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Strategic Planning in 6 Essential Steps
I’ve written before about the importance of careful, meticulous strategic planning. Basically, this is the process wherein leaders and managers set the short-term and long-term goals for the organization. It also involves setting metrics; clarifying expectations; allocating the resources that will be used in pursuit of those goals; and communicating the plan to the entire team, ensuring you have everyone’s buy-in.
In my past writings about strategic planning, I’ve acknowledged that it’s a large, potentially intimidating job to take on. Today, I’d like to help make the process a bit more digestible. I’m going to offer six steps that I believe are incredibly helpful to the strategic planning process. While this may not be a comprehensive overview, it should at least provide you with a big-picture summary.
Essential Steps in Strategic Planning
1) Assess trends.
Your business doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and neither does your strategic plan. Before you get too far into the process, I’d recommend putting your finger to the wind and see which way the trends are blowing. Specifically, you’re going to want to evaluate trends in your industry; trends among your competitors; and trends among your customers.
