for creating and managing business strategy. The best apps build strategy right out of the box. If your selected strategy app needs endless customization and set-up, proceed with caution.

A good app makes it easy to input the foundations of your mission, vision, and values, set up competitive advantage analyses, and provide OKR and KPI tracking, as well as integrations to allow for alignment with your team. This allows your organization to align your goals to your organizational direction, provide guided inputs, and create OKRs based on best practices.

Your organization can self-report progress from anywhere.

Self-reporting isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s mandatory! Your organization needs to be able to report results from anywhere.

One of the most significant pain points software applications solve is collecting results reporting. A good app makes it easy for your team to update their progress, select status, and see what needs their attention. It needs to be fast, efficient, and painless to update your goals and KPIs.

Alerts and notifications are a must-have.

Everyone needs reminders from time to time. Your strategy software should have built-in notifications and reminders to nudge your team when it’s time to provide a progress check-in.

Data should be easily managed, dynamic, and visualized in dashboards.

Strategy and OKR data need visualization to make it easier to see what is helping or hindering your performance as an organization. A good strategy application visualizes this data and makes it easy to digest.

Reports should be automated and effortless.

To drive your daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly strategic implementation process, you need an application that provides a suite of reports to help you drive your 1:1s and strategic performance reviews. They should be easy to access and take no input time to create. All of the data and results from your app should be present.

A good application includes board reporting capabilities to easily share your strategic priorities and performance to build a culture of transparency.

Bonus: An app that includes dedicated strategic planning experts

Apps accomplish and automate a lot of the strategy development and execution cycle, but what happens when you or your team get stuck? Apps don’t build strategy. People do. And you should have access to a person that can help. A good strategic planning app should have dedicated experts available to help you through the planning and implementation process.

Bonus: A great strategic planning software solution also provides users with robust and diverse training courses and help sections for self-support.

Best Strategic Planning Software Comparisons

Now that you’ve ascertained why you need a strategic planning software solution and what to look for in one, let’s evaluate how OnStrategy compares with some of the top strategic planning programs currently on the market.

OnStrategy —

Best for small and mid-sized teams who want to build their plan with guided exercises and courses, have a purpose-built tool for implementation, and have the ability to access experts when they need it.

OnStrategy is a strategic planning software and services company that promises to help you and your organization achieve 80% of your goals — consistently. We built our strategic planning software solution to be the best for aligning your strategic vision with your team’s daily activities.

We believe that OKRs are one piece of the puzzle that fits together with your overall strategic plan, so in addition to all the other aspects of strategy, we’ve included a comprehensive and dedicated OKR reporting section in our program as well. Most software solutions on the market either focus on strategy or OKRs. We are the only software solution that uniquely integrates both.

OnStrategy is one of the few truly well-rounded software and services solutions on the market. We understand you can’t do strategy alone, which is why we also offer coaching and facilitation services. Schedule a discovery call with one of our leading experts today!

Strategic Planning Program Key features:

• StrategyHub courses that guide you through your strategic planning process—starting from setting your mission, vision, and values all the way to quarterly implementation of OKRs.
• A community of practice that meets bi-weekly so all our StrategyHub customers can meet with real-world experts and collaborate..
• A software that supports your planning framework, including balanced scorecards or OKRs.
• An OKR methodology that supports monthly reviews and quarterly refreshes of your organization’s OKRs.
• Downloadable reports and strategic plans that are customizable and easily shared with your board members or stakeholders.
• Countless options for collaboration , including multiple users and teams, a dedicated and integrated Miro board and other OKR tools to build your plan, and an included Microsoft Teams and Slack integration.
• Dedicated strategy experts to assist you with your plan (for an additional fee).
• Automated reporting and notification system.
• Manual and systemized data collection like key performance indicators to track the progress of your goals..

Best for organizations with limited budgets and less than 2 people managing the process.

Excel is a powerful tool that allows you to track data and see key metrics, through spreadsheets and data visualization. You can easily set it up for your competitive advantage and SWOT analysis among other analytic tools you may need.

However, to make your strategic plan fully comprehensive, you would have to pair it with a tool that supports vision and mission statement creation or a combination of programs. This is time consuming and allows no opportunity for automation.

• Infinitely customizable
• Included in most core office applications. No free trial is necessary.
• Inexpensive/free
• Extremely challenging to set up.
• Not purpose-built for strategy or OKRs.
• No built-in templates for OKRs.
• No alerts or reminders.
• No visualizations or automated reports.
• No strategic planning expertise or support available.

Why OnStrategy is better

We built OnStrategy because managing strategy in Excel was a headache. Our app was purpose-built to support the strategy execution cycle process and solve the pain points of managing OKRs in static spreadsheets and finding other tools to support all aspects of strategic planning.

Smartsheet—

Best for small organizations with five or less contributors and limited budgets.

Smartsheet is a very affordable project management and strategic transformation software that is also incredibly versatile. It has dashboards and templates for resource management, portfolio management and other options.

It allows users to share key information to stakeholders and keep them informed by providing real-time visibility into project statuses and performance.

• Easy templates to follow.
• Infinitely customizable.
• Inexpensive.
• Challenging to set up.

Why OnStrategy is better:

OnStrategy is purpose-built for strategy and OKRs, automates reporting, makes it easy for your team to update their results, and we are here to support your entire process. Smartsheet is a great tool, but it’s primarily a fancy spreadsheet.

Best for enterprise or large organizations that need a dedicated strategic planning tool.

Cascade is an all-in-one strategy execution platform that boasts OKR and KPI capabilities that allow you to track and measure success, as well as dashboards and reports that help you visualize your strategy and generate dynamic business reports. Cascade can house your entire strategic plan in one place— without the need for spreadsheets and slide decks.

• Easy to use and set up
• Free plan for small teams
• Purpose-built for strategy and data management
• Automated reporting and visualization
• Many pre-built integrations connect your data
• Tech support only – no real planning expertise behind the app
• The entire feature set costs extra
• Built by engineers, not strategy experts
• Doesn’t guide you to create an organizational strategy. Only guides you to create goals and actions.

OnStrategy helps organizations build an entire plan from start to finish with guided exercises, whiteboards, and interactive tools. Plus, get access to experts at any point when you need help finishing your strategic plan.

ClearPoint —

Best for teams who want a functional project management system that can be creatively leveraged for OKR development.

ClearPoint Strategy is a SaaS strategy reporting tool used by businesses and organizations to automate and streamline their strategy reporting process. They steamline processes such as business performance management, OKR metrics, and other data reporting. ClearPoint’s integration and automation makes it faster and easier to report on strategic planning execution.

• Very customizable reporting and dashboards
• Option for onboarding support
• Very heavy to set up and use
• No expertise is available to help build or roll out your plan
• Does not include a self-service DIY course to train users how to create their strategy

OnStrategy’s guided planning and pre-built dashboards, reports, and data management make building and setting up your plan easy. We also include all elements of strategic planning— from OKR management, to mission, vision, and values creation, as well as competitive advantage and other business analytics.

For small and midsize businesses who want to create well-structured OKRs and collect data weekly.

This software has a lot of options for various industries, as this strategic planning software offers portfolio management, business transformation, goals and KPI monitoring, and PMO programs.

• Interactive dashboard.
• KPI and scorecard monitoring system.
• Automated notifications for pending or lapsed updates.
• Strategy consultants and customer success managers to assist with the process.
• Plan facilitation workshops only included at highest subscription tier.
• Lacks dedicated OKR functionality support.

AchieveIt doesn’t help build the core elements of a plan – including your mission, vision, values, and your growth strategy. OnStrategy’s software suite does.

For organizations who recognize that OKRs are only as powerful as the people behind them.

Profit.co serves as an OKR management, performance management, and task management software that also promotes employee engagement. Align teams with your dashboard so everyone can understand their company’s goals and see how they contribute to it.

Profit.co also has various key results that users can choose from—percentage, milestone, task, or KPI. This allows the user to differentiate and effortlessly track their key results.

• Inbuilt and custom KPIs to differentiate your key results and metrics
• Built-in step-by-step guides and OKR templates
• Dashboards that track real-time progress
• Not an all-in-one strategic planning management software
• No OKR or strategic planning experts to help guide or facilitate the process
• Does not allow a place for strategic direction and vision statements

Profit.co is best as an OKR management software only. If you need help building a comprehensive plan, OnStrategy is a better choice.

While clearly, we’re (slightly) biased and 100% believe that our application is the best strategic planning software choice on the market, we wouldn’t be content without you believing it too! We know that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all option for everyone, but we strive to meet the dynamic needs of strategy leaders by offering a comprehensive and robust strategic planning solution to meet as many industry needs and budgetary limits as possible.

We are confident that when you compare OnStrategy’s comprehensive strategy software solution to others in the industry, you’ll see why we are the best choice for teams seeking alignment with their organizational strategy.

Comparison Grid

✓ — Included Feature O —Optional Feature — Not offered

Choosing the right strategic planning management platform or tool is a personal and individual process. It depends on many various factors such as automation capabilities, out-of-the-box functionality, self-reporting and real-time data collection features. First assess your own needs as an organization and find the strategy software that fits your needs.

There are a few critical attributes that companies need to possess in order to make strategic planning and execution successful. Some of these attributes include having a big enough team, an engaged team who is fully bought into the process, and a need for robust and dynamic reporting and tracking capabilities in your current strategic planning process.

If you’re tired of manually piecemealing all of your data and strategic planning elements across various platforms, you may be ready for an all-in-one solution like OnStrategy!

As we’ve stated earlier in the article, there are a plethora of factors to consider before deciding which is the best strategic planning platform for your organization.

Generally, what sets OnStrategy apart from the rest is our drive to help your organization 2x your impact and meet 80% of your strategic goals. We don’t just provide the platform that houses your plan, but we empower you to execute and implement your plan at every stage of the process. We look forward to being your preferred strategy software solution!

Each strategic planning software program is unique from one to the next, which means each price point may differ from one to the next.

While budget is important to consider when searching for a strategic planning platform, it is also critical to consider all the ways the program supports your overall strategic planning and development needs. We are the only solution that allows you to implement a robust OKR framework into your overall strategic plan.

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Planning Support Systems: An Introduction

Cite this chapter.

• Stan Geertman 3 &
• John Stillwell 4  

Part of the book series: Advances in Spatial Science ((ADVSPATIAL))

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This introductory chapter begins with an initial discussion of some of the trends that have characterised planning in recent years and that provide the context for the development and application of Planning Support Systems (PSS). Given the focus of the book on demonstrating the application of PSS in practice, it was necessary to create an inventory of systems either in prototype form or in use in different planning environments. Many of the entries in the inventory have been extended into more detailed contributions for this book. The latter part of the chapter is devoted to outlining the structure of the book and its contents.

• Geographical Information System
• Planning Process
• Planning Task
• Planning Practice

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Geertman, S., Stillwell, J. (2003). Planning Support Systems: An Introduction. In: Geertman, S., Stillwell, J. (eds) Planning Support Systems in Practice. Advances in Spatial Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-24795-1_1

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Strategic Spatial Planning Support System for Sustainable Development: Agent-Based Modelling and Simulation (Advances in Geographic Information Science) 1st ed. 2022 Edition

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• ISBN-10 3031075420
• ISBN-13 978-3031075421
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This book introduces planning support systems by combining policy decision-making process with the mechanism of urban spatial or functional development regarding to the planning policies on strategic level. By analyzing policy interactions between household agents, the book concentrates on visualizing and forecasting macro phenomenon of policy effects through revealing the discrete, micro human behaviors around the urban functions of dwelling, recreation, working, and transportation. Simulations are created based on these policy outcome assessments, taking into account the influences of energy and resource consumption and CO2 emission on sustainable development in urban environments. The book is geared towards researchers, universities, and urban policy makers.

About the Author

Dr. Yan MA is an Associate Professor in Fuzhou University. She finished her undergraduate education and Master course in the School of Resources and Environmental Science at Wuhan University in China, and got Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Kanazawa University, Japan. She is a member of Architectural Institute of Japan (AIJ), City Planning Institute of Japan (CPIJ), and served as Editorial Board member of International Review for Spatial Planning and Sustainable Developmen. Dr. Ma was Scientific Committee member of International Conference on Computers in Urban Planning and Urban Management 2011, and Scientific Committee member of International Conference on Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development 2011. She organized International Symposium of Urban Planning and Management of SPSD community and served as secretary of board of directors of International Community of Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development.

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Strategic Information System: Planning and Examples

A Strategic Information System (SIS) is a type of information system developed in response to corporate business initiatives. These systems play an integral role in an organization’s strategic planning, allowing it to gain a competitive advantage by effectively aggregating, processing, and managing data to inform decision-making.

Here are some key characteristics of SIS:

• Support for Decision Making:  SIS is specifically designed to support the decision-making process in an organization. It provides useful information to executives and managers who need data to make strategic decisions.
• Competitive Advantage:  SIS can give a company a competitive edge by providing unique and valuable insights. It can help identify opportunities and threats in the market, giving the company a strategic advantage over its competitors.
• Alignment with Strategy:  A strategic information system should be closely aligned with an organization’s business strategy. It should help in achieving the long-term goals and objectives of the company.
• High-level Management:  SIS is typically used by high-level management as it helps in strategic planning and decision-making.
• Integration of Data:  SIS can integrate data from various sources, both internal and external, to provide a holistic view of the organization’s performance and the market.

Strategic Control: Types | Examples | Systems

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Strategic information system planning

Strategic Information System Planning (SISP) is the process of identifying a portfolio of computer-based applications that will assist an organization in executing its business plans and realizing its business goals. SISP is one of the most important IS practices, linking strategic business planning and IS planning.

The purpose of SISP is to ensure that technology and information systems are fully aligned with the strategic objectives and priorities of the organization. It involves analyzing the current state of the organization’s systems, defining the future state of these systems, and developing a plan to achieve this future state.

Here are the key steps often involved in SISP:

• Identification of Strategic Business Objectives:  The first step is to understand the business’s strategic goals. This involves discussions with senior leadership and analyzing the business’s strategic plan.
• Current Systems Assessment:  The organization’s existing information systems are evaluated to determine their effectiveness in meeting current and future business needs.
• Information Requirements Analysis:  The business’s information needs are analyzed. This step involves understanding what information is required, who needs it when they need it, and how it should be delivered.
• Gap Analysis:  The gap between the current state of the organization’s systems and the desired future state is identified.
• Development of the SISP:  The Strategic Information Systems Plan is developed, outlining the initiatives that will be taken to close the gap identified in the previous step.
• Implementation of the SISP:  The plan is put into action, often involving the acquisition of new systems, modification of existing systems, and changes to business processes.
• Review and Update:  The SISP is regularly reviewed and updated to ensure it remains aligned with the organization’s strategic objectives and to account for changes in technology and the business environment.

SISP can provide several benefits, including improved alignment between IT and business strategy, better communication and understanding between IT and business stakeholders, and a clear roadmap for developing and acquiring information systems.

Example of strategic information system planning

Let’s use the example of a manufacturing company implementing Strategic Information System Planning (SISP) to improve its operational efficiency and market competitiveness.

• Identification of Strategic Business Objectives:  The company’s strategic business objectives are to increase operational efficiency, reduce costs, and improve product quality to gain a larger market share.
• Current Systems Assessment:  The current information systems are assessed, and the company finds that its existing systems need to be updated, resulting in inefficiencies, high error rates, and a lack of real-time data for decision-making.
• Information Requirements Analysis:  The company determines that it needs real-time information on production, inventory, and sales data to improve decision-making. The organization also requires better quality control, forecasting, and strategic planning analytics.
• Gap Analysis:  There’s a significant gap between the company’s IT capabilities and needs. The outdated systems can’t provide real-time data or sophisticated analytics, and they’re not well integrated, leading to data silos and inefficiencies.
• Development of the SISP:  The company develops a Strategic Information Systems Plan to bridge the gap. This plan involves implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to integrate different business processes, a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) for real-time production monitoring, and a Business Intelligence (BI) system for advanced analytics. The plan also includes data migration, system integration, staff training, and change management steps.
• Implementation of the SISP:  The company implements the SISP over a multi-year period, taking a phased approach to minimize disruption. The new systems are implemented, staff is trained, and changes are managed carefully to ensure a smooth transition.
• Review and Update:  Once the new systems are in place, they’re continually monitored to ensure they deliver the expected benefits. The SISP is also reviewed and updated regularly to accommodate changes in business strategy or technology trends.

In this scenario, the company has used SISP to align its IT systems with its strategic business objectives, giving it the tools it needs to achieve its goals of improved efficiency, cost reduction, and enhanced product quality. The company can now make real-time data-driven decisions, improve its production process, and understand market trends better with advanced analytics, thereby gaining a competitive advantage.

Strategic Alignment: Explained with Examples

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Examples of strategic information system

Strategic Information Systems (SIS) help organizations gain a competitive advantage, improve performance, and achieve operational excellence. Here are a few examples of such systems:

• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Systems:  CRMs manage an organization’s interactions with current and potential customers. They use customer history data analysis to improve business relationships, focusing specifically on customer retention and driving sales growth. Salesforce and HubSpot are common examples of CRM systems.
• Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems:  ERPs are comprehensive systems that manage and integrate the organization’s major business processes. They can streamline processes, provide real-time reporting and analytics, and help increase efficiency and productivity. Common examples of ERP systems are SAP and Oracle.
• Supply Chain Management (SCM) Systems:  These systems manage the flow of goods, data, and finances related to a product or service from the initial procurement of raw materials to the delivery of the product at its final destination. SCM systems like Oracle SCM Cloud and SAP SCM can provide a strategic edge by enhancing the efficiency of the supply chain and reducing costs.
• Executive Information Systems (EIS):  EIS, also known as Executive Support Systems (ESS), provide various internal and external information to top executives and decision-makers, allowing them to track business performance and make strategic decisions. EIS platforms can pull data from numerous sources, offering a comprehensive view of business operations.
• Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics Systems:  These systems analyze business data to provide actionable insights, helping an organization make informed decisions. They allow for trend analysis, forecasting, and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs). Examples of these systems include Tableau, Power BI, and Looker.
• Knowledge Management Systems (KMS):  KMS help organizations capture, distribute, and effectively use their collective knowledge. They can enhance decision-making, foster innovation, and improve customer service. Examples include Atlassian Confluence and Microsoft SharePoint.

Remember, while these systems have strategic potential, their effectiveness depends on how well they align with the organization’s overall strategy and how well they’re implemented and used within the organization.

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11 Ways to Build Support for Your Organization's New Strategy

Developing a multi-year strategy is critical to driving an organization's long-term success. However, securing approval and buy-in from internal stakeholders, such as leadership teams and board members, is often missed as a key step within the strategy planning process that has a distinct set of considerations. In this article, we will outline approaches and tactics to effectively communicate, build support, and demonstrate credibility of a new strategy.

At its core, a strategy is a communicable plan designed to maximize and sustain the most important outcomes of an organization. If the communication of a strategy is weak, the strategy is itself weak. Thus, gaining approval for a new strategy is often rooted in effective communication and stakeholder involvement, more than it is in "knowing the right answer".

Before seeking approval: Building a credible strategy

1. before strategy planning, identify key stakeholders.

Begin by identifying who the key stakeholders are. These are the individuals or groups whose support is crucial for the success of the company strategy. Stakeholders could include executives, department heads, team leads, board members, or even specific influential employees within the organization. Understanding their interests, concerns, and expectations can help tailor engagement (and ultimately, buy-in) efforts effectively.

2. Start strategic planning with clear outcomes (aka objectives)

A multi-year strategy should be rooted in the outcomes you want to achieve. Begin by defining these strategic objectives, making sure they are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. This provides a solid foundation for developing the initiatives and tactics that will drive the strategy.

Examples of objectives/outcomes are:

• Reach $200M in runrate revenue
• Attain a $100M valuation
• Shelter 50,000 homeless annually

It's imperative to get alignment from all stakeholders about what the objectives are, as early as possible in the process. Strategic planning is a logical workflow that is rooted in the objectives, so a good deal of downstream disagreement and approval friction can be avoided by making sure every relevant stakeholder, leader, and board member is on the same page about where the organization should be at the end of the strategy's time horizon.

3. Develop a prioritized list of strategic initiatives

Through a rigorous process of strategic planning, involving structured strategic planning workshops and internal and external research, identify the initiatives that will have the greatest impact on achieving the strategic objectives. Prioritize them based on their potential impact and feasibility. This prioritization helps ensure that the organization focuses resources on the most critical initiatives—resources are finite and ultimately, a strategy is a high-level resource allocation exercise.

Consider involving key stakeholders in the strategy development process as much as is possible (and productive). This could include brainstorming sessions, strategy workshops, or feedback rounds. Involving stakeholders not only leverages their insights and expertise but also fosters ownership and commitment to the strategy.

Once you've arrived at a set of prioritized, multi-year initiatives, check them against the following 4 components of a cohesive and bold strategy:

• Funding : Acquiring necessary capital to accomplish all strategic initiatives, whether through fundraising or operating cashflow
• Foundational : Organization-wide improvements to enable execution of both “business-as-usual” and expansions/bold, risky initiatives
• Core execution : Continuation of already-successful core operations, or operations that have already been irreversibly committed to
• Expansion and bold risks : New products, services, geographies, and markets, building on core competencies but ultimately having meaningful failure risk

4. Test the credibility of the strategy

Ensure that the proposed strategy is robust by assessing it against a comprehensive checklist of criteria . This should include factors such as cohesion, prioritization, achievability, accountability, comprehensiveness, research, robustness-to-uncertainty, risk management, adaptability, and simplicity.

When this exercise is complete, it will be possible to communicate these criteria as benefits and rationales for why the strategy is strong.

Getting buy-in

5. write a compelling strategic statement.

A Strategic Statement is a tool that can facilitate the effective communication of your strategy.

Summarize the top strategic opportunities into a single, cohesive sentence or two—this is the Strategic Statement. This statement should be simple, cohesive, and communicable, serving as the cornerstone of your internal communication materials. Adapt and wordsmith it so it appropriately resonates with your unique employees and stakeholders.

Use this simple Strategic Statement to express the proposed strategy to internal teams, leadership, and board members.

This Strategic Statement should outline your primary objectives and the key initiatives you plan to undertake to achieve them. For example, if an organization aims to significantly increase its service to the homeless population over the next three to five years, the Strategic Statement might read something like this:

Within 3-5 years, we will be sheltering 50,000 homeless annually by “Doubling Down” – focusing our inbound efforts and shelter capacity in key geographies, and massively improving operational efficiencies there.

6. In communication materials, tie the strategy to the original strategic outcomes/objectives

Reinforce the connection between the strategic initiatives and the outcomes (objectives) that were defined and agreed upon at the start. This will help ensure that your strategy remains focused on achieving its overarching objectives, and will make the communication much clearer.

7. Develop an investment forecast and illustrative set of milestones

Create a plan that outlines the specific steps, milestones, and timelines for each strategic initiative. This will help demonstrate how your strategy can drive goal-setting and accountability across the organization. However, until approval, this set of milestones is illustrative, and will change if initiatives change.

8. Create materials and communications, tailoring for each stakeholder

Know your audience. Use stakeholder mapping techniques to understand the influence and interest of your stakeholders. This can help you prioritize your stakeholder engagement efforts and tailor your communication strategies.

Think of all stakeholders in terms of their needs . What does this stakeholder (or group of stakeholders) need? What priorities are set by their managers, partners, or customers? How can different elements of the proposed strategy alleviate their issues or accelerate their priorities?

Not all stakeholders have equal relation to a strategic plan, and may need to be engaged differently. High-influence, high-interest stakeholders, for instance, might require more intensive, personalized engagement.

Here are ways to maximize the impact of buy-in efforts with different stakeholders:

• Vary your message for the audience : Develop a communication plan that includes clear, concise messaging, and tailored content for different stakeholders.
• Address unique concerns or objections : For each stakeholder, identify and address any potential concerns or objections they may have. Be prepared to provide evidence, data, and examples to support the strategic initiatives and demonstrate their credibility.
• Tell a believable story : Use storytelling techniques to make your strategy more engaging and relatable. Share success stories, case studies, and anecdotes that illustrate the impact of your strategic initiatives and show how they contribute to achieving your strategic objectives.
• Leverage presentations : Presentations are a powerful tool to communicate your strategy visually and verbally. Use clear, engaging, and concise slides that outline your strategic objectives, initiatives, and implementation plan. Remember to focus on the benefits and impact of the strategy, answering the key question: "What's in it for them?" Utilize storytelling and data visualization to make your presentations more compelling and persuasive.
• Use multiple communication channels : Don't rely solely on presentations and meetings to build support for your strategy. Use multiple communication channels, such as emails, intranet posts, newsletters, and social media platforms, to reach your stakeholders. Consider creating a dedicated strategy communication hub where stakeholders can access strategy documents, updates, and FAQs.

9. Leverage champions

Identify, train and empower champions within the stakeholders—those who can advocate for your strategy. Test the interest and appetite of all stakeholders as you tee up strategy review sessions with them, and plan to leverage the most aligned and excited ones.

Champions can play a crucial role in building support at different levels of the organization. Equip champions with the knowledge and resources they need to communicate the strategy effectively to their teams and peers.

10. Set and schedule the necessary meetings

Determine the meetings (or email/direct communications) with stakeholders necessary to discuss the strategic priorities, answer questions, address concerns, and gather feedback. These could be one-on-one meetings, team meetings, town hall meetings, or strategy workshops. These meetings not only keep stakeholders engaged but also provide an opportunity for you to refine and improve your strategy based on their input.

These meetings and touchpoints should be planned out ahead of time, and scheduled as early as you can, to secure time on calendars. The most influential stakeholders for strategic planning are often the ones with heavily blocked calendars.

10. Be prepared to adjust the strategic priorities, if appropriate

Reviewing the strategic plan with stakeholders will necessarily bring in new feedback and input. This should be viewed constructively, not destructively. Making slight adjustments, particularly in wording, to a set of strategic priorities is often acceptable in order to secure wide support of a strategic plan.

However, if there is a large discrepancy between the stakeholder's perspective and the proposed strategy, the following questions should be asked:

• Root cause : Does this stakeholder disagree with an initiative? If so, do they disagree with the previous step of the strategic planning process (eg the quantitative prioritization scoring, or the research process, or the Strategic Objectives, or even the Mission)? If so, center the discussion around that early step, which is where the root of the discrepancy lies.
• Scope : Is this stakeholder's perspective applicable to the holistic strategy or just a component of it? Weigh stakeholder input in accordance with its scope.

11. Continuously measure, assess, and adapt the strategy

Demonstrate commitment to fresh and relevant strategy by establishing a regular review process. This could involve annual strategy reviews or more frequent adjustments based on new insights and data. This is critical for ensuring the strategy is agile and resistant to uncertainty .

Keep stakeholders informed about the progress of your strategic initiatives. Regular updates not only maintain stakeholder engagement but also demonstrate transparency and accountability. Celebrate milestones and successes, but also honestly communicate challenges and setbacks.

Securing approval for a multi-year strategy is essential for driving organizational success. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can effectively communicate your strategy, gain buy-in from a strong coalition of key stakeholders, and ensure that your plan is robust, credible, and likely to succeed in its implementation. Remember, a well-communicated strategy is the foundation for achieving your organization's long-term objectives and sustaining its growth—and building support for a strategy is a continuous process. To learn more, watch Gaussian's introductory videos to the strategy planning process , or find out more about some of our strategy planning services .

Photo by Scott Trento .

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Why Is Strategic Planning Important?

• 06 Oct 2020

Do you know what your organization’s strategy is? How much time do you dedicate to developing that strategy each month?

If your answers are on the low side, you’re not alone. According to research from Bridges Business Consultancy , 48 percent of leaders spend less than one day per month discussing strategy.

It’s no wonder, then, that 48 percent of all organizations fail to meet at least half of their strategic targets. Before an organization can reap the rewards of its business strategy, planning must take place to ensure its strategy remains agile and executable .

Here’s a look at what strategic planning is and how it can benefit your organization.

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What Is Strategic Planning?

Strategic planning is the ongoing organizational process of using available knowledge to document a business's intended direction. This process is used to prioritize efforts, effectively allocate resources, align shareholders and employees on the organization’s goals, and ensure those goals are backed by data and sound reasoning.

It’s important to highlight that strategic planning is an ongoing process—not a one-time meeting. In the online course Disruptive Strategy , Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen notes that in a study of HBS graduates who started businesses, 93 percent of those with successful strategies evolved and pivoted away from their original strategic plans.

“Most people think of strategy as an event, but that’s not the way the world works,” Christensen says. “When we run into unanticipated opportunities and threats, we have to respond. Sometimes we respond successfully; sometimes we don’t. But most strategies develop through this process. More often than not, the strategy that leads to success emerges through a process that’s at work 24/7 in almost every industry.”

Strategic planning requires time, effort, and continual reassessment. Given the proper attention, it can set your business on the right track. Here are three benefits of strategic planning.

Related: 4 Ways to Develop Your Strategic Thinking Skills

Benefits of Strategic Planning

1. create one, forward-focused vision.

Strategy touches every employee and serves as an actionable way to reach your company’s goals.

One significant benefit of strategic planning is that it creates a single, forward-focused vision that can align your company and its shareholders. By making everyone aware of your company’s goals, how and why those goals were chosen, and what they can do to help reach them, you can create an increased sense of responsibility throughout your organization.

This can also have trickle-down effects. For instance, if a manager isn’t clear on your organization’s strategy or the reasoning used to craft it, they could make decisions on a team level that counteract its efforts. With one vision to unite around, everyone at your organization can act with a broader strategy in mind.

2. Draw Attention to Biases and Flaws in Reasoning

The decisions you make come with inherent bias. Taking part in the strategic planning process forces you to examine and explain why you’re making each decision and back it up with data, projections, or case studies, thus combatting your cognitive biases.

A few examples of cognitive biases are:

• The recency effect: The tendency to select the option presented most recently because it’s fresh in your mind
• Occam’s razor bias: The tendency to assume the most obvious decision to be the best decision
• Inertia bias: The tendency to select options that allow you to think, feel, and act in familiar ways

One cognitive bias that may be more difficult to catch in the act is confirmation bias . When seeking to validate a particular viewpoint, it's the tendency to only pay attention to information that supports that viewpoint.

If you’re crafting a strategic plan for your organization and know which strategy you prefer, enlist others with differing views and opinions to help look for information that either proves or disproves the idea.

Combating biases in strategic decision-making requires effort and dedication from your entire team, and it can make your organization’s strategy that much stronger.

Related: 3 Group Decision-Making Techniques for Success

3. Track Progress Based on Strategic Goals

Having a strategic plan in place can enable you to track progress toward goals. When each department and team understands your company’s larger strategy, their progress can directly impact its success, creating a top-down approach to tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) .

By planning your company’s strategy and defining its goals, KPIs can be determined at the organizational level. These goals can then be extended to business units, departments, teams, and individuals. This ensures that every level of your organization is aligned and can positively impact your business’s KPIs and performance.

It’s important to remember that even though your strategy might be far-reaching and structured, it must remain agile. As Christensen asserts in Disruptive Strategy , a business’s strategy needs to evolve with the challenges and opportunities it encounters. Be prepared to pivot your KPIs as goals shift and communicate the reasons for change to your organization.

Improve Your Strategic Planning Skills

Strategic planning can benefit your organization’s vision, execution, and progress toward goals. If strategic planning is a skill you’d like to improve, online courses can provide the knowledge and techniques needed to lead your team and organization.

Strategy courses can range from primers on key concepts (such as Economics for Managers ), to deep-dives on strategy frameworks (such as Disruptive Strategy ), to coursework designed to help you strategize for a specific organizational goal (such as Sustainable Business Strategy ).

Learning how to craft an effective, compelling strategic plan can enable you to not only invest in your career but provide lasting value to your organization.

Do you want to formulate winning strategies for your organization? Explore our portfolio of online strategy courses and download the free flowchart to determine which is the best fit for you and your goals.

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New Federal Health IT Strategy Sets Sights on a Heathier, More Innovative, and More Equitable Health Care Experience

ONC seeks public comment by May 28, 2024

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) through the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), today released the draft 2024–2030 Federal Health IT Strategic Plan (the draft Plan) for public comment. The draft Plan:

• Outlines federal health IT goals and objectives that are focused on improving access to health data, delivering a better, more equitable health care experience, and modernizing our nation’s public health data infrastructure.
• Places an emphasis on the policy and technology components necessary to support the diverse data needs of all health IT users.
• Supports the Department’s recent Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability: Certification Program Updates, Algorithm Transparency, and Information Sharing (HTI-1) final rule to advance the access, exchange, and use of electronic health information (EHI), and deliver more transparent and equitable care for individuals.
• Aligns with the HHS Health Care Sector Cybersecurity  concept paper and voluntary health care specific  Cybersecurity Performance Goals   (CPGs) to help health care organizations prioritize implementation of high-impact cybersecurity practices.

“As part of our statutory duty to align and coordinate health IT efforts with our federal partners, ONC collaborated on the draft Plan with more than 25 federal agencies. These agencies regulate, purchase, develop, and use health IT to deliver care and improve health outcomes, and they increasingly rely on the access, exchange, and use of EHI to effectively execute their missions,” said Micky Tripathi, Ph.D., national coordinator for health information technology. “We look forward to public comments to help inform the federal government's health IT strategy for the coming years.”

Health IT is integral to how health care is delivered, how health is managed, and how the health of populations and communities is tracked. Thanks in part to the development of common standards, such as the United States Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI) and Health Level Seven International® (HL7®) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources® (FHIR®), health information has become more accessible and useful. Recent data shows that more than 88 percent of hospitals report electronically sending and obtaining patient health information and more than 60 percent report integrating that information into their electronic health records (EHRs). In addition, more individuals report accessing their health information online than ever before.

“The role of health IT and readily available access to health data have become increasingly essential to the administration of public health activities,” said Jim Jirjis, director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Data Policy and Standards Division. “CDC appreciates how the draft 2024-2030 Federal Health IT Strategic Plan addresses the need to continue to advance the nation’s public health data infrastructure, while making sure that it is benefiting the communities that need it most.”

“As the VA modernizes its electronic health record system, the draft 2024-2030 Federal Health IT Strategic Plan provides direction towards a seamless health care experience that helps patients and providers benefit from a connected health system,” said Meg Marshall, director of informatics regulatory affairs at the Veterans Health Administration. “Not only that, the draft Federal Health IT Strategic Plan serves as an actionable roadmap for the federal government to align and coordinate health IT efforts in a transparent and accountable manner. We are looking for public comment about ways to improve health through health IT, so that Veterans too can benefit from the goals of a coordinated federal health IT strategy.”

The draft Plan emphasizes that all populations in the United States can and should benefit from health IT, expanding to include additional sectors, such as public health, and addressing how technologies, such as artificial intelligence, affect health care.

The public comment period for the draft 2024-2030 Federal Health IT Strategic Plan ends on May 28, 2024 at 11:59 pm ET. Visit HealthIT.gov to learn more about how you can submit your comments about the draft Plan.

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