Sound strategic planning is essential to the success of every company. It is the process where strategies are translated into tangible short-term actions. Strategic planning can also be the means for choosing the target markets vital to your organization’s future, and the capabilities required to reach them effectively.
Creating a strategic plan is a bout grounding your business in its mission, vision, and core values. Take the time to assess where it makes sense to focus your energy and resources to achieve intended results and outcomes. Ensure that all stakeholders are aligned and working toward your common goal.
Together, the following factors will foolproof your strategic planning process in facing challenges of today’s dynamic business environment.
1. Communication
Developing an effective strategic plan demands a bottom-up and top-down communication approach. It begins with communicating to all levels of employees, briefing them that a strategic planning process will be tackled. Bottom-up communication lets employees provide input through surveys, feed backs, meetings, and focus groups regarding organizational direction.
It is then followed by top-down communication. Executives or senior managers will share the final strategies with the employees. They will explain personnel’s role in locking in the success of the organization’s execution of these strategies.
2. Engagement
Strategic planning is not an event–it’s a process. A primary component in the process is the engagement of employees in the company. Staff engagement gives additional input and strengthens their commitment to the plan.
As mentioned earlier, employees will contribute valuable ideas that well help to dramatically increase the execution success rate of the strategic plan.
3. Project Management
Once the strategic plan is finalized, there are two factors related to project management. First is to determine the projects required to guarantee the success of strategy implementation. The other one is to prioritize the order of these plants to assure their accomplishment. This factor necessitates high involvement and commitment of the staff to spend time on them.
4. Organizational Culture
Organizational culture is defined as the attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and values of the workforce. The culture of a business is said to be as diverse and as unique as an individual’s personality. If the employees perceive change as something to be avoided and feared, then the implementation is often reactive.
On the other hand, if the staff believes that innovation should be strongly implemented from senior management, then it is seldom supported. However, if all levels of personnel acknowledge change as beneficial and everyone’s responsibility, then amendments and growth can happen with relative ease.
An efficient planning process will direct your firm to coherence; and better coherence leads to added value. Furthermore, although organizations take different routes to reach their destination, the four contributing factors to strategic planning outlined above will apply regardless.
With dedication, close attention, and a hand from efficient professional business management consultants, you can transform your strategic planning process into one that is effectively communicated, properly managed, openly engaged with, and aligned with organizational culture.
The results will be worth all the effort.