the strategic planning process in 4 steps

The Strategic Planning Process in 4 Steps

To help you throughout our strategic planning framework, we have created a how-to guide on the basics of a strategic plan, which we will take you through step-by-step..

Free Strategic Planning Guide

What is Strategic Planning?

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

Overview of the Strategic Planning Process:

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

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

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

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

Questions to Ask:

• Who is on your Planning Team? What senior leadership members and key stakeholders are included? Checkout these links you need help finding a strategic planning consultant , someone to facilitate strategic planning , or expert AI strategy consulting .
• Who will be the business process owner (Strategy Director) of planning in your organization?
• Fast forward 12 months from now, what do you want to see differently in your organization as a result of your strategic plan and implementation?
• Planning team members are informed of their roles and responsibilities.
• A strategic planning schedule is established.
• Existing planning information and secondary data collected.

Action Grid:

Step 1: Determine Organizational Readiness

Set up your plan for success – questions to ask:

• Are the conditions and criteria for successful planning in place at the current time? Can certain pitfalls be avoided?
• Is this the appropriate time for your organization to initiate a planning process? Yes or no? If no, where do you go from here?

Step 2: Develop Your Team & Schedule

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

OnStrategy is the leader in strategic planning and performance management. Our cloud-based software and hands-on services closes the gap between strategy and execution. Learn more about OnStrategy here .

Step 3: Collect Current Data

All strategic plans are developed using the following information:

• The last strategic plan, even if it is not current
• Mission statement, vision statement, values statement
• Past or current Business plan
• Financial records for the last few years
• Marketing plan
• Other information, such as last year’s SWOT, sales figures and projections

Step 4: Review Collected Data

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

• What trends do you see?
• Are there areas of obvious weakness or strengths?
• Have you been following a plan or have you just been going along with the market?

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

Strategic Planning Phase 1: Determine Your Strategic Position

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

Action Grid

Step 1: identify strategic issues.

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

• How will we grow, stabilize, or retrench in order to sustain our organization into the future?
• How will we diversify our revenue to reduce our dependence on a major customer?
• What must we do to improve our cost structure and stay competitive?
• How and where must we innovate our products and services?

Step 2: Conduct an Environmental Scan

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

Step 3: Conduct a Competitive Analysis

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

• To help you assess whether your competitive advantage is really an advantage.
• To understand what your competitors’ current and future strategies are so you can plan accordingly.
• To provide information that will help you evaluate your strategic decisions against what your competitors may or may not be doing.

Learn more on how to conduct a competitive analysis here .

Step 4: Identify Opportunities and Threats

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

What do you want to capitalize on?

• What new needs of customers could you meet?
• What are the economic trends that benefit you?
• What are the emerging political and social opportunities?
• What niches have your competitors missed?

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

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

Questions to Answer:

• What are the negative economic trends?
• What are the negative political and social trends?
• Where are competitors about to bite you?
• Where are you vulnerable?

Step 5: Identify Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths refer to what your company does well.

What do you want to build on?

• What do you do well (in sales, marketing, operations, management)?
• What are your core competencies?
• What differentiates you from your competitors?
• Why do your customers buy from you?

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

What do you need to shore up?

• Where do you lack resources?
• What can you do better?
• Where are you losing money?
• In what areas do your competitors have an edge?

Step 6: Customer Segments

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

• What needs or wants define your ideal customer?
• What characteristics describe your typical customer?
• Can you sort your customers into different profiles using their needs, wants and characteristics?
• Can you reach this segment through clear communication channels?

Step 7: Develop Your SWOT

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

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

• Build on your strengths
• Shore up your weaknesses
• Capitalize on your opportunities
• Manage your threats

Strategic Planning Process Phase 2: Developing Strategy

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

Step 1: Develop Your Mission Statement

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

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

• What are your organization’s goals? What does your organization intend to accomplish?
• Why do you work here? Why is it special to work here?
• What would happen if we were not here?

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

Step 2: discover your values.

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

How will we behave?

• What are the key non-negotiables that are critical to the company’s success?
• What guiding principles are core to how we operate in this organization?
• What behaviors do you expect to see?
• If the circumstances changed and penalized us for holding this core value, would we still keep it?

Outcome: Short list of 5-7 core values.

Step 3: casting your vision statement.

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

Where are we going?

• What will our organization look like 5–10 years from now?
• What does success look like?
• What are we aspiring to achieve?
• What mountain are you climbing and why?

Outcome: A picture of the future.

Step 4: identify your competitive advantages.

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

What are we best at?

• What are your unique strengths?
• What are you best at in your market?
• Do your customers still value what is being delivered? Ask them.
• How do your value propositions stack up in the marketplace?

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

Step 5: crafting your organization-wide strategies.

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

How will we succeed?

• Broad: market scope; a relatively wide market emphasis.
• Narrow: limited to only one or few segments in the market
• Does your competitive position focus on lowest total cost or product/service differentiation or both?

Outcome: Establish the general, umbrella methods you intend to use to reach your vision.

Phase 3: Strategic Plan Development

Want More? Deep Dive Into the “Build Your Plan” How-To Guide.

Strategic Planning Process Step 1: Use Your SWOT to Set Priorities

If your team wants to take the next step in the SWOT analysis, apply the TOWS Strategic Alternatives Matrix to your strategy map to help you think about the options you could pursue. To do this, match external opportunities and threats with your internal strengths and weaknesses, as illustrated in the matrix below:

TOWS Strategic Alternatives Matrix

Evaluate the options you’ve generated, and identify the ones that give the greatest benefit, and that best achieve the mission and vision of your organization. Add these to the other strategic options that you’re considering.

Step 2: Define Long-Term Strategic Objectives

Long-Term Strategic Objectives are long-term, broad, continuous statements that holistically address all areas of your organization. What must we focus on to achieve our vision? Check out examples of strategic objectives here. What are the “big rocks”?

Questions to ask:

• What are our shareholders or stakeholders expectations for our financial performance or social outcomes?
• To reach our outcomes, what value must we provide to our customers? What is our value proposition?
• To provide value, what process must we excel at to deliver our products and services?
• To drive our processes, what skills, capabilities and organizational structure must we have?

Outcome: Framework for your plan – no more than 6. You can use the balanced scorecard framework, OKRs, or whatever methodology works best for you. Just don’t exceed 6 long-term objectives.

Step 3: Setting Organization-Wide Goals and Measures

Once you have formulated your strategic objectives, you should translate them into goals and measures that can be communicated to your strategic planning team (team of business leaders and/or team members).

You want to set goals that convert the strategic objectives into specific performance targets. Effective strategic goals clearly state what, when, how, and who, and they are specifically measurable. They should address what you must do in the short term (think 1-3 years) to achieve your strategic objectives.

Organization-wide goals are annual statements that are SMART – specific, measurable, attainable, responsible, and time-bound. These are outcome statements expressing a result to achieve the desired outcomes expected in the organization.

What is most important right now to reach our long-term objectives?

Outcome: clear outcomes for the current year..

Step 4: Select KPIs

Key Performance Indicators (KPI) are the key measures that will have the most impact in moving your organization forward. We recommend you guide your organization with measures that matter. See examples of KPIs here.

How will we measure our success?

Outcome: 5-7 measures that help you keep the pulse on your performance. When selecting your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), ask, “What are the key performance measures we need to track to monitor if we are achieving our goals?” These KPIs include the key goals you want to measure that will have the most impact on moving your organization forward.

Step 5: Cascade Your Strategies to Operations

To move from big ideas to action, creating action items and to-dos for short-term goals is crucial. This involves translating strategy from the organizational level to individuals. Functional area managers and contributors play a role in developing short-term goals to support the organization.

Before taking action, decide whether to create plans directly derived from the strategic plan or sync existing operational, business, or account plans with organizational goals. Avoid the pitfall of managing multiple sets of goals and actions, as this shifts from strategic planning to annual planning.

Questions to Ask

• How are we going to get there at a functional level?
• Who must do what by when to accomplish and drive the organizational goals?
• What strategic questions still remain and need to be solved?

Department/functional goals, actions, measures and targets for the next 12-24 months

Step 6: Cascading Goals to Departments and Team Members

Now in your Departments / Teams, you need to create goals to support the organization-wide goals. These goals should still be SMART and are generally (short-term) something to be done in the next 12-18 months. Finally, you should develop an action plan for each goal.

Keep the acronym SMART in mind again when setting action items, and make sure they include start and end dates and have someone assigned their responsibility. Since these action items support your previously established goals, it may be helpful to consider action items your immediate plans on the way to achieving your (short-term) goals. In other words, identify all the actions that need to occur in the next 90 days and continue this same process every 90 days until the goal is achieved.

Examples of Cascading Goals:

Phase 4: Executing Strategy and Managing Performance

Want more? Dive Into the “Managing Performance” How-To Guide.

Step 1: Strategic Plan Implementation Schedule

Implementation is the process that turns strategies and plans into actions in order to accomplish strategic objectives and goals.

How will we use the plan as a management tool?

• Communication Schedule: How and when will you roll-out your plan to your staff? How frequently will you send out updates?
• Process Leader: Who is your strategy director?
• Structure: What are the dates for your strategy reviews (we recommend at least quarterly)?
• System & Reports: What are you expecting each staff member to come prepared with to those strategy review sessions?

Outcome: Syncing your plan into the “rhythm of your business.”

Once your resources are in place, you can set your implementation schedule. Use the following steps as your base implementation plan:

• Establish your performance management and reward system.
• Set up monthly and quarterly strategy meetings with established reporting procedures.
• Set up annual strategic review dates including new assessments and a large group meeting for an annual plan review.

Now you’re ready to start plan roll-out. Below are sample implementation schedules, which double for a full strategic management process timeline.

Step 2: Tracking Goals & Actions

Monthly strategy meetings don’t need to take a lot of time – 30 to 60 minutes should suffice. But it is important that key team members report on their progress toward the goals they are responsible for – including reporting on metrics in the scorecard they have been assigned.

By using the measurements already established, it’s easy to make course corrections if necessary. You should also commit to reviewing your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) during these regular meetings. Need help comparing strategic planning software ? Check out our guide.

Effective Strategic Planning: Your Bi-Annual Checklist

Never lose sight of the fact that strategic plans are guidelines, not rules. Every six months or so, you should evaluate your strategy execution and strategic plan implementation by asking these key questions:

• Will your goals be achieved within the time frame of the plan? If not, why?
• Should the deadlines be modified? (Before you modify deadlines, figure out why you’re behind schedule.)
• Are your goals and action items still realistic?
• Should the organization’s focus be changed to put more emphasis on achieving your goals?
• Should your goals be changed? (Be careful about making these changes – know why efforts aren’t achieving the goals before changing the goals.)
• What can be gathered from an adaptation to improve future planning activities?

Why Track Your Goals?

• Ownership: Having a stake and responsibility in the plan makes you feel part of it and leads you to drive your goals forward.
• Culture: Successful plans tie tracking and updating goals into organizational culture.
• Implementation: If you don’t review and update your strategic goals, they are just good intentions
• Accountability: Accountability and high visibility help drive change. This means that each measure, objective, data source and initiative must have an owner.
• Empowerment: Changing goals from In Progress to Complete just feels good!

Step 3: Review & Adapt

Guidelines for your strategy review.

The most important part of this meeting is a 70/30 review. 30% is about reviewing performance, and 70% should be spent on making decisions to move the company’s strategy forward in the next quarter.

The best strategic planners spend about 60-90 minutes in the sessions. Holding meetings helps focus your goals on accomplishing top priorities and accelerating the organization’s growth. Although the meeting structure is relatively simple, it does require a high degree of discipline.

Strategy Review Session Questions:

Strategic planning frequently asked questions, read our frequently asked questions about strategic planning to learn how to build a great strategic plan..

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

Your strategic plan needs to include an assessment of your current state, a SWOT analysis, mission, vision, values, competitive advantages, growth strategy, growth enablers, a 3-year roadmap, and annual plan with strategic goals, OKRs, and KPIs.

A strategic planning process should take no longer than 90 days to complete from start to finish! Any longer could fatigue your organization and team.

There are four overarching phases to the strategic planning process that include: determining position, developing your strategy, building your plan, and managing performance. Each phase plays a unique but distinctly crucial role in the strategic planning process.

Prior to starting your strategic plan, you must go through this pre-planning process to determine your organization’s readiness by following these steps:

Ask yourself these questions: Are the conditions and criteria for successful planning in place now? Can we foresee any pitfalls that we can avoid? Is there an appropriate time for our organization to initiate this process?

Develop your team and schedule. Who will oversee the implementation as Chief Strategy Officer or Director? Do we have at least 12-15 other key individuals on our team?

Research and Collect Current Data. Find the following resources that your organization may have used in the past to assist you with your new plan: last strategic plan, mission, vision, and values statement, business plan, financial records, marketing plan, SWOT, sales figures, or projections.

Finally, review the data with your strategy director and facilitator and ask these questions: What trends do we see? Any obvious strengths or weaknesses? Have we been following a plan or just going along with the market?

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• 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.

How to build an organizational strategy

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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. 

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The 5 steps of the strategic planning process

Starting a project without a strategy is like trying to bake a cake without a recipe — you might have all the ingredients you need, but without a plan for how to combine them, or a vision for what the finished product will look like, you’re likely to end up with a mess. This is especially true when working with a team — it’s crucial to have a shared plan that can serve as a map on the pathway to success.

Creating a strategic plan not only provides a useful document for the future, but also helps you define what you have right now, and think through and outline all of the steps and considerations you’ll need to succeed.

What is strategic planning?

While there is no single approach to creating a strategic plan, most approaches can be boiled down to five overarching steps:

• Define your vision
• Assess where you are
• Determine your priorities and objectives
• Define responsibilities
• Measure and evaluate results

Each step requires close collaboration as you build a shared vision, strategy for implementation, and system for understanding performance.

Related: Learn how to hold an effective strategic planning meeting

Why do I need a strategic plan?

Building a strategic plan is the best way to ensure that your whole team is on the same page, from the initial vision and the metrics for success to evaluating outcomes and adjusting (if necessary) for the future. Even if you’re an expert baker, working with a team to bake a cake means having a collaborative approach and clearly defined steps so that the result reflects the strategic goals you laid out at the beginning.

The benefits of strategic planning also permeate into the general efficiency and productivity of your organization as a whole. They include: 

• Greater attention to potential biases or flaws, improving decision-making 
• Clear direction and focus, motivating and engaging employees
• Better resource management, improving project outcomes 
• Improved employee performance, increasing profitability
• Enhanced communication and collaboration, fostering team efficiency 

Next, let’s dive into how to build and structure your strategic plan, complete with templates and assets to help you along the way.

Before you begin: Pick a brainstorming method

There are many brainstorming methods you can use to come up with, outline, and rank your priorities. When it comes to strategy planning, it’s important to get everyone’s thoughts and ideas out before committing to any one strategy. With the right facilitation , brainstorming helps make this process fair and transparent for everyone involved.  

First, decide if you want to run a real-time rapid ideation session or a structured brainstorming . In a rapid ideation session, you encourage sharing half-baked or silly ideas, typically within a set time frame. The key is to just get out all your ideas quickly and then edit the best ones. Examples of rapid ideation methods include round robin , brainwriting , mind mapping , and crazy eights . 

In a structured brainstorming session, you allow for more time to prepare and edit your thoughts before getting together to share and discuss those more polished ideas. This might involve brainstorming methods that entail unconventional ways of thinking, such as reverse brainstorming or rolestorming . 

Using a platform like Mural, you can easily capture and organize your team’s ideas through sticky notes, diagrams, text, or even images and videos. These features allow you to build actionable next steps immediately (and in the same place) through color coding and tagging. 

Whichever method you choose, the ideal outcome is that you avoid groupthink by giving everyone a voice and a say. Once you’ve reached a consensus on your top priorities, add specific objectives tied to each of those priorities.

Related: Brainstorming and ideation template

1. Define your vision

Whether it’s for your business as a whole, or a specific initiative, successful strategic planning involves alignment with a vision for success. You can think of it as a project-specific mission statement or a north star to guide employees toward fulfilling organizational goals. 

To create a vision statement that explicitly states the ideal results of your project or company transformation, follow these four key steps: 

• Engage and involve the entire team . Inclusivity like this helps bring diverse perspectives to the table. 
• Align the vision with your core values and purpose . This will make it familiar and easy to follow through. 
• Stay grounded . The vision should be ambitious enough to motivate and inspire yet grounded enough to be achievable and relevant.
• Think long-term flexibility . Consider future trends and how your vision can be flexible in the face of challenges or opportunities. 

For example, say your vision is to revolutionize customer success by streamlining and optimizing your process for handling support tickets. It’s important to have a strategy map that allows stakeholders (like the support team, marketing team, and engineering team) to know the overall objective and understand the roles they will play in realizing the goals. 

This can be done in real time or asynchronously , whether in person, hybrid, or remote. By leveraging a shared digital space , everyone has a voice in the process and room to add their thoughts, comments, and feedback. 

Related: Vision board template

2. Assess where you are

The next step in creating a strategic plan is to conduct an assessment of where you stand in terms of your own initiatives, as well as the greater marketplace. Start by conducting a resource assessment. Figure out which financial, human, and/or technological resources you have available and if there are any limitations. You can do this using a SWOT analysis.

What is SWOT analysis?

SWOT analysis is an exercise where you define:

• Strengths: What are your unique strengths for this initiative or this product? In what ways are you a leader?
• Weaknesses: What weaknesses can you identify in your offering? How does your product compare to others in the marketplace?
• Opportunities: Are there areas for improvement that'd help differentiate your business?
• Threats: Beyond weaknesses, are there existing potential threats to your idea that could limit or prevent its success? How can those be anticipated?

For example, say you have an eco-friendly tech company and your vision is to launch a new service in the next year. Here’s what the SWOT analysis might look like: 

• Strengths : Strong brand reputation, loyal customer base, and a talented team focused on innovation
• Weaknesses : Limited bandwidth to work on new projects, which might impact the scope of its strategy formulation 
• Opportunities : How to leverage and experiment with existing customers when goal-setting
• Threats : Factors in the external environment out of its control, like the state of the economy and supply chain shortages

This SWOT analysis will guide the company in setting strategic objectives and formulating a robust plan to navigate the challenges it might face. 

Related: SWOT analysis template

3. Determine your priorities and objectives

Once you've identified your organization’s mission and current standing, start a preliminary plan document that outlines your priorities and their corresponding objectives. Priorities and objectives should be set based on what is achievable with your available resources. The SMART framework is a great way to ensure you set effective goals . It looks like this:  

• Specific: Set clear objectives, leaving no room for ambiguity about the desired outcomes.
• Measurable : Choose quantifiable criteria to make it easier to track progress.
• Achievable : Ensure it is realistic and attainable within the constraints of your resources and environment.
• Relevant : Develop objectives that are relevant to the direction your organization seeks to move.
• Time-bound : Set a clear timeline for achieving each objective to maintain a sense of urgency and focus.

For instance, going back to the eco-friendly tech company, the SMART goals might be: 

• Specific : Target residential customers and small businesses to increase the sales of its solar-powered device line by 25%. 
• Measurable : Track monthly sales and monitor customer feedback and reviews. 
• Achievable : Allocate more resources to the marketing, sales, and customer service departments. 
• Relevant : Supports the company's growth goals in a growing market of eco-conscious consumers. 
• Time-bound : Conduct quarterly reviews and achieve this 25% increase in sales over the next 12 months.

With strategic objectives like this, you’ll be ready to put the work into action. 

Related: Project kickoff template

4. Define tactics and responsibilities

In this stage, individuals or units within your team can get granular about how to achieve your goals and who'll be accountable for each step. For example, the senior leadership team might be in charge of assigning specific tasks to their team members, while human resources works on recruiting new talent. 

It’s important to note that everyone’s responsibilities may shift over time as you launch and gather initial data about your project. For this reason, it’s key to define responsibilities with clear short-term metrics for success. This way, you can make sure that your plan is adaptable to changing circumstances. 

One of the more common ways to define tactics and metrics is to use the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) method. By outlining your OKRs, you’ll know exactly what key performance indicators (KPIs) to track and have a framework for analyzing the results once you begin to accumulate relevant data. 

For instance, if our eco-friendly tech company has a goal of increasing sales, one objective might be to expand market reach for its solar-powered products. The sales team lead would be in charge of developing an outreach strategy. The key result would be to successfully launch its products in two new regions by Q2. The KPI would be a 60% conversation rate in those targeted markets.  

Related: OKR planning template  

5. Manage, measure, and evaluate

Once your plan is set into motion, it’s important to actively manage (and measure) progress. Before launching your plan, settle on a management process that allows you to measure success or failure. In this way, everyone is aligned on progress and can come together to evaluate your strategy execution at regular intervals.

Determine the milestones at which you’ll come together and go over results — this can take place weekly, monthly, or quarterly, depending on the nature of the project.

One of the best ways to evaluate progress is through agile retrospectives (or retros) , which can be done in real time or asynchronously. During this process, gather and organize feedback about the key elements that played a role in your strategy. 

Related: Retrospective radar template

Retrospectives are typically divided into three parts:

• What went well.
• What didn’t go well.
• New opportunities for improvement.

This structure is also sometimes called the “ rose, thorn, bud ” framework. By using this approach, team members can collectively brainstorm and categorize their feedback, making the next steps clear and actionable. Creating an action plan during a post-mortem meeting is a crucial step in ensuring that lessons learned from past projects or events are effectively translated into tangible improvements. 

Another method for reviewing progress is the quarterly business review (QBR). Like the agile retrospective, it allows you to collect feedback and adjust accordingly. In the case of QBRs, however, we recommend dividing your feedback into four categories:

• Start (what new items should be launched?).
• Stop (what items need to be paused?).
• Continue (what is going well?).
• Change (what could be modified to perform better?).

Strategic planners know that planning activities continue even after a project is complete. There’s always room for improvement and an action plan waiting to be implemented. Using the above approaches, your team can make room for new ideas within the existing strategic framework in order to track better to your long-term goals.

Related: Quarterly business review template

Conclusions

The beauty of the strategic plan is that it can be applied from the campaign level all the way up to organizational vision. Using the strategic planning framework, you build buy-in , trust, and transparency by collaboratively creating a vision for success, and mapping out the steps together on the road to your goals.

Also, in so doing, you build in an ability to adapt effectively on the fly in response to data through measurement and evaluation, making your plan both flexible and resilient.

Related: 5 Tips for Holding Effective Post-mortems

Why Mural for strategic planning

Mural unlocks collaborative strategic planning through a shared digital space with an intuitive interface, a library of pre-fab templates, and methodologies based on design thinking principles.

Outline goals, identify key metrics, and track progress with a platform built for any enterprise.

Learn more about strategic planning with Mural.

About the authors

Bryan Kitch

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The Easy Guide to the Strategic Planning Process

Updated on: 23 May 2023

Strategic planning is a process that may take months for some organizations, but its importance to the growth of the organization cannot be measured.

It helps guide company decisions, set measurable goals, and define the direction of the organization.  

In this guide we will discuss what is strategic planning process and describe in detail the strategic planning process steps along with some visual techniques you can use during each phase.

What is Strategic Planning?

Strategic planning is the process by which organizations make decisions about the goals they want to accomplish and the steps that need to be taken to get there.

The strategic planning process helps prioritize their objectives and effectively make use of the available resources to move from the current state to the desired state of things, or in other words accomplish their goals.

Importance of Strategic Planning

Strategic planning is crucial to the growth of any organization. Here’s why it is important to each and every small and large company out there.

• Helps with maintaining a company’s competitive advantage
• Gives insight into what may happen in the future and prepare accordingly
• Helps define the direction the organization should take
• Facilitates decision-making with regard to allocating resources and setting a budget
• Helps derive useful information on market trends, target audience, competitors etc.

Strategic Planning Steps

The strategic planning process helps an organization fill the gap between its current state and the desired state. Below, we have explained the different steps you need to take along with tools that can accelerate the process.

Conduct an Environmental Scan

To do an environmental scan, you need to gather a cross-functional team capable of providing information on different aspects of the organization. Get the input of relevant stakeholders, interviewing them to learn about the current strategic issues and situation.

In an environmental scan you need to take both internal and external factors that may affect the growth and performance of the organization into consideration.

Internal factors may include company resources, financial capabilities, employee skills etc. On the other hand, external factors include market trends, economic and political changes, technological advances etc.

You can make use of situational analysis tools such as SWOT and PESTLE analysis to gather and examine information relevant to these areas.

Perform a Gap Analysis

Using the data such as the available resources, financial situation etc. you have gathered through your environmental scan, you can effectively perform a gap analysis to determine whether you are getting the best out of the resources available to you.

It helps identify the gaps between the current performance of the organization and the desired performance and what you should do differently and what additional resources you may need to achieve your goals.  

To learn about the gap analysis tools you can make use of in detail, refer to our articles on

5 Gap Analysis Tools to Identify and Close the Gaps in Your Business  

Gap Analysis Templates to Edit Online, Download or Print

Define the Vision, Mission and Values

Clarify the vision (where are you headed?), mission (why do you exist?) and the core values of your organization.

Based on their definition, you can set specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely (SMART) goals and objectives.

Do a Competitive Analysis

Understanding the challenges posed by your competitors in the industry is essential to creating an effective strategic plan.

It can help you gather important insight necessary to identify market gaps and trends and develop new products and strategies.

Once you have a proper idea about the competitive landscape, you can tailor your strategies to overcome the challenges and increase the competitive advantage.   

Here are some handy visual techniques to conduct a competitive analysis .

Develop an Action Plan

Once you have identified your objectives and what you should prioritize, create your action plan .

Allocate your resources, time and budget, outline the action steps and assign tasks to the relevant employees.

Use the following action plan template to proceed.

Create Your Communication Plan

The purpose of a communication plan is to help guide the process of communicating your strategic plan and action plan to the relevant employees and other stakeholders.

Read our guide on Creating an Effective Communications Plan to learn how to create a consistent messaging strategy.

Once the strategic planning process is explained to everyone in the company, roll it out.

Evaluate Results

Monitor the progress of your goals and measure the performance on a monthly basis. You can inquire the responsible task owners for the status of their targets and hold them accountable.

Make use of Gantt chart to track progress on given targets.

Identify areas for improvements and take the necessary measures to fix them.

What’s Your Company’s Strategic Planning Process?

A proper strategic plan is key to keeping your business on track when reaching your goals. Follow the steps discussed above and make use of the visual tools provided to facilitate and accelerate your strategic planning process steps.

What are the strategic planning process steps your organization take. Share with us in the comment section below.

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

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What is strategic planning?

What is strategic plan management?

Benefits of robust strategic planning and management

10 steps in the strategic planning process.

Plans are worthless, but planning is everything. - Dwight D. Eisenhower

It’s that time again. 

Every three to five years, most larger organizations periodically plan for the future. Many times strategic planning documents are shelved and forgotten until the next cycle begins. On the other hand, many smaller and newer organizations, propelled by urgency, may not devote the necessary time and energy to the strategic planning process. 

Only 63% of businesses plan more than a year out. They fail to see that — contrary to Alice in Wonderland’s Cheshire cat — “any way” does not take you there. 

For all organizations, a more rigorous annual planning process is critical for driving future success, profitability, value, and impact.

John Kotter, a former professor at Harvard Business School and noted expert on innovation says, “ Strategy should be viewed as a dynamic force that constantly seeks opportunities, identifies initiatives that will capitalize on them, and completes those initiatives swiftly and efficiently.”

There’s hardly a better case that can be made for dynamic planning than in the tech industry, where mergers and acquisitions are accelerating exponentially. Companies need to be nimble enough to navigate rapid change . In this case, planning should occur quarterly.

Strategic planning is an ongoing process by which an organization sets its forward course by bringing all of its stakeholders together to examine current realities and define its vision for the future.

It examines its strengths and weaknesses, resources available, and opportunities. Strategic planning seeks to anticipate future industry trends .  During the process, the organization creates a vision, articulates its purpose, and sets strategic goals that are long-term and forward-focused. 

Those strategic goals inform operational goals and incremental milestones that need to be reached. The operational plan has clear objectives and supporting initiatives tied to metrics to which everyone is accountable . The plan should be agile enough to allow for recalibrating when necessary and redistributing resources based on internal and external forces.

The output of the planning process is a document that is shared across the enterprise. 

Strategic planning for individuals

Strategic planning isn’t just for companies. At BetterUp, strategic planning is one of the skills that we identify, track, and develop within the Whole Person Model . For individuals, strategic planning is the ability to think through ways to achieve desired outcomes. Just as strategic planning helps organizations realize their goals for the future, it helps individuals grow and achieve goals in a unified direction. 

Working backward from the desired outcome, effective strategic planning consists of coming up with the steps we need to take today in order to get where we want to be tomorrow. 

While no plan is infallible, people who develop this skill are good at checking to make sure that their actions are in alignment with the outcomes that they want to see in the future. Even when things don’t go according to plan, their long-term goals act as a “North star” to get them back on course. In addition, envisioning desired future states and figuring out how to turn them into reality enhances an individual’s sense of personal meaning and motivation. 

Whether we’re talking about strategic planning for the company or the individual, strategic plans can go awry in a variety of ways including: 

• Unrealistic goals and too many priorities
• Poor communication
• Using the wrong measures
• Lack of leadership

The extent to which that document is shelved until the next planning cycle or becomes a dynamic map of the future depends on the people responsible for overseeing the execution of the plan.

What is strategic plan management? 

"Most people think of strategy as an event, but that’s not the way the world works," according to Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen. "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 works 24/7 in almost every industry."

Strategic business management is the ongoing process by which an organization creates and sustains a successful roadmap that moves the company in the direction it needs to move, year after year, for long-term success. It spans from research and formulation to execution, evaluation, and adjustment. Given the pace of change, strategic management is more relevant and important than ever for assigning measurable goals and action steps

Many organizations fail because they don’t have the strategic management team at the table right from the beginning of the planning process. A strategic plan is only as good as its ability to be executed and sustained. 

A strategic management initiative might be driven by an internal group — many companies have an internal strategy team — or an outside consulting firm. Ultimately company leaders need to own executing and sustaining the strategy. 

Strategic management teams

In this Harvard Business Review article, Ron Carucci from consulting firm Navalent reports that 61% of executives in a 10-year longitudinal study felt they were not prepared for the strategic challenges they faced upon being appointed to senior leadership roles. Lack of commitment to the plan is also a contributing factor. In addition, leaders attending to quarterly targets, crisis management , and reconciling budgets often consider the execution of a long-term strategy a low priority.

A dedicated strategic management team works with those senior leaders and managers throughout the organization to communicate, coordinate and evaluate progress against goals. They tie strategic objectives to day-to-day operational metrics throughout the enterprise. 

A good strategic management group can assist in creating a culture of empowerment and learning . It holds regular meetings with employees. It sets a clear agenda and expectations to make the strategic plan real and compelling to the organization through concrete objectives, results, and timelines. 

Strategy development is a lot of work, but the benefits are lasting. After all, as the saying goes, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." Taking the time for review and planning activities has the following benefits:

• Organizations and people are set up to succeed
• Increased likelihood of staying on track
• Decreased likelihood of being distracted or derailed
• Progress through the plan is communicated throughout the organization
• Metrics facilitate course correction
• Budgets enterprise-wide are based on strategy
• Cross-organization alignment
• Robust employee performance and compensation plans
• Commitment to learning and training
• A robust strategic planning process gets everyone involved and invested in the organizations
• Employees inform management about what’s working or not working at the operational level
• Innovation is encouraged and rewarded
• Increased productivity

1. Define mission and vision  

Begin by articulating the organization's vision for the future. Ask, "What would success look like in five years?" Create a mission statement describing organizational values and how you intend to reach the vision. What values inform and determine mission, vision, and purpose?

Purpose-driven strategic goals articulate the “why” of what the corporation is doing. It connects the vision statement to specific objectives, drawing a line between the larger goals and the work that teams and individuals do.

2. Conduct a comprehensive assessment  

This stage includes identifying an organization’s strategic position.

Gathering data from internal and external environments and respective stakeholders takes place at this time. Involving employees and customers in the research.

The task is to gather market data through research. One of the most critical components of this stage is a comprehensive SWOT analysis that involves gathering people and bringing perspectives from all stakeholders to determine:

• W eaknesses
• O pportunities

Strengths and weaknesses  — In this stage, planners identify the company’s assets that contribute to its current competitive advantage and/or the likelihood of a significant increase in the organization’s market share in the future. It should be an objective assessment rather than an inflated perspective of its strengths. 

An accurate assessment of weaknesses requires looking outward at external forces that can reveal new opportunities as well as threats. Consider the massive shift in multiple industries whose strategy has been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. While it was disastrous to the airline and restaurant industries’ business models , tech companies were able to seize the opportunity and address the demands of remote work. 

Michael Porter’s book Competetive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors claims that there are five forces at work in an industry that influence that industry’s ability to develop a competitive strategy. Since the book was published in 1979, organizations have turned to Porter’s theory to create their strategic framework. 

Here are the 5 forces (and key questions) that determine the competitive strategy for most industries.

• Competitive rivalry : When considering the strengths of an organization’s competitors it’s important to ask: How do our products/services hold up to our competition? If the rivalry is intense, companies need to consider what capacity they have to gain leverage through price cuts or bold marketing strategies. If there is little competition, the organization has a substantial gain in the market.
• Supplier power: How might suppliers influence strategy? For example, what if suppliers raised their prices? To what extent would a company need a particular supplier for our product(s)? Is it possible to switch suppliers in a way that is more cost effective and efficient? The number of suppliers that exist will determine your ability to keep costs low.
• Buyer power: To what extent do buyers have the ability to shop around right into the hands of your competitors? How much power does your customer base have in determining price? A small number of well-informed buyers shifts the power in their direction while a large pool may give you the strategic advantage
• Threat of substitution:  What is the threat of a company’s buyer substituting your services/products from the competition? What if the buyer figures out another way to access the services/products that it offers?
• Threat of new entry:  How easy is it for newcomers to enter the organization’s market?

3. Forecast  

Considering the factors above, determine the company’s value through financial forecasting . While almost certainly to become a moving target influenced by the five forces, a forecast can assign initial anticipated measurable results expected in the plan or ROI: profits/cost of investment.

4. Set the organizational direction of the business

The above research and assessment will help an organization to set goals and priorities. Too often an organization’s strategic plan is too broad and over-ambitious. Planners need to ask, ”What kind of impact are we seeking to have, and in what time frame?” They need to drill down to objectives that will have the most impact. 

5. Create strategic objectives

This next phase of operational planning consists of creating strategic objectives and initiatives. Kaplan and Norton posit in their balanced scorecard methodology that there are four perspectives for consideration in identifying the conditions for success. They are interrelated and must be evaluated simultaneously.

• Financial : Such considerations as growing shareholder value, increasing revenue, managing cost, profitability, or financial stability inform strategic initiatives. 
• Customer-satisfaction:  Objectives can be determined by identifying targets related to one or some of the following: value for the cost, best service, increased market share, or providing customers with solutions.
• Internal processes such as operational processes and efficiencies, investment in innovation, investment in total quality and performance management , cost reduction, improvement of workplace safety, or streamlining processes.
• Learning and growth: Organizations must ask: Are initiatives in place in terms of human capital and learning and growth to sustain change? Objectives may include employee retention, productivity, building high-performing teams, or creating a pipeline for future leaders .

6. Align with key stakeholders

It’s a team effort. The success of the plan is in direct proportion to the organization’s commitment to inform and engage the entire workforce in strategy execution. People will only be committed to strategy implementation when they're connected to the organization's goals. With everyone pulling in the same direction, cross-functional decision-making becomes easier and more aligned.

7. Begin strategy mapping

A strategy map is a powerful tool for illustrating the cause-effect of those perspectives and connecting them to between 12 and 18 strategic objectives. Since most people are visual learners, the map provides an easy-to-understand diagram for everyone in the organization creating shared knowledge at all levels.

8. Determine strategic initiatives

Following the development of strategic objectives, strategic initiatives are determined. These are the actions the organization will take to reach those objectives. They may relate initiatives related to factors such as scope, budget, raising brand awareness, product development, and employee training.

9. Benchmark performance measures and analysis

Strategic initiatives inform SMART goals to which metrics are assigned to evaluate performance. These measures cascade from senior management to management to front-line workers. At this stage, the task is to create goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based informing the operational plan.

Benchmarks are established against so that performance can be measures, and a time frame is created. Key performance indicators (KPI’s) are assigned based on organizational goals. These indicators align workers’ performance and productivity with long-term strategic objectives. 

10. Performance evaluation

Assessment of whether the plan has been successful . It measures activities and progress toward objectives and allows for the creation of improved plans and objectives in order to improve overall performance . 

Think of strategic planning as a circular process beginning and ending with evaluation. Adjust a  plan as necessary. The pace at which review of the plan is necessary may be once a year for many organizations or quarterly for organizations in rapidly evolving industries. 

Prioritizing the strategic planning process

The strategic planning meeting may have a reputation for being just another to-do, but it might be time to take a second look. With the right action plan and a little strategic thinking, you can reinvigorate your business environment and start planning for success.

It's that time to get excited about the future again.

Meredith Betz

Betterup Fellow Coach, M.S.Ed, M.S.O.D.

The only guide you’ll ever need for career planning

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• 4 Steps to Purposeful and Passionate Strategic Planning

By: Gary A. Smith

Estimates show that the strategic plan failure rate is a whopping 50%-97%. Yet business gurus keep cranking out strategic planning books, and companies keep spending millions of dollars each year on internal strategy teams and management consultants. Why do we bang our heads against the wall? Why do we go down this rabbit hole with so little to show for it? Why do we keep doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results?

One possible explanation is that we’re comfortable with the process. We find strategic planning reassuring, especially after a regime change. A new leader or leadership team begets a new plan. It’s only natural that these people think it’s necessary to make far-reaching changes if they want to make a name for themselves. No one has ever become famous by following the strategy of their predecessors. It’s the bold and exciting new ideas that get attention.

The problem, however, is with the planning. The reason is simple: Business leaders are problem-solvers; they’re always looking for solutions. Plus, they don’t like uncertainty. So, they see strategic planning as just another problem requiring a solution. When referring to strategy, the word “plan” is implied. Therefore, these leaders end up constantly developing strategic plans rather than concentrating on developing winning strategies.

According to Michael D. Watkins, a professor of leadership and organizational change, a strategy is a set of guiding principles that, when communicated and adopted by the organization, generates a desired pattern of decision-making. A strategy is therefore about how people throughout the organization should make decisions and allocate resources to accomplish key objectives.

Additionally, the strategy should connect with and complement the organization’s mission, purpose and vision. It is, in effect, how to accomplish its goals. Strategies also should be somewhat nebulous and open-ended. They must consider numerous possibilities, known and unknown.

The APICS Dictionary defines strategy as how a company will function in its environment. Strategy specifies how to satisfy customers, grow the business, compete, manage, develop capabilities and achieve financial objectives. But it’s also essential to keep in mind that business strategy must connect to the organization’s purpose. This is what author and leadership expert Simon Sinek calls “the why.” Some like to think of a business’s why as its raison d’etre, French for reason for living. However, I believe the why should be a combination of purpose and passion. When there’s passion in one’s purpose and purpose in one’s passion, business objectives reach employees, customers, partners and all stakeholders on an emotional level. This creates loyalty, which has value beyond price.

Moreover, we need to stop thinking of a strategy as a goal. A goal is finite, like the goal posts on a football field, the hoop on a basketball court, or the home plate on a baseball field. Each time a touchdown, basket, or run is scored, it signifies the end of something. Goals signify an end. But there is no end in business.

As Simon Sinek writes in The Infinite Game: “Finite games are played with known players. They have fixed rules. And there is an agreed-upon objective that, when reached, ends the game. Infinite games, in contrast, are played by known and unknown players. There are no exact or agreed-upon rules. Though there may be conventions or laws that govern how the players conduct themselves, within those broad boundaries, the players can operate however they want. And if they choose to break with convention, they can. The manner in which each player chooses to play is entirely up to them. And they can change how they play the game at any time, for any reason. Infinite games have infinite time horizons. … Business is the ultimate infinite game. Companies aren’t created with an end date in mind. No one starts a company with the intention of closing it down in five or 10 years. Whether it is started by one person or a dozen, a company is a legacy, a kind of immortality.”

Strategies are developed for the long term. Most organizational strategies are designed to last five years. Although plans can be highly effective, they’re meant for the short or medium term, at best. Long-term plans are merely guesses, plain and simple. Too many things can change in the long term for plans to have any real meaning. And therein lies the fallacy of strategic planning: It is impossible to successfully implement something for the long term (a strategy) using a tool that is only viable in the short term (a plan).

Still, organizations need to develop strategies to remain viable. They must to plan for the future, make strategic investments and improve. Riaz Husein, CEO of Profit Chain, is fond of saying, “Hope is not a strategy.” He’s right. We cannot hope things will sort themselves out. We must develop a new mindset and mechanism for developing strategy, then create a methodology to realize it. And often this involves stepping outside our comfort zone. Here’s how:

1. Develop a strategy. This is the first step, and it may be harder than it looks. According to Roger L. Martin, professor and author, in his article in the Harvard Business Review, “The Big Lie of Strategic Planning,” there are three rules to follow in developing a strategy:

• Keep the strategy simple.
• Recognize that strategy is not about perfection.
• Make the logic explicit.

If a strategy is a guiding principle, then a principle can be both an idea and an ideal. While an idea may be fully formed, an ideal is not. There is a bit of vagueness in an ideal, and that means taking some risk. All good strategies come with some risk. Be creative. By identifying and quantifying risks, they can be effectively added to the organization’s supply chain risk management plan. And they can be addressed through mitigation, avoidance, acceptance or transference, minimizing the time that we have to work without a net. 

2. Create a road map. After developing a new strategy, we need to create a road map to provide direction. Why a direction and not a plan? Directions are flexible. Organizations develop strategies based on their view of what will happen. Because no one can accurately predict the future, strategies often change over time. It is rare for conditions to remain the same for years; therefore, strategies must have the ability to adjust. If an organization believes that the market for their product is expanding, they may choose to invest in a new factory or in the expansion of an existing one. Academic and author Henry Mintzberg called this intentional investment a deliberate strategy. And if, three years down the road, the market experiences a downturn, the organization may choose to revise its strategy. Depending on the severity and anticipated length of the downturn, they may want to slow the construction schedule, postpone the purchase of equipment or halt the project entirely. Mintzberg called this revision emergent strategy, which is the organization’s response to unanticipated events. An emergent strategy requires a new road map or, at a minimum, a revised one. The road map, and any emergent strategy that is developed from it, confirm or adjust the logic of the original strategy.

Road maps are developed at a high level, and they are often organized as a Gantt chart. The chart includes the high-level steps, major milestones, events and assigned durations for each step. Steps are sorted in chronological order. At this point, you may want to add budgetary costs to each road map, and assign responsibility to an individual or group.

3. Develop detailed plans for the 6-18-month timeframe. Develop detailed plans, including financial and labor budgets, for a 6-18-month period. Because this is a short period of time, there is a relatively low risk of uncertainty. Schedules and budgets are probably going to be accurate, and there is a high probability that work can be completed and the environment will not appreciably change. People can be held accountable for ensuring that schedules and budgets are executed promptly and within cost projections. At this stage, successful plans have distinct goals to meet.

4. Revise the road map and update detailed plans as required. About once a quarter the road map should be reviewed, adjusted and updated as required. Detailed plans should be updated weekly and new plans created as needed. This step enables you to provide detail and structure to the planning process, setting and achieving goals for the detailed plans and funding the process, making implementation possible.

Developing a strategy, then working to see it realized is not a linear process, but an iterative one. It’s not like shooting an arrow, but creating a piece of pottery. Strategy is like clay: From its original state, it can be formed into anything. It begins to take shape on the potter’s wheel, and the vision and skill of the potter determine its final form. The strategy begins to solidify by following the road map or series of road maps that provide it with direction and substance. Finally, the detailed workplan, financial plan and labor allowance give the strategy the material required to take solid form. At this point, your strategy is realized — but only temporarily. It must be further refined and shaped through continuous improvement. As the strategy improves, it gives everyone in the organization a sense of accomplishment and pride in its continuing success.

This article was prepared by the author, acting in his personal capacity. The views and opinions expressed in this here are the author's own and do not constitute, nor necessarily reflect, a statement of official policy or position of the author’s employer.

The ASCM body of knowledge and, specifically, APICS CPIM and CSCP designation programs provide in-depth education about supply chain design, strategy and planning methodologies.  If you’re looking to master key planning skills and build upon your real-world experience, consider pursing an APICS certification .

About the Author

Gary A. Smith Chief, EAM/Supply Chain, MTA New York City Transit

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STRATEGIC PLANNING

Strategic planning solves for 3 levels of strategy.

Strategic planning typically solves for three levels of strategy:

1. Business Model Strategy 2. Organizational & Financial Strategy 3. Functional Strategy

For larger companies with multiple business units there is a 4th higher level of strategy, Corporate Strategy, which is about the allocation of capital and resources across business units/models, and the harvesting of synergies through centralization of functions, shared sales, and marketing spend, M&A, customer synergies, etc.

Understanding which level of strategy you are solving for is beneficial when thinking through a strategic planning process. We'll go more in-depth in strategic planning for each level, but before that, let's go over some strategic planning fundamentals.

WHAT IS STRATEGIC PLANNING?

Strategy is simply the goals you choose and the actions (plans) you take to achieve those goals. Strategic Planning is the process by which you create goals and actions over a defined period.

A strategic planning process can take many forms. It can be in the form of a:

• Few hours with the team in a conference room
• Leadership offsite
• CEO thinking through the next year while backpacking for the weekend
• Very involved and coordinated multi-month process
• Strategy consulting project

Most strong CEOs and leaders spend a large portion of their mental capacity on strategic planning. They are constantly reframing their strategic context, thinking of new goals, initiatives, ways of organizing, etc.

At any level, formal strategic planning typically follows four high-level steps:

• Generate insights
• Develop opportunities

All of the strategy guides on Stratechi.com follow this 4-step process.

WHEN SHOULD WE DO STRATEGIC PLANNING?

Given the various levels of strategy (corporate, business model, org & financial, and functional) to solve for, your company's strategic planning process should be staggered with some overlap and feedback loops, since they should influence each other.

If your company has multiple business units, you typically need a planning cadence for your corporate strategy, which should take a few months and start sometime in Q2. Considering how deep you need to go into your business model strategy, you should kick off that planning process in Q2 or Q3. It typically takes a few months to finalize the headcount and budgets from org and financial strategic planning, so you should begin that process in Q3. Functional strategies should start in Q4; once business model, org & financial strategies are finished or almost finished.

If you are looking for a business coach to collaborate on your strategic planning, set up some on-demand one-on-one time with Joe Newsum , the creator of this content and a McKinsey alum

CORPORATE STRATEGIC PLANNING

Corporate strategic planning occurs in larger companies with multiple business units. The focus is two-fold. First, corporate strategic planning solves for the company's overall financial model/projections and the optimal allocation of capital and costs across the business models/units. Second, corporate strategic planning solves for any cross-business unit initiatives, such as shared services (finance, sales, HR, etc.) and major IT initiatives, which cascade down into the business unit strategies.

BUSINESS MODEL STRATEGIC PLANNING

Most companies struggle with business model strategic planning. They may not have a clear business model. They may revisit business model strategy too often, try to solve for too much, or at a level of specificity that is too low.

If your company doesn't have a well-documented and robust business model strategy, then your leadership team needs to take a step back and go through a systematic business model strategic planning process. The litmus test on this is, can you answer all of the questions below in our one-page business strategy template? Furthermore, do most managers and above understand the business model? If you need to develop a business model strategy I encourage you to read developing a strategy or set up some time with me to start figuring it out.

Business model strategy is defined at a high-level:

1. The Mission    2. Targets   3.  Customer Value  Proposition   4. Go-to-Market   5. The Organization

It serves as a true north for team members to understand the long-term strategy of the company and align their functional strategies too.

ORGANIZATIONAL & FINANCIAL STRATEGIC PLANNING

Strong companies typically rigorously revisit their business model strategy every 3-5 years. They may need to go deeper in a few areas every year or so, such as targeting a new market, customer, or geography and understanding the implications to the value proposition , go-to-market, and organization. Or, maybe the go-to-market strategy needs to evolve from a distribution focus to a direct model. Regardless, strong businesses have strong business model strategies that they stick with over time.

For struggling companies, business model strategic planning is critical. They need to quickly figure out what is working, and not working, where the market is going, how the targets are evolving, the strengths and weaknesses of the value proposition and go-to-market, and the organizational gaps. We recommend starting with the Leadership Strategy Survey and Strategy Workshop to deeply understand the leadership team's collective view on the company's strategy, while also aligning the team on what strategy is, and generating compelling potential strategies.

For all companies, it is prudent to revisit business model strategy, at some level, annually or every few years, to test major assumptions and think through competitive and market dynamics.  Lighter versions of business model strategic planning typically involve a series of leadership meetings or off-sites to systematically go through and discuss all of the major elements in the business model.  In between sessions, various analyses are done to prove or disprove important hypotheses about business model elements and dynamics.

Every 3-5 years, companies should embark on a rigorous business model strategic planning process to ensure their business model is competitive over the next 5-10 years. This process necessitates extensive project planning and management. We typically recommend bringing in a Strategy Coach to help with the planning, process, and workshops, while mentoring and coaching the internal teams driving the process.

Every year, every company does some flavor of organizational and financial strategic planning. Often, they term it "annual budgeting." Though, many companies fall short of infusing real strategic rigor into their budgeting, instead applying broad-based increases or decreases across the board to forecasts, headcount, and budgets. The process should involve a significant amount of analytical retrospection on the KPI performance and the ROI of spend and headcount.

Organizational and financial strategic planning solves for the financial forecast, functional headcount and budgets, and company-wide initiatives. Primarily driven by the finance and leadership team, the planning cycle typically begins in late Q2 into Q3 and is finalized a month or two before year-end. Of course, as the year plays out, there are quarterly or monthly tweaks to plan.

With the right KPIs , systems, and governance , the planning is typically straightforward with a series of meetings to systematically go through a structured process. We often advise bringing in a Strategy Coach to assess and improve the existing process, KPIs, systems and governance. In many cases, the Strategy Coach provides light support through the strategic planning process to push the thinking, analytics , rigor, and governance.

Often overlooked is the importance of properly communicating the business model strategy and the org & financial plan to the next few levels of management. This step is often more work than creating the plans, but if done correctly, ensures the functional strategies are aligned and impactful.

FUNCTIONAL STRATEGIC PLANNING

While strong leaders are always thinking and implementing new strategies, a systematic functional strategic planning process is important to get the broader team involved and aligned in creating winning strategies. The functions of a company are below; organized into value chain and support functions. In the end, all of these functions fuel the collective processes that produce and deliver the value proposition and go-to-market.

One of the most useful things to do for an organization is to drive consistency in functional strategic planning processes, governance, and outputs such as their strategic plans and KPIs. Consistency creates many benefits. It allows different leaders and team members to quickly understand a function's strategy allowing more time for collaborative problem solving . It ensures plans include all the major and necessary elements of a strategy and that they are at the right level of specificity. And, execution becomes simpler since everyone is talking the same language.

Stratechi.com goes in-depth into most of the functional strategies. If you are looking for strategic planning templates click here , otherwise visit:

Product Strategy Service Strategy Pricing Strategy Distribution Strategy Sales Strategy Marketing Strategy HR Strategy Partner Strategy

The key to creating strong functional strategies is to get managers and the next generation of leaders involved in the process. It not only produces great ideas, but also develops team members, ensures alignment, and drives a higher level of commitment and execution. I support many teams with a Strategy Coaching to help guide and mentor teams through a strategic planning process and project.

We hope this was helpful and if you need any support with your strategic planning, please set up some time with Joe Newsum .

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4 Key Steps to a Successful Strategic Planning Process

Category: OKR University .

Introduction

Strategic planning is a continuous activity that requires discipline, flexibility, and commitment that defines an organization’s long-term goal. The strategic planning process enables businesses to set clear priorities and guide operations toward organizational goals. It involves analyzing the internal and external environment, setting objectives, and developing strategies. By aligning resources, prioritizing actions, and adapting to changes, strategic planning helps organizations stay focused and increase their chances of success.

Learn about the exciting benefits of strategic planning and the four essential steps you must take in the strategic planning process.

Importance of Strategic Planning

A strategic plan offers five benefits for a business

• Direction: Strategic planning identifies what’s important to the organization and focuses everyone’s efforts to achieve it.
• Informed decisions: A strategic plan puts business choices in perspective. Instead of making hasty decisions for short-term benefits, managers can use the strategic plan to consider all possible impacts and options before making decisions.
• Accountability: Strategy steps involve setting expectations and performance indicators of success. Stakeholders can hold themselves to these metrics to improve their outcomes.
• Resource management: A strategic plan helps businesses match their resources to their goals and objectives. This approach improves efficiency and profitability.
• Better performance: A strategy outlines what success looks like through setting targets, milestones, and KPIs. This, in turn, motivates teams to perform better and achieve these goals.

Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning Thomas Edison

Four Steps of a Successful Strategic Planning Process

Did you know that only 30% of C-level managers understand how their organizational strategies work? Studies also indicate that nearly 2/3rds of strategies falter due to flawed execution. So, this is where we realize the significance of the strategic planning process in organizations.

Profit.co’s Strategy module is crucial in aligning execution with strategic intent. Aids in establishing a high-level plan spanning 1-5 years, laying the groundwork for your long-term objectives.

To help you more with it, we have developed these 4 steps that will help you accelerate strategic planning right away! A successful strategy is inclusive, realistic, and directly linked to the company’s bottom line. Follow these steps to create an effective strategic plan for your business

Step 1: Clarify Purpose and Direction

Begin by defining your company’s vision, mission, and values in a few sentences. State why your business exists and what it hopes to achieve over time. Write down the beliefs and principles that inform your organization’s choices and behaviors. This initial step requires reflection and consultation to get to the heart of your business.

Initiatives

• Use tools like surveys, workshops, or focus groups with your stakeholders.
• Get to the core of your company’s values and aspirations
• Use concise and inspirational language to capture the purpose and direction your business should attain.

Step 2: Conduct a Situation Analysis

Internal situation analysis focuses on your available resources, capabilities, and company culture. This is where you engage with staff and review everyday operational procedures.

The external situational analysis focuses on your industry, target market, and the greater economy and socio-political environment. A situational analysis is critical to the strategic planning process because it’s a comprehensive look at your current business situation. It also reveals potential risks to avoid and steps to adapt to industry trends.

• Use customer surveys, competitor analysis, and overall market trends to see where your company lies.
• Assess your internal and external business environment to understand your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats using the (SWOT) analysis.

Step 3: Set Strategic Objectives and Goals

Strategic objectives and goals align with your purpose and direction (step 1) and your SWOT outcomes (step 2).

Now ensure you set SMART goals : specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. These goals should be long-term targets with a clear progression to help managers and employees manage their workloads. This step of the strategic planning process requires communication and collaboration.

• Identify your main priorities, improvement opportunities, and short, medium, and long-term targets.
• Conduct Surveys, workshops, and one-on-one meetings with essential team members to go a long way.

Step 4: Develop and Implement the Action Plan

The last of the strategy steps involves breaking down your objectives and goals into a detailed plan. This is where you get into your market and competitor analysis, target market segments, value proposition, buyer personas, etc. Also, create your strategy implementation plan with your budget, timeline, and KPIs .This is arguably the most challenging strategic planning step because it explains the practicalities of running your business.

• Assign team responsibilities, and streamline your communication plan.
• Choose an agile performance management solution to monitor organizational progress.

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A recent Article by Times of India published on 10 July states that “CTOs analyze the company's business objectives and align the .. Read more at: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/101630821.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

Common Challenges of The Strategic Planning Process

These 4 steps of strategic planning present numerous challenges, particularly during implementation. Let’s consider these pitfalls and how to overcome them in your strategic planning process.

1. No Alignment

Businesses must ensure that all stakeholders are on board with the strategic plan. Unfortunately, many strategies fail to coordinate action plans across various business units. The best way to overcome this problem is to involve all your stakeholders in all 4 steps of strategic planning. Be prepared to listen and respond to their input while creating your business strategy .

2. Poor Research

An effective strategic plan relies on accurate, actionable data about customer and industry trends, risks, opportunities, and contingencies. Without thorough research, your strategy steps are uncertain, and stakeholders lose confidence in the action plan. Take the time and expertise you need to gather information about your business strategy to gain more clarity on the strategic planning steps.

3. Resistance to Change

Change management is part of strategy implementation to help an organization adapt to the strategic plan. While resisting change is a natural response, businesses should invest in better communication and training opportunities to support their staff during implementation. Involve employees in all strategy steps to minimize friction and misunderstandings.

4. Lack of Resources

Creating and implementing a business strategy requires time, money, technology, experts, and other resources. Businesses with already limited resources often struggle with strategic planning steps. One way to overcome this challenge is to prioritize strategy implementation when allocating your budget and staff workloads. You can also consider partnering with other businesses to share resources to support your strategy.

5. Poor Success Tracking

Businesses also struggle to quantify or measure strategy outcomes tangibly. Frameworks like objectives and key results (OKRs) can help define success metrics. Ensure you have clearly defined goals and objectives before implementing any success measurement framework to track your progress.

The strategic planning process outlined in this guide applies to all organizations, but you can break it down further depending on your specific business. It’s also an iterative process, meaning you must monitor and revise your strategic plan based on stakeholder feedback and success metrics. When challenges arise during the strategy steps or implementation, consider adjusting your business priorities to focus more on the strategy, improving your communication, and collaborating with peers and experts for support.

Dive into our comprehensive guide on the strategic planning process and chart a course toward success today!

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What is strategic planning

Imagine you're ready to expand your thriving business to another market. Would you choose that market based on where you'd like to vacation, or just ask ChatGPT to decide for you? That wouldn’t be strategic, and it could backfire. The smart business move would be to assess risks, opportunities, regulations, competition, and the local business landscape—then use your analysis to plan your next move.

For businesses, strategic planning can make all the difference between expanding market share and closing up shop. Read on to find out how to excel at strategic planning.

What is strategic planning?

Whether your organization is a startup or established business charting the way forward, a strategic plan is a vital tool for success—and you can lead the charge. Strategic planning is the process of putting your best business theories to the test in the marketplace. Your strategic planning process starts with defining a mission/vision statement and setting key goals. To achieve those goals, you create a detailed plan, or strategy map .

Once you put that strategic plan into motion, you're no longer just reacting to market forces. You're proactive, blazing your own trail to your desired destination. There’s no better way to ensure that decisions are evidence-based, forward-looking, collaborative, and aligned with your entire organization’s long-term objectives.

Think of your business as an orchestra. No matter how skilled your musicians are, if they all play a different tune, you won't like what you hear. Wouldn’t you rather start out with sheet music and a brilliant conductor? An organization can make decisions without a strategic plan in place, just like an orchestra can play without a conductor. But when individuals or departments make decisions based on opinion, guesswork, or instinct, you can end up with disorganized, inefficient use of time and resources—and that’s not music to anyone’s ears.

How is strategic planning different from other plans?

Roger Martin, one of the world’s leading thinkers on strategy, cautions that “a plan is not a strategy.” A plan is comfortable because you control the levers, like time and costs. But strategic planning challenges you to put strategy to the test, making “an integrative set of choices that positions you on a playing field of your choice in a way that you win .”

Benefits of strategic planning

A strategic plan can be a competitive advantage. Harvard Business Review found that up to 67% of HR and IT departments have strategies of their own that don’t align with the larger corporate strategy. The bad news gets worse: 95% of employees don’t understand their organization’s strategy. Clear, effectively communicated strategic plans position organizations to outperform competitors struggling to articulate cohesive strategies to their employees.

With a strategic plan, you can help your organization to:

• Communicate priorities to employees at all levels
• Allocate resources appropriately to meet goals
• Track progress objectively
• Make clear decisions more efficiently
• Avoid mistakes caused by short-term thinking

3 strategic planning best practices

• Consider it a learning process. Creating strategic plans teaches teams to think more strategically, preparing decision-makers to make choices rationally under pressure.
• Make comprehensive plans. Research shows a thorough, comprehensive planning process yields strong results. Consider a variety of viewpoints and multiple options before setting your strategic objectives.
• Conduct regular updates. The most successful organizations are nimble, making wise strategic decisions in real time as circumstances change. Revisiting plans frequently with key decision-makers helps keep your strategy relevant and responsive.

Who belongs on strategic planning teams?

Strategic planning teams tackle key responsibilities: defining company mission/vision statements, setting goals, identifying opportunities, evaluating risks, and plotting a course to meet objectives. To achieve this ambitious agenda,  your team should cover a broad spectrum of viewpoints and roles, including:

• VPs and C-suite executives who must be consulted, according to your RACI matrix
• Representatives from various departments, team leads, and department heads who are responsible or accountable for outcomes
• Other key stakeholders to keep informed, such as board members or investors

Not sure who your key stakeholders are? Check out the FigJam stakeholder analysis template to identify valuable collaborators right from the start, but make sure the group doesn’t get too big. Large groups can get bogged down in strategic planning discussions.

Strategic planning in 5 steps

Your organization's strategic planning process may take slightly different steps depending on its size and needs, but most organizations follow these five basic steps.

1. Define the organization's mission, vision, and values .

These elements of strategic planning inform all of your objectives and the overall direction of the business strategy from here on out. What does your organization intend to do? What does it stand for, and why?

2. Conduct a situational analysis.

SWOT analysis is a time-tested tool to assess the opportunities and risks your organization faces. Cover internal and external factors, including your resources, competition, and changes in the market.

3. Set goals and objectives .

Pinpoint what you want to achieve, then set realistic and achievable targets. You  could focus on  specific objectives  (“reduce customer acquisition costs by 5% next quarter”) or address broader strategic goals (“increase customer satisfaction” ) . Articulate goals and objectives clearly , and define your measurements for success.

4. Develop and launch your action plan .

Outline the steps to take, and break down steps into tasks. Then decide who is responsible for each task, and when each task needs to be completed. With every decision, aim to minimize risk and maximize opportunity to achieve your goal.

To get your strategic plan on track for success, communicate the plan to everyone in the organization. You may want to launch your plan at an all-hands meeting, or break it up into meetings with separate departments.

5. Evaluate the results.

Establish a timeline of regular assessments to check  plan progres. Assign responsibilities to monitor and assess outcomes, and make course corrections as needed.

Pro tips and tools for strategic planning

The strategic planning process involves gathering data, documents, and team input to define timelines with multiple steps and dependencies. Figma's makes this complex process easier with these collaborative strategic planning tools:

• Balanced scorecard. Organizations as diverse as Chrysler and the U.S. Army use the  Balanced Scorecard to take performance to the next level. A Balanced Scorecard assigns weighted values to various options to remove bias from decision-making, guide plan implementation, and help you communicate your strategy clearly.
• SWOT analysis . Identify your company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats with a SWOT analysis . This tool offers a comprehensive, objective overview of company  resources and its internal and external working environment. You’ll draw on the data you collect during your SWOT analysis many times during your strategic planning process.
• KPI tracking dashboard. Key performance indicators (KPIs) quantify success measurements and establish the timeline for achieving specific financial, strategic, or operational milestones. A shared KPI dashboard template will get your KPI tracking system up and running fast, boosting visibility and collaboration.
• RACI matrix. Identify all the key stakeholders on your strategic plan and group them according to their level of involvement: R esponsible, A ccountable, C onsulted, and I nformed. Figma’s RACI template can get you started quickly.
• Gantt chart . To capture your strategic plan timeline and steps at a glance, try a Gantt chart . This bar chart highlights start dates, deadlines, resource allocations, assignments, and other key planning elements. Use a Gantt chart to sequence tasks and show your team exactly which steps need to be completed when.

Strategize for success with Figma

The keys to strategic planning are collaboration, effective teamwork, and comprehensive information-gathering—and Figma has you covered with online collaboration tools . Figma's easy, engaging strategic plan template   gets your team started with tools for brainstorming, diagramming, and sharing data and feedback—all in one space.

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Keep reading

Strategic planning process in 6 steps

Every business needs a great strategic plan to achieve their long term goals.

What is a strategy map

A strategy map is a visual representation of how a company can achieve their long-term goals and objectives.

Strategic vs. tactical planning

While strategic planning involves big-picture thinking, tactical planning covers the nitty-gritty of turning strategy into action.

5 steps of the strategic planning process

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• Process improvement

Strategic planning process steps

• Determine your strategic position.
• Prioritize your objectives.
• Develop a strategic plan.
• Execute and manage your plan.
• Review and revise the plan.

Because so many businesses lack in these regards, you can get ahead of the game by using strategic planning. In this article, we will explain what the strategic planning process looks like and the steps involved.

What is the strategic planning process?

In the simplest terms, the strategic planning process is the method that organizations use to develop plans to achieve overall, long-term goals.

This process differs from the project planning  process, which is used to scope and assign tasks for individual projects, or strategy mapping , which helps you determine your mission, vision, and goals.

The strategic planning process is broad—it helps you create a roadmap for which strategic objectives you should put effort into achieving and which initiatives would be less helpful to the business. 

Before you begin the strategic planning process, it is important to review some steps to set you and your organization up for success.

1. Determine your strategic position

This preparation phase sets the foundation for all work going forward. You need to know where you are to determine where you need to go and how you will get there.

Involve the right stakeholders from the start, considering both internal and external sources. Identify key strategic issues by talking with executives at your company, pulling in customer insights, and collecting industry and market data. This will give you a clear picture of your position in the market and customer insight.

It can also be helpful to review—or create if you don’t have them already—your company’s mission and vision statements to give yourself and your team a clear image of what success looks like for your business. In addition, review your company’s core values to remind yourself about how your company plans to achieve these objectives.

To get started, use industry and market data, including customer insights and current/future demands, to identify the issues that need to be addressed. Document your organization's internal strengths and weaknesses, along with external opportunities (ways your organization can grow in order to fill needs that the market does not currently fill) and threats (your competition). 

As a framework for your initial analysis, use a SWOT diagram. With input from executives, customers, and external market data, you can quickly categorize your findings as Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) to clarify your current position.

An alternative to a SWOT is PEST analysis. Standing for Political, Economic, Socio-cultural, and Technological, PEST is a strategic tool used to clarify threats and opportunities for your business. 

As you synthesize this information, your unique strategic position in the market will become clear, and you can start solidifying a few key strategic objectives. Often, these objectives are set with a three- to five-year horizon in mind.

Use PEST analysis for additional help with strategic planning.

2. Prioritize your objectives

Once you have identified your current position in the market, it is time to determine objectives that will help you achieve your goals. Your objectives should align with your company mission and vision.

Prioritize your objectives by asking important questions such as:

• Which of these initiatives will have the greatest impact on achieving our company mission/vision and improving our position in the market?
• What types of impact are most important (e.g. customer acquisition vs. revenue)?
• How will the competition react?
• Which initiatives are most urgent?
• What will we need to do to accomplish our goals?
• How will we measure our progress and determine whether we achieved our goals?

Objectives should be distinct and measurable to help you reach your long-term strategic goals and initiatives outlined in step one. Potential objectives can be updating website content, improving email open rates, and generating new leads in the pipeline.

3. Develop a plan

Now it's time to create a strategic plan to reach your goals successfully. This step requires determining the tactics necessary to attain your objectives and designating a timeline and clearly communicating responsibilities. 

Strategy mapping is an effective tool to visualize your entire plan. Working from the top-down, strategy maps make it simple to view business processes and identify gaps for improvement.

Truly strategic choices usually involve a trade-off in opportunity cost. For example, your company may decide not to put as much funding behind customer support, so that it can put more funding into creating an intuitive user experience.

Be prepared to use your values, mission statement, and established priorities to say “no” to initiatives that won’t enhance your long-term strategic position.  

4. Execute and manage the plan

Once you have the plan, you’re ready to implement it. First, communicate the plan to the organization by sharing relevant documentation. Then, the actual work begins.

Turn your broader strategy into a concrete plan by mapping your processes. Use key performance indicator (KPI) dashboards to communicate team responsibilities clearly. This granular approach illustrates the completion process and ownership for each step of the way. 

Set up regular reviews with individual contributors and their managers and determine check-in points to ensure you’re on track.

5. Review and revise the plan

The final stage of the plan—to review and revise—gives you an opportunity to reevaluate your priorities and course-correct based on past successes or failures.

On a quarterly basis, determine which KPIs your team has met and how you can continue to meet them, adapting your plan as necessary. On an annual basis, it’s important to reevaluate your priorities and strategic position to ensure that you stay on track for success in the long run.

Track your progress using balanced scorecards to comprehensively understand of your business's performance and execute strategic goals. 

Over time you may find that your mission and vision need to change — an annual evaluation is a good time to consider those changes, prepare a new plan, and implement again. 

Achieve your goals and monitor your progress with balanced scorecards.

Master the strategic planning process steps

As you continue to implement the strategic planning process, repeating each step regularly, you will start to make measurable progress toward achieving your company’s vision.

Instead of constantly putting out fires, reacting to the competition, or focusing on the latest hot-button initiative, you’ll be able to maintain a long-term perspective and make decisions that will keep you on the path to success for years to come.

Use a strategy map to turn your organization's mission and vision into actionable objectives.

Lucidchart, a cloud-based intelligent diagramming application, is a core component of Lucid Software's Visual Collaboration Suite. This intuitive, cloud-based solution empowers teams to collaborate in real-time to build flowcharts, mockups, UML diagrams, customer journey maps, and more. Lucidchart propels teams forward to build the future faster. Lucid is proud to serve top businesses around the world, including customers such as Google, GE, and NBC Universal, and 99% of the Fortune 500. Lucid partners with industry leaders, including Google, Atlassian, and Microsoft. Since its founding, Lucid has received numerous awards for its products, business, and workplace culture. For more information, visit lucidchart.com.

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A Roadmap to Strategic Planning: 4-Phase Process

With its long-term focus and clear objectives, strategic planning can help your organization succeed, overcome obstacles, and capitalize on opportunities.

Strategic plans outline strategic goals and objectives, chart a course for achieving them, and even prepare for potential risks and opportunities. It guides decision-making and smart resource allocation, keeping your organization on track.

Strategic plans usually get a makeover every five years, with yearly check-ins to keep them relevant. C-level executives lead the strategic thinking behind the plan, addressing vital questions such as:

• What steps will our company take to reach its objectives?
• How will we execute our plans to achieve our goals?
• Which strategies will we use to achieve our desired outcomes?

When your organization embraces strategic planning, it can help cultivate a collaborative environment, increase employee morale, and create a shared vision. By joining forces, everyone can work towards the same objectives. Also, it’s possible to detect any potential obstacles or possibilities that may not be obvious.

Table of Contents

Defining strategic planning.

Strategic planning is a systematic and proactive process within an organization that involves the development of a clear and coherent plan for its future direction.

Setting long-term goals, developing strategies to achieve those goals, and effectively allocating resources are all parts of this process.

Through strategic planning, organizations can better anticipate and adapt to industry, competition, and market changes, ultimately increasing their chances of success and sustainability.

The Importance of a Strategic Plan

Every organization needs a strategic plan. It defines long-term goals and objectives and guides daily actions and the decision-making processes. 

In addition, a strategic plan helps you identify problems and come up with solutions. Shared priorities and goals foster unity and collaboration among stakeholders, employees, and customers. Here’s why strategic planning is so important.

• Sets clear long-term goals: Ensures the organization is headed in the right direction
• Maintains alignment with organizational vision and mission: Provides clear direction to all stakeholders
• Provides guidance to daily decision-making: Makes sure actions and choices are consistent
• Facilitates adaptability to changing environments: Gives the flexibility and resilience you need
• Maximizes efficiency and effectiveness: Optimizes resource allocation and utilization
• Proactive problem-solving: Address issues before they get out of hand
• Establishes shared understanding and commitment: Promotes collaboration between stakeholders

Who uses Strategic Plans?

A diverse array of organizations employ strategic plans to guide daily operations and realize long-term visions. 

Strategic planning has stood the test of time as a method that benefits organizations of all sizes, industries, and locations. 

By integrating strategic planning with other appropriate tools, organizations can enhance their performance and competitiveness in the market.

Examples of organizations that leverage strategic planning include;

Businesses and Corporations:

No matter the size, planning is key for companies that want to grow, innovate, and stay ahead.

Non-profit Organizations and Charities:

Strategic planning ensures organizations use their resources wisely and make informed decisions to reach their goals and have a real impact.

Military Organizations:

In the military, comprehensive strategic planning is necessary to devise tactics, allocate resources, and guarantee the security and success of missions.

Healthcare Facilities and Organizations:

Hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare organizations employ strategic planning to maximize patient care, allocate resources prudently, and promote progress in medical treatments and technologies.

Strategic Planning Process

According to many experts, there are four phases, each with distinct components. They are goal setting, strategy formulation, implementation, evaluation, and control. 

(I’ve seen models with five or six phases. However, these four phases are fundamental.)

Each phase builds upon the previous one while providing feedback and analysis that can be used to refine and improve the plan.

Phase 1: Define Vision, Mission and Objectives

First, you have to lay the groundwork. Strategic planning must be grounded in the organization’s mission, vision, and values. 

Creating a successful corporate strategy starts with a clear and compelling vision statement. This is a brief and bold declaration of your organization’s future goals and aspirations. It answers the question: “What do we want to become?”

A vision statement helps guide your mission statement, explaining what you do, how you do it, and why you do it. A vision statement should be concise and impactful yet aspirational and realistic. It should reflect your company’s values, purpose, and core competencies.

Your shared vision helps you communicate your brand identity to customers, so they know that you’ll serve them better than anyone else. It binds your internal stakeholders together and inspires your team. In a vision statement, you should talk about what customers will gain from your products or services from their perspective.

Here are some examples of good vision statements from different industries:

• IKEA: “To create a better everyday life for the many people.”
• Disney: “To make people happy.”
• Google: “To provide access to the world’s information in one click.”

A mission statement declares your organization’s “reason for being.” It sets you apart from the competition and lays the foundation for everything you do. It aligns your priorities, strategies, plans, work assignments, and organizational structures with your purpose.

A mission statement provides direction for your choices and keeps you on track to reach your objectives. It clearly articulates your values and purpose to all those involved, including stakeholders, customers, and employees.

Your vision and mission statements are a representation of your company culture that grows and changes over time. Review and update them regularly to express your identity and direction.

Here are some mission statement examples from different industries:

• JetBlue: “To inspire humanity, both in the air and on the ground.”
• IKEA: “To offer a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them.”
• Nike: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.”

Objectives serve as a GPS, pointing to your desired results and showing progress. However, strategy experts may have conflicting views on objectives and their proper implementation.

Some people regard objectives as a helpful tool for managers to guide their teams, while others view them as clear-cut outcomes rooted in an organization’s mission and vision. Nevertheless, your objectives should encompass qualitative and quantitative aspects, remaining relevant and achievable.

It is important to be able to identify the difference between primary and secondary objectives. The primary objective represents your business’s profit target, shaped by your corporate strategy. In contrast, secondary objectives are the supporting goals that contribute to reaching the primary objective, such as enhancing customer satisfaction, increasing market share, or driving innovation.

Lastly, establish goals with clear deadlines based on your strategy. Goals help you measure your progress and make any necessary changes. In addition, goals inspire you and your team to unite behind a shared vision and strive for success.

Phase 2: Crafting the Strategic Plan

In the second phase, the strategic plan is crafted by analyzing the internal and external environment. By conducting a SWOT analysis for the internal assessment, your organization can identify what it does well, where it can improve, any potential opportunities, and potential risks.

This analysis can also uncover potential insights that could lead to large-scale organizational changes.

If you want to assess the external environment, a PESTLE analysis is a great tool to use; it breaks down the external environment into six distinct categories, which are discussed in more detail in the article.

We should use the insights gathered from these assessments to form a concrete strategy. By enabling each department, division, or business unit to contribute, the organization is able to move closer to achieving its mission and objectives.

A well-defined strategy allows an organization to coordinate, optimize, and sustain its actions. For example, a company may devise a strategy focusing on customer service excellence to enhance customer satisfaction and foster brand loyalty.

Phase 3: Implement the strategic plan

The third phase of strategic planning focuses on putting the plan into action. This step calls for the unwavering commitment of leaders throughout the organization and prioritizes credibility and communication. Let’s delve into the significance of these three elements to uncover the essentials of successful strategy implementation.

Seeing the strategic process through to completion is vital. This means striving to achieve the goals and implementing the changes that stem from the process. Embracing this commitment ensures the strategic plan’s success.

Credibility

A robust strategic plan requires credibility, cultivated through representative participation, dedication to every step of the process, and clear documentation. Upholding credibility helps foster trust and smooth execution.

Communication

As the lifeblood of any relationship, communication plays a critical role in the professional realm. The process of strategy implementation hinges on effective communication, which should be considered a shared responsibility.

Now, let’s explore the nuts and bolts of strategy implementation. This phase involves transforming the strategic plan into tangible actions, such as rolling out a new marketing plan to boost sales or adopting new work management software to enhance efficiency. However, a plan’s value lies in its implementation.

To ensure successful implementation, delegate responsibility to functional managers who can efficiently and effectively execute tasks. But beware of potential issues arising from uninvolved managers who face unexpected decisions. Hence, it’s crucial to involve divisional and functional managers in both strategy formulation and implementation.

Typical actions involved in strategy implementation include adding new departments, hiring employees, altering marketing campaigns, modifying pricing strategies, developing financial budgets, establishing cost-control procedures, training employees, transferring managers among divisions, and enhancing management information systems.

Customizing Strategy Implementation

Keep in mind that strategy implementation varies across organizations. For example, manufacturing companies may prioritize production efficiency and quality control, while service organizations might emphasize customer satisfaction and innovation. Governmental organizations, on the other hand, could focus on public welfare and accountability.

Strategy implementation is not a one-size-fits-all process. Instead, tailor your approach based on your goals, resources, and context. Following these steps and tips can make your strategy implementation more successful and ultimately achieve your desired outcomes.

Phase 4: Assessing the Plan, Process, and Performance in Strategic Planning

The last step in strategic planning is to assess the plan, the methods used, and the effectiveness of the strategy. Organizations must be prepared to embrace changes, insights, and revisions.

These four phases of strategic planning are crucial for ensuring long-term success, enabling effective resource allocation, and sustaining a competitive edge in a constantly changing market.

Strategy evaluation is essential for several reasons, as it helps:

• Identify issues before they escalate and harm performance or reputation.
• Ensure the achievement of goals and progress toward the vision.
• Adapt to changing environments and capitalize on new opportunities or address emerging threats.
• Prevent complacency and promote continuous improvement and innovation.

Strategy evaluation unfolds in three stages:

• Reviewing internal and external factors: Analyze your organization’s SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) and examine the assumptions and expectations underpinning your strategies to determine their validity.
• Measuring performance: Compare actual results with expected outcomes and evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of your strategies in terms of costs, benefits, risks, and results.
• Taking corrective action: Identify issues or discrepancies, determine necessary actions to improve or modify strategies, and communicate the evaluation results and actions taken to relevant stakeholders.

Effectively evaluating your strategies requires adhering to specific criteria, such as:

• Balancing long-term goals and short-term objectives, ensuring adaptability to changing situations.
• Comparing strategies with industry standards, competitor benchmarks, best practices, or historical data to identify areas for improvement or gaining a competitive edge.
• Demonstrating a clear understanding of external environment opportunities and threats and considering how various factors affect your organization.
• Adopting a balanced approach that takes into account quantitative and qualitative factors and addresses all organizational aspects.

To measure performance effectively, employ methods such as:

• Financial ratios and market performance measures: Numerical indicators that reflect your organization’s financial standing or market performance, such as ROI, EPS, and net profit margin.
• Qualitative factors: Non-numerical indicators that assess your organization’s performance in terms of customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and other areas.

Types of Strategies

There are three primary types of strategies employed by organizations:

Corporate Strategy

Business or competitive strategy.

• Functional Strategy

Corporate strategy involves top-level executives carefully weighing the pros and cons of a company’s portfolio and deciding which businesses, services or products to own and operate. It may lead to business expansion or contraction through increased or decreased investment. In addition, companies can diversify their portfolio by expanding into related industries, creating synergy between the businesses.

At this level, each business unit or product line is equipped with a strategy that is tailored to maximize its competitive advantage. Identifying and offering a unique and competitive target market is key to a successful business strategy.

For instance, Pepsi has distinct strategies for its beverages and snacks businesses.

 Functional Strategy

Each of the areas of the business, like marketing, finance, and operations, has its own distinct functional strategy. Each area determines the best way to execute its activities to achieve its corporate goals. 

For example, individual business units within AmEx decide how to utilize the company’s website to promote its products.

Aligning Strategies for Success

Crafting and executing strategies can be a daunting task in large organizations, yet it is critical to ensuring success for success.

The main steps in strategy formulation include analyzing the external and internal environment, identifying opportunities, and creating and executing strategies to capitalize on them.

Michael Porter’s Generic Business Strategies

Michael Porter outlined three generic business strategies that can help organizations gain a competitive edge in their markets:

Differentiation

Cost leadership.

A differentiation strategy requires creating products or services that are different from competitors and appealing to customers. This strategy emphasizes product or service quality. 

Apple tailors its innovative, stylish devices to specific target groups, while Beats Electronics’ design sets them apart from competitors.

Cost leadership enables organizations to produce products or services at lower costs, allowing them to offer more competitive prices for the same quality product. This strategy involves creating products or services in large quantities at a reduced cost. 

Walmart and Ikea exemplify companies that use cost leadership as their primary strategy. Walmart’s straightforward business model keeps costs low and passes savings onto customers, while Ikea’s flat-pack production enables more efficient and cost-effective production and shipping.

Focus Strategy

Through a focus strategy, businesses are able to recognize and prioritize the needs of a distinct customer segment within a niche market. This approach focuses on providing tailored solutions to meet the individual needs of a specific customer base.

Rolex, for example, produces luxurious watches that appeal to a select group of wristwatch buyers. The Rolex brand has become synonymous with luxury and serves as a status symbol among the elite.

Strategic planning tools and examples

Business leaders must take advantage of strategic planning tools to craft effective strategies. Here, we’ll explore a variety of widely-used strategic planning tools and see how they have been utilized effectively in the real world.

You can gain strategic insights by utilizing SWOT analysis, Porter’s Five Forces, and scenario planning.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis is a nifty technique for pinpointing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Businesses can thrive by crafting strategies that capitalize on strengths and opportunities while minimizing weaknesses and threats. Take Netflix, for instance; it seized the opportunity of creating a web-based movie rental service to become one of the world’s leading streaming platforms.

PESTLE Analysis

PESTLE analysis dives into Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental factors, enabling businesses to adapt to market changes. For example, a company like Tesla can employ PESTLE analysis to anticipate shifts in laws, technology, and society that may affect their business.

Porter’s Five Forces

Porter’s Five Forces analysis helps businesses identify the strength of their relationships with buyers, suppliers, and competitors, illuminating the competitive forces in an industry. In addition, it highlights the risks created by new entrants and substitutes. 

Walmart, for example, has harnessed its supplier power and economies of scale to offer lower prices than competitors.

Scenario Planning

Scenario planning is valuable for anticipating various outcomes and formulating strategies for each. It’s invaluable when navigating unpredictable and turbulent situations.

Shell Oil Company has a known history of using scenario planning for economic, political, and environmental trends in their business throughout the years.

Balanced Scorecard

The balanced scorecard looks at financial, customer, internal process, learning, and growth areas to evaluate performance against established goals and objectives. By keeping a close eye on these aspects, businesses can measure progress and take the necessary steps to correct any problems.

For example, Google employs the balanced scorecard to measure product development, customer satisfaction, employee training, and financial progress.

Best Practices for Strategic Planning

Here is a list of best practices for strategic planning in your organization.

Team Alignment

Ensure that everyone in the organization, from senior management to new hires, is included in the strategic planning process. By engaging everyone in the process, you build a feeling of ownership and create a collective understanding of the company’s goals and the plan to reach them.

Periodic Review

Stay on track by reviewing and adjusting your strategic plan regularly. You shouldn’t be afraid to tweak your plan if new information or market conditions change.

Open the Lines of Communication

Share the strategic plan using all available communication channels so everyone is on the same page. Clear communication helps employees understand the company’s objectives and their contributions to achieving them, ultimately inspiring and engaging them.

Embrace Agility

Strategic planning is all about insight, preparedness, and agility. Focus on creating lasting value instead of getting weighed down by bureaucracy.

Stimulate the Strategic Dialogue

Sticking to the same old strategic planning routine won’t cut it. Instead, constantly reinventing the process and stimulating strategic dialogue will keep it fresh.

Cultivate a culture of learning and Innovation

Build a learning environment that encourages continuous improvement. Your employees can contribute valuable insights and ideas to your company’s strategic direction if you let them.

Monitor Competitors and Industry Trends

Keep tabs on competitors’ strategies and industry trends to pinpoint opportunities or threats. Armed with this knowledge, you can fine-tune your strategy, ensuring your company stays ahead of the competition.

Related Articles

Strategic thinking allows leaders to set ambitious goals and devise plans to bring them to fruition, as we discussed in this article. Read More here about Strategic Thinking .

David, Fred R., and Forest R. David. Strategic Management: A Competitive Advantage Approach, Concepts . 16 ed., Pearson, 2016. Oreilly .

Fleisher, Craig S., and Babette E. Bensoussan. Business and Competitive Analysis: Effective Application of New and Classic Methods . 2 ed., Pearson Education, 2015. Oreilly .

“Mission statement examples: 16 of the best to inspire you.” Biteable , 15 June 2021, https://biteable.com/blog/mission-statements/. Accessed 6 April 2023.Wright, Tom.

“17 Noteworthy Vision Statement Examples (+Bonus Template).” Cascade Strategy , 27 July 2022, https://www.cascade.app/blog/examples-good-vision-statements. Accessed 6 April 2023.

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6 Steps to Make Your Strategic Plan Really Strategic

• Graham Kenny

You don’t need dozens of strategic goals.

Many strategic plans aren’t strategic, or even plans. To fix that, try a six step process: first, identify key stakeholders. Second, identify a specific, very important key stakeholder: your target customer. Third, figure out what these stakeholders want from you. Fourth, figure out what you want from them. Fifth, design your strategy around these requirements. Sixth, focus on continuously improving this plan.

Why is it that when a group of managers gets together for a strategic planning session they often emerge with a document that’s devoid of “strategy”, and often not even a plan ?

• Graham Kenny is the CEO of Strategic Factors and author of Strategy Discovery . He is a recognized expert in strategy and performance measurement who helps managers, executives, and boards create successful organizations in the private, public, and not-for-profit sectors. He has been a professor of management in universities in the U.S. and Canada.

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Strategy Execution in 4 Steps: Keys to Successful Strategy

What is strategy execution.

The term strategy execution has been around for a long time, but what is it, and why are organizations (like Quantive) obsessed with it?

Strategy execution, in theory, is self-explanatory — it’s how the strategic focus of an organization aligns with its decision-making and execution.

Strategy is a living, breathing entity, not an A-to-Z journey. This means the process isn’t just about planning or executing a strategy. It must also be adapted and optimized, which informs a refreshed cycle of planning, alignment, and execution.

Yes, the term “strategy execution” is both all-encompassing as a process and a stage within the process itself, lending to its hard-to-understand nature.  

So, where does strategy execution begin? 

Strategy execution at 30,000 ft

Understanding business strategy execution is about clearly defining what it is and is not.

The strategy execution process is not one-directional

Certain models break down the strategy execution process with visuals and charts to represent the flow of information in an organization. The problem is none of them can 100% accurately reflect the complexity of the process.

Business strategy execution is best compared to a cycle or a web, where interdependencies inform various stages of ongoing processes. Yet even with these illustrations, there is no widely adopted strategy execution model because it’s highly contextual to the organization’s needs.

Strategy execution is not turning on the lightbulb

If strategy execution was an all-or-nothing, flip-the-switch concept, it wouldn't be a struggle. 

“70% of chief strategists express little confidence in their ability to close the gap between strategy and execution.”  - Gartner

In reality, strategy execution is like building a fire — it requires constant attention and input to stay alive.

Strategy execution is a collaborative process, requiring focus and iteration to succeed. While top-level leaders can communicate strategy, your managers or teams may not understand it. As Harvard Business Review notes, aligning your organization from top to bottom (traditionally) doesn’t mean they operate well cross-functionally.

Leaders can’t just plan the strategy and cascade it down the organizational line. The strategy execution process is a never-ending cycle of planning, alignment, execution, and optimization. 

Strategy execution is not simple

We didn’t title this article, “4 Simple Stages to Strategy Execution” for a reason. Successful strategy execution is complicated by nature. Take Kaplan & Norton’s Strategy Execution Model, with its distinct stages, complex information flow, and interdependencies: 

With constantly moving processes, communication through hierarchies, and its overall subjective nature, strategy execution is an in-depth process for any sized organization. But mastering your strategy execution process begins with making the complicated simple.

At Quantive, we break down what good strategy execution requires into four distinct steps:

• Strategy planning
• Strategy alignment and activation
• Strategy execution
• Strategy assessment and adaptation 

Step 1: Plan strategy execution

Key takeaway: strategy planning provides the overarching goal and approach to strategy execution, broken down into three levels — corporate strategy, business strategy, and functional strategy. 

Developing a strategy is the foundational step in the strategy execution process. Without an agreed-upon definition and plan for your strategy, the vision is unclear. Basically, your teams can’t go anywhere unless you decide on where you’re going.

Strategy planning can be observed in three areas — corporate strategy, business strategy, and functional strategy. Each of these areas is imperative to an effective strategy execution process. 

Strategy execution: corporate strategy

Corporate strategy is the North Star for your organization. It’s defined by:

• Strategy mapping
• Strategy visualization
• Development of the mission and vision

This is where the fundamental questions of your business’s existence come into play. Corporate strategy exists to help you carve out your niche, your USP (unique selling point), and general advantages.

Corporate strategy is the “top-level” strategy that guides the organization. This is where strategy mapping, visualization, and vision-mission development occurs. This complex, foundational step ultimately determines the trajectory of your business.  

Strategy execution: business strategy

Business strategy (in the hierarchical sense) exists between corporate strategy and functional strategy. It’s the first step in the market application of your business’s mission and vision.

Business strategy helps you establish:

• Competitive focus areas
• Customer benefit
• Proof of concept on the USP

Business-level strategy (i.e. department strategy) is the first major point of external focus for your overall strategy.

Gain new insights into business strategy

Strategy execution: functional strategy

Functional strategy is the result of a well-established corporate and business strategy.

This strategy is the closest association to tactical execution, influencing the initiatives of:

• Departments
• Individuals

As the needs of teams differ throughout the organization, functional strategy is the tactical guide of strategy execution. It serves as the connector to the greater business and corporate strategy, while being a practical reference for those doing the work.

Learn more about the role of planning in strategy execution

Step 2: Align and activate strategy execution

Key takeaway: Aligning and activating strategy tests how teams coordinate on goals before the entire organization executes, creating a clear set of values, advantages, customer demographics, and building timelines around decision-making.

Picture this ideal-world scenario:

Top-level leaders know exactly how the strategy is being deployed. It’s perfectly understood by managers and team members. Execution falls into place. 

In the real world where you and I operate, most people don't know the strategy execution plan, creating an impossible dynamic for alignment.

Luckily, the strategic alignment and activation phase tests how your teams are coordinating on goals before the entire organization executes. 

Alignment and activation encompass all decisions and activities required to drive corporate and business strategy execution.

During alignment and activation, corporate goals are broken down at the business level. Leaders set goals aligned with the corporate strategy and progress the goals of the business strategy — teams focus on the metrics and outcomes that matter through functional strategy.

Here are a few key elements to consider when aligning and activating strategy. 

Distinguishing strategy alignment from activation 

Although we combine the strategy alignment and activation phases, they are two unique aspects of the strategy execution process. It helps to visualize them as parallels to each other — separate, but co-dependent.  

Creating a clear set of values, advantages, customer demographics, etc. in planning is a great accomplishment. However, if this strategy can’t be activated, it’s useless for the business.

The space between aligning a strategy and practically activating your teams to is a challenge for all business strategy execution. 

Enterprises struggle with scaling strategy, start-ups struggle with maintaining a focus for strategy, and scale-ups fall somewhere in the middle.  

A clear approach to alignment and activation shrinks this gap, and as a result, different strategic execution plans can be tested and implemented with a smaller lag. 

Building strategy execution timelines

Timing is a crucial, underrated element in strategy activation. As business leaders, we’re focused on the “what” and “why” of strategy, but sometimes forget about “when” — a worldwide pandemic reminded us of the universal dynamic of timing.

Building timelines around decision-making is a crucial step in transitioning from activation to strategy execution. Important questions to consider for building strategic timelines:

• What do we do now? Why?
• What can wait for later? What should wait for later?
• How much time should X element of strategy take? Y element?

Knowing the business’s distinct value and comparative advantages — defined in corporate strategy — helps answer these questions. As Executing Organizational Strategy explains, well-informed timing helps the business leverage its strengths and understand market opportunities.

Timing is the underutilized strategic advantage.  

A note on targets and goals in strategy execution

Knowing the difference between operational effectiveness and efficiency is crucial to maintaining focus on strategy deployment. 

Targets and goals demonstrate the effectiveness of your strategy, but they are not the strategy itself. 

Seven Steps to Strategy Execution notes that targets and goals such as speed, quality, and efficiency are not to be confused with strategies. These outcomes are the result of efficient strategy execution and may give insight into your process. 

Performance management indicators, such as OKRs and KPIs, should be incorporated as part of the strategy planning process — a data-driven approach to tracking and monitoring these indicators primes your business strategy execution for success.  

Learn more about the role of alignment in strategy execution

Step 3: Execute the strategy

Key takeaway: effective strategy execution requires cross-functional communication and the use of four fundamental building blocks: information flow, decision rights, motivators, and structures. 

Strategy execution is the culmination of the hundreds (if not thousands) of decisions made in the planning and alignment/activation phases. 

Effective strategy execution starts with everyone at each level of the business — c-suite leader, VP, mid-level manager, or functional contributor — understanding and aligning with the corporate strategy.

Information in this process flows freely from unit to unit, top-to-bottom, and bottom-to-top with little friction. But how does strategy become execution?  

Connection and cross-functional communication

As we’ve mentioned before, strategy shouldn’t exist in a silo or only in c-suite leaders’ minds — team members need a bridge to strategy. They must feel the strategy is connected to their work, so they can create work that connects to the strategy.

Culture grows when alignment happens between people and process. The only way this happens is when strategy is no longer a vague concept or idealistic aspiration, but a practical conductor for how the organization operates.   

However, a thriving culture built around strategy execution doesn’t always mean there's alignment. While most leaders focus on vertical alignment, one of the biggest struggles for organizations is cross-functional alignment.  

The problem stems from goal cascading and a narrow focus on hierarchy — this inhibits alignment horizontally where the real work is done. So, what’s the solution?  

According to Harvard Business Review, there are four fundamental building blocks to effective strategy execution:

Information flow

Decision rights.

Supported by autonomous communication. Leadership clearly communicates the corporate strategy, and team members communicate the plan for its execution.

Clarity on delegation and authority. Managers know who is responsible for which decisions, reducing ambiguity and second-guessing on execution.

Enabled by improved information flow and decision rights. Motivators revolve around performance rewarding and other methods of incentivization.

Supported by clarity on information flow and decision rights. Structures involve building accessibility into company operations, enabling responsibility growth, lateral movement, and guaranteed influence.  

Scaling the strategy execution process

A detailed strategic process is the gateway to scalability. However, process for the sake of process creates inefficiencies and organizational rigidness. How do you create balance?

Process needs strategy as much as strategy needs process.

Strategy must be monitored and linked through the hierarchy — corporate to business, business to team level, and so on — to ensure the right people are executing the right strategy at the right pace. 

Properly investing in the building and oversight of process requires time, budget, and labor dedication on every front. Having advocates and manpower in process management is the best way to build effective, scalable strategy execution.  

Strategy execution management 

Strategy execution can feel endlessly deep and complicated. (We’re not going to overwhelm you with that here, but make sure to check out our 7 Tips for Better Strategy Execution).  

It won’t do your organization any good to say, “Here’s the strategy, please follow it,” but fail to check in or manage it. If people followed every direction given to perfection, we wouldn’t be writing this article.

Strategy management is an ongoing part of the entire strategy execution framework, emphasized in the execution phase. Strategy management involves:

• Developing time-bound goals and objectives
• Incorporating initiatives into goals
• Ensuring alignment with the strategy

Whether it’s one person or an entire team, businesses must connect strategy with performance to ensure strategic guidance is being followed.

Learn more about the role of execution in strategy execution

Step 4: Assess and adapt strategy execution

Key takeaway: assessment and adaptation are the SWOT analysis of strategy execution — emphasize strengths, fix weaknesses, identify opportunities, eliminate threats.

Optimization is the continuous “last” stage of strategy execution — the place where good strategy becomes a persistently great strategy .

Companies that create tight links between their strategies, their plans, and their performance often experience a cultural multiplier effect.  - Harvard Business Review

Optimizing strategy execution requires critical thinking, reflection, and data analysis at multiple levels of the organization. When looking at this stage, ask yourself:

• How well does our information flow?  
• Are there gaps in our strategy planning, activation, or execution?  
• Can we eliminate wasted time by shifting/dropping/adding initiatives?

The full scale of strategic processes in the organization, also known as SPM (Strategic Performance Management), can help us answer these questions.

SPM Processes

The chart below from Seven Steps to Strategy Execution illustrates different components of SPM:

While this image is a bit busy, let’s break down the SPM process and what each pillar means.  

Strategy management involves definition, deployment (formulation), execution, and optimization. It is the traditional governance system that connects planning and performance.

Portfolio management covers the inventory, analysis, execution, and monitoring of the organization’s resources. Resources affect the business’s strategic emphasis, so portfolio optimization and strategy optimization are symbiotic.

Program management involves the collection of projects that feeds into the strategic goals of the organization. Projects are functional initiatives that move the needle, while programs organize and align these projects.

Performance management is more granular by comparison. Tied directly to the execution phase, performance measurement creates a unique strategic cycle that overlaps with overall strategy optimization. 

How does SPM optimize strategy execution?

As the SPM chart above demonstrates, certain (bolded) processes are critical to the strategy execution process. Reviewing processes that are equally different and important allows for a balanced approach to strategy optimization.

In principle, strategy adaptation is simply plugging the data and insights from the very “end” of the strategy cycle — execution — into the “top” half of the strategy funnel: definition and deployment. 

Leaders use the data to reflect on the effectiveness of the defined strategy, identify weaknesses and opportunities in deployment, and endless other possibilities to close the gap between strategy and execution . 

Learn more about the role of assessing and adapting in strategy execution

Strategy execution best practices

Optimizing the strategy execution process — from planning straight through iteration — is crucial for effective strategic management.

Here are three key best practices to consider.

1. Focus on a limited number of priorities

By narrowing down their objectives, leaders should avoid spreading themselves too thin. This prevents overwhelm, improves engagement, ensures effective resource allocation, and yields better results.

2. Adopt a strategy execution framework

A strategy execution framework provides guidance and structure for leaders throughout the implementation journey, encouraging a systemic approach that enables the replication of successful methodologies. Without it, uncertainty and inconsistencies may arise across different business units. 

3. Balance short-term operations with the long-term strategy

Leaders tend to prioritize day-to-day operations, overshadowing strategy execution and causing employee disengagement. Balancing operational concerns and strategy execution through regular discussions around updates, objectives, feedback, and lessons learned can help leaders maintain employees' focus and keep strategy execution as a top priority.

Read more tips for better strategy execution

Take the next step in mastering strategy execution

Strategy execution isn’t simple, but you don’t have to go it alone. Understanding the phases of strategy execution and how they relate to one another is a great first step.

In this article, you’ve learned about the four distinct phases of strategy execution and their interdependencies.

Planning the strategy is an honest conversation about the organization’s direction.

Align and activate

Aligning and activating the strategy is the tactical setup that bridges strategy to execution.

Executing the strategy is decision-making aligned with each level of the hierarchy.

Assess and adapt

Assessing and adapting the strategy is improving process at scale.

You now know how these phases overlap, the importance of each, and how to connect the concept of strategy to practical execution. By reading this overview, you’ve got the necessary foundation for understanding strategy execution. 

Quantive empowers modern organizations to turn their ambitions into reality through strategic agility. It's where strategy, teams, and data come together to drive effective decision-making, streamline execution, and maximize performance.  

As your company navigates today’s competitive landscape, you need an Always-On Strategy to continuously bridge the gap between current and desired business outcomes. Quantive brings together the technology, expertise, and passion to transform your strategy from a static plan to a feedback-driven engine for growth.  

Whether you’re a visionary start-up, a mid-market business looking to conquer, or a large enterprise facing disruption, Quantive keeps you ahead — every step of the way. For more information, visit www.quantive.com . 

Additional resources

How top companies are closing the strategy execution gap, what is strategy execution software how a strategy execution platform can help your company, why your business needs strategy execution software, 7 best practices for strategy execution, subscribe for our newsletter.

Planning Better Cities pp 115–149 Cite as

A Strategic Planning Process

• Halvard Dalheim 2  
• First Online: 07 October 2023

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The first part of this chapter outlines the rationale for the 7-Step Strategic Planning Process. It brings together the findings of Chapter 3, which provided a rationale for planning and a scope for planning and Chapter 4, which outlined a research framework, the significance of place and delivery levers. The 7-Step Strategic Planning Process is the conclusion of the journey towards preparing a framework for the task of strategic planning. The second part of this chapter outlines some of the common threads or considerations that permeate all aspects of the 7-Step Strategic Planning Process. They include planning systems, community and stakeholder engagement, politics and planning, planning and decision-making, confidentiality, project management, First Nation’s Country, community and culture, sustainability, complexity and a system view of planning and the challenge of planning for change.

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Dalheim, H. (2023). A Strategic Planning Process. In: Planning Better Cities. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-33947-9_5

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Published : 07 October 2023

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Your guide to human resource planning processes

27 May 2022 By Stuart McLachlan

In this article 📖

Your employees are at the epicenter of your business operations. And just like the far-reaching impact of an earthquake, the shockwaves that result from poor human resource planning are felt throughout the organization—in the form of missed deadlines, stressed employees, and unhappy customers.

A human resource planning process can prevent these issues by helping businesses forecast and balance staffing needs and customer demands. Simply put, you need enough coverage for the projects you have planned.

Effective human resource planning brings out the best in your people while driving business growth and profitability. When you plan ahead, you have the right people at the right time for the right tasks. Plus, your employees are in control of workloads and deadlines, which helps them feel relaxed and motivated to do their best work. This, in turn, boosts productivity and job satisfaction.

What is a human resource planning process?

Human resource planning is the process of analyzing your people needs and planning ahead to meet them. It involves evaluating your current staff, key skills, hiring budget, and growth plans so that you can accurately forecast future requirements based on your business goals.

The underlying goal of human resource management is to make sure you have the right number of people with the skills you need. By strategically utilizing the talent within your organization, you get the best return on investment. For instance, if your project pipeline includes 20 design projects and two app infrastructure projects, you’ll need more hours from designers than developers.

But a person in a key role could be due to start parental leave or have a vacation planned during the course of your project. In another scenario, you may need new skills for a project , and you need to either hire someone with those skills, reach out to a freelancer, or provide training to an existing employee. Planning ahead helps your HR department pinpoint any gaps in skills to effectively cover the needs of a project.

Without strategic human resource planning in place, your company’s business operations are in trouble—you could overshoot hiring budgets or hire the wrong people, burn out existing team members , or lose customer trust with the inability to scale with demand.

“With the Guru software we get better insights into our daily planning. Great tool & easy to use.” Martin Verdult Head of Operations

5 steps for strategic human resource planning

A step-by-step approach to your HR planning process is the key to adequately covering your staffing needs and keeping your iron triangle—budget, scope, and deadline—in balance.

Step 1: Assess your organizational goals and plans

A deep dive into organizational goals and plans for growth will help you understand the direction the company is taking. This helps you outline human resource initiatives that are aligned with larger company goals and result in higher profitability.

Ideally, your assessment will answer these questions:

• What are the company’s goals for the next quarter or year?
• What specific skills and tasks are needed to achieve the goals?
• Which roles will be at the forefront to drive company goals forward?
• Are the human resource plans taking stock of existing talent and training or will they require something different?

Step 2: Evaluate employee skillsets

To begin your workforce planning, get complete visibility into your current talent pool. Often, HR managers are unaware of skills employees have but are not using in their current roles. This is a waste of your existing institutional knowledge—and, consequently, the dollars you are spending on training and hiring new people.

A key task here is to build a skills inventory for each full-time and part-time employee, so you best utilize the talent you worked so hard to hire and develop.

One way to do this is to ask each employee about their skills, certifications, and experience. For larger organizations, this could mean sending out a survey to the current workforce and asking them to list their skills and experience, which could then be applied to company needs.

A resource management tool like Resource Guru lets you filter by skills and is a handy way to quickly compile an updated list of key talents.

If you don’t have such a tool, performance reviews or reports from managers can also give you insights into skills and subject matter expertise. These will usually tell you the areas each employee excels in as well as some of their qualifying characteristics, such as the ability to manage time or lead people.

As part of your assessment, look at the current tasks within each role and an employee’s capacity and track record for completing those tasks. For example, if you have customer service staff who are responsible for responding to service requests, how many can they get through on average per day?

Step 3: Forecast your future HR needs

You need to forecast how business growth will impact the demands of each role. You don’t want your staff to be overworked and log overtime hours on a regular basis—it will negatively impact the quality of work and employee morale.

With capacity planning , you can evaluate whether you have enough employee hours to take on new work. This way, you make realistic growth plans and better hiring decisions. Workloads are manageable, and employees are able to produce quality work within deadlines.

Your forecasts should cover both demand and supply. Forecasting your future needs helps you pinpoint any staffing shortages and determine if you need to grow your overall headcount with new hires, make better use of your current human resources, or upskill your current employees. If none of these are viable options, you may need to look at alternative sources of skills, such as contractors.

By forecasting demand, you can identify where current gaps lie within the company. A  resource management tool can help you account for booked vacations , retirement, potential sick days, and flexible schedules so that you are not scheduling employees when they are unavailable.

It’s important to take this into account as there are skill sets that are in hot demand across companies and can be difficult to get hold of.

For example, certain IT skillsets are well-known for being highly competitive to hire. If you know this ahead of time, you can start your search early and ensure that your company is offering the right sort of enticing packages to people with those skills.

Step 4: Hone your talent development strategies

Talent development is a critical part of the human resource planning process because training existing staff is easier and less expensive than hiring new employees. It is more efficient to retain staff who are already familiar with the business and product. Besides, finding new talent is hard, especially in the face of the massive talent shortages the business world is facing.

Developing your employees is not just good for business; it also boosts their morale. Employees feel valued when they see the company investing in their careers. On-the-job training, peer feedback, and succession planning are essential components of a talent development strategy.

For each critical role, do you have other people who can step in? If someone were promoted to a senior role, who would take over theirs? Does that leave gaps at the bottom?

Talent development plans are most effective when they are collaborative, clearly outlined with steps for growth, and include Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) . Your talent action plan should include:

• Training plans for current employees
• Job descriptions for each role
• Recruitment plans for each role
• Onboarding plans for new employees

Source: AIHR

It’s important to have clear steps for any plan. For example, if an employee’s training plan includes becoming proficient in a certain skill or learning new technology, what is needed to get them there? Which resources are required and who needs to sign off on them?

Step 5: Review and evaluate your action plan

To be effective, human resource planning needs to be an ongoing process that continually takes stock of headcount, workloads, and business objectives. It’s important to reassess and determine if you are making the most of your human capital. Are you able to meet operational goals or are there still gaps? Have there been any issues that might require you to adjust the plan?

You can then use the results of the assessment to guide your future planning and iterate the process.

With a strong human resource planning process, you can:

Done well, effective human resource planning offers key benefits to organizations, helping them be proactive with a standardized process. Plus, it boosts employee engagement, talent development, and company profitability.

1. Stay future-ready by planning ahead

If an organization realizes they need a particular human resource now , they’re in a reactive situation. This can result in rushed hiring processes and possibly having difficulty finding the right person for the job.

A human resource planning system helps you stay ahead of the game. You can proactively scout for candidates before you reach a point where the role is desperately needed. Or you can make sure current employees are trained well ahead of time. That’s a win!

2. Put a standardized system in place

One of the great things about a plan is that it can allow you to standardize your approach.

When you’re able to standardize, you create a process that is repeatable—no reinventing the wheel each time a new resource is needed. It also leads to consistency in hiring outcomes. Both in the quality of new hires and the speed of the hiring process.

3. Keep current employees engaged

HR planning motivates current employees and has a positive impact on company culture. When people have training plans, they see a clear path forward in their careers and that the company is willing to invest in them. Documented plans are a good idea because they are transparent and show commitment—no vague promises of training or upskilling that don’t materialize.

An added engagement benefit here is that human resource planning helps to ensure your current employees aren’t overloaded while trying to fill in gaps in resources. People are happier when they don’t feel overworked .

4. Be competitive in the battle for talent

Companies that have a robust human resource planning system are steps ahead of those that don’t. While others scramble to try to fill their needs, HR professionals with a plan in place can start the hiring process early and know what they need to do to attract the best talent.

In certain key roles, this is very important. The battle for talent is a well-documented issue for several skill sets. Being ahead means you know where to find that talent and how to get them on board.

5. Deliver high-quality work and keep employees happy

Human resource planning is about having the right talent at the right time. Projects get finished on time and within budget when the right resources are available. Big accounts get won, operational processes run smoothly, and companies are able to grow.

The bottom line is that human resource planning is good for your bottom line!

Lean on technology for your human resource planning process

While human resource planning can be a time-consuming process, it’s worth the undertaking. Companies that make the best use of their valuable human resources tend to be at a competitive advantage over others.

It’s about more streamlined operations and the ability to meet all of your skills and talent needs wherever they arise. For your employees, it means a satisfying job where their talents are valued and their workload is fair.

Having the right software for forecasting and human resource planning can help lighten the load for busy project managers. See how we can simplify the resource scheduling process.

Related Resource Guru content:

• 4 ways Resource Guru solves resource management challenges
• 3 barriers to an effective resource scheduling plan and how to overcome them
• The #1 mistake you’re making with your resource management plan

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Stuart McLachlan

👋 I'm Stuart, Senior Marketing Manager at Resource Guru. I spend my days spreading the word about Resource Guru and reading up on the tools and techniques that help people find that elusive work-life balance. Let me know what you think in the comments below.

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Taking Qualifying or FMLA Leave

Whether you need to be away from work for an extended time to care for yourself or a family member, the university’s leave administration process and vendor partner will help guide you through the necessary steps. 

• Applying for extended leave
• While on leave
• Returning to work

Applying for Extended Leave

The extended leave request process follows the same steps for all qualifying leaves for Short-Term Disability, Caregiver and Parental Leave (available to staff only), as well as for Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leaves of absence (available to both faculty and staff):

• Provide as much notice as possible as circumstances permit.  
• Apply at least 30 calendar days before anticipated need, where possible.
• See the MyBenefits Registration Guide (PDF) for registration instructions.
• You will receive confirmation and claim number once submitted. Supervisors will also receive notification that a claim has been filed. 
• You may be asked to provide additional information or documentation while your claim is under review (see below). 
• Packets are available online within a few hours and typically mailed within two business days).

Supervisors and timekeepers can request a qualifying leave on behalf of someone else by emailing the Leave Administration Team at [email protected] . 

Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) Eligibility

Claims are automatically reviewed for Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) eligibility. FMLA provides job protection while the qualifying leave provides income replacement. For more information on FMLA leave of absence, visit the FMLA webpage. 

While on Leave

Most of the information you need while taking an extended absence from work will be provided to you via MetLife. Here are a few helpful tips to keep in mind:

• The Leave Administration Team will adjust the timesheet once your leave claim is approved. This helps ensure there are no payroll processing interruptions.
• While on continuous leave: The university's Leave Administration Team will enter your approved time off in your timesheet.
• While on intermittent leave: Report time away from work to MetLife via phone or the myBenefits portal , as well as your normal call-in procedure. The Leave Administration Team will enter the approved intermittent time off in your timesheet.
• Approvals and claim status: Contact MetLife .
• Timekeeping and pay: Contact the HR Service Center .
• Using the MyBenefits portal: Consult the full MyBenefits User Guide (PDF)

Pay and Benefits

Employees will receive payment from the university following the standard payroll schedule and usual deductions. In instances where a qualifying leave is approved after the payroll cutoff, the Leave Administration Team will work with the employee for necessary payroll adjustments.

Annual Base Benefit Rate (ABBR)

The Annual Base Benefit Rate (ABBR) covered by the qualified leave programs includes total income before taxes. Your ABBR does not include:

• Car, housing or moving allowances
• Employer contributions to a qualified deferred compensation plan (e.g., for retirement, such as the DC Plan or DC component of the Hybrid Plan )
• Income received from part-time, non-benefit eligible university employment
• Overtime pay or shift differential
• A qualified deferred compensation plan
• Section 125 (cafeteria) plan
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
• Any other extra compensation or income received from sources other than the university.

Returning to Work

In general, your MetLife packet will walk you through any steps needed for returning to work from an extended absence. However, there may be a few additional steps depending on the type of leave(s) being used:

• Report your return date to your supervisor and MetLife. If there are any changes to your return to work date, make sure to update MetLife and your supervisor.
• If using Short-Term Disability leave or on a FMLA leave of absence for your own serious health condition, you must complete a Fitness for Duty Certification Form (PDF) prior to your first day back at work per Collected Rules and Regulations, Section 340.010: Family and Medical Leave .

Reviewed 2024-03-29

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