The sole purpose of strategic planning is to enable the company to gain, as effectively as possible, a sustainable edge over its competitors. - Kenichi Ohmae
Misconceptions about strategic planning abound, ranging from the belief that it only applies to large corporations to the fear that it will lead your company astray. You should no longer be concerned about these issues because strategic planning was designed to benefit both small and large businesses. This type of plan is extremely beneficial because it assists you in ensuring that your company is on the right track.
It encourages you to conduct research and hold discussions early on because the decisions you make should be based on facts, numbers, and relative information rather than assumptions. It may appear to be a lot of work, but once you fully understand how it works, you can say that it is not that difficult. It may take some time to complete, but the result is well worth all of your efforts as a group. Because it encourages everyone's minds to think and act in unison, achieving goals and objectives will be much easier and less complicated than before.
Here's what you need to know first if you want to understand what Strategic Planning all is about. Strategic planning was popular in the 1950s and 1960s and remained popular until the 1980s, when it fell out of favor. However, enthusiasm for strategic business planning was reignited in the 1990s and is still relevant in today's business.
Strategic planning is a process or activity used in organizational management to prioritize efforts, efficiently use energy and resources, strengthen operations, align employees' and stakeholders' common goals, and assess and adjust the organization's direction due to the changes happening in the environment. This guides both decisions and actions, resulting in a more shaped and efficient organization. An effective strategic plan can tell you where an organization or company is going as well as the actions required to meet your objectives.
What advantages can you gain from a strategic plan? Though it will take time, effort, and frequent reevaluation, it will undoubtedly put your organization on the right track. Some of the advantages are as follows:
1. Communicating Your Strategic Plan
Employees are technically involved in strategic planning because they are a key component of it. They offer their unique perspectives on the company, as well as their thoughts on a specific area, where the company falls short, or what isn't working. The discussion you intend to hold must be encouraging in order to gather new ideas, thoughts, recommendations, and different points of view that you can use to improve your plan.
2. An Increase in Productivity
When employees are made aware of a strategic plan, it fosters a sense of accountability, which can lead to increased productivity. It makes them feel involved or as if they belong, which leads to a collaborative response and the accomplishment of goals.
3. Strengths and Weaknesses are Identified
Examining and analyzing the entire business will also reveal your strengths and weaknesses; the areas where your company excels and those where it needs to improve. When these are identified, you and your employees will be able to see what should be done in the following phases while minimizing risks.
4. Proactive Environment and Established Direction
Having a clear direction should be the culmination of your strategic planning; it means that both you and your employees know where you want to go in the future. Proactivity can be seen during the planning process and should be maintained throughout. This type of plan results in seeing opportunities and challenges as parts of your journey and figuring out how to overcome them.
These are only the fundamentals of strategic planning, if you need more, you might want to conduct your own data collection and/or research with a thorough understanding of the subject. When your strategic planning is successful, it simply means that everyone involved in the planning is on the same page with your company's directions and goals.
Strategic planning is the continuous process of making present entrepreneurial (risk-taking) decisions systematically and with the greatest knowledge of their futurity; organizing systematically the efforts needed to carry out these decisions; and measuring the results of these decisions against the expectations through organized, systematic feedback. - Peter Drucker
Reference:
Vo, E. (2018, November 19). What Is Strategic Planning? Retrieved from The Hartford: https://sba.thehartford.com/business-management/what-is-strategic-planning/