Strategic Planning - strategic and tactical planning

Strategic planning is a business process that many companies use to identify their critical success factors that set the course for future growth and profits. Lewis Carroll in "Alice in Wonderland" makes a good case for this: "Will you tell me please which way I ought to go from here?" said Alice. "It really depends on where you're going," said the Cat. "I do not care much where ..." said Alice. "Then no matter which way to go," said the Cat.

Like most business processes, the key to success is the effective implementation of the plan. Companies that do a good job of developing and implementing their strategies to create a competitive advantage that provides the biggest market share and higher gross profit margins. Organizations that turn their plan into a "dust collector" on a shelf Executive will never reach their full growth and profit potential.

The most critical part of strategic planning addresses the planning process. They question the validity of a plan that is based on the market "guestimates", questionable assessment of the depth and breadth of competitors and an optimistic assessment of the internal resistance of the society and the weakness. The fact that strategic plans may be overly optimistic is not the central problem. Although the criticism may be appropriate, focuses on the improvement on the wrong side of the process - that is the task of implementation is critical to produce positive results and that is where most companies fail to strategic planning.

Rational strategic plans poorly implemented will produce limited positive results. On the other hand, strategic plans overly optimistic, in fact implemented can produce results beyond all expectations. That being the case, what is the key to effective implementation? In a word - commitment!

Companies that are good at building the strategic planning effort for the planning process and each of the strategies under the plan. Build commitment throughout the organization, working with people from all departments to solicit a commitment before, during and after the development of their strategic plan.

The winners start early in the construction of commitment to the strategic plan. Suggestions are encouraged by managers at all levels, from management personnel who will participate in planning sessions, and others who share responsibility for the implementation of the strategies that flow from it. Together, these issues arise that require changes in business process and / or culture and to identify constraints that must be overcome if implementation is to be successful ..

During planning sessions, key executives of each functional area are all invited to participate and contribute to the plan. These leaders develop strategies that are based on organizational strengths and consider the resources needed to implement these strategies. They ensure that a key manager "owns" each strategy and is committed to a timetable for its implementation. The key managers give thought to resource planning - realizing that human resources are the key to making positive things happen in a difficult enterprise environments - and commit themselves accordingly.

Following the development of their plan, those responsible for implementations to develop their own "tactical plans." These action plans, when coupled with the self-work teams, are among the main successful implementation of Strategic Planning. The teams use their management plan, to make decisions and grow their business. Periodically review their "tactical plans" to monitor and report on progress of implementation - keep the project "alive" strategies and tactics for revision if necessary.

Finally, to ensure the correct implementation of their strategic plan, work on the planning process itself. The planning team continues "optimize" the planning process to ensure that the inputs of all business functions are given their due consideration and to ensure buy-in and commitment to the final plan is at all levels of ' organization.

So why are most of the team management operations outside of the strategic planning process? Because many line managers view strategic planning as a make work project that produces little or no value to customers? Perhaps it is because they have not participated in its development and have buy-in its worth - not to mention efforts to achieve its strategic objectives. In short, they are not connected to the process! To get the full development of a society and the profit potential, CEOs and business owners need to ensure the active participation of management operations in their strategic planning process. Professional assistance is available from Business Basics, LLC, why not give us a call....