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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.

What

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.)

Strategic Planning Guide and Process

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:

What

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 Pyramid

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

What

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

What

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

What

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.

What

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.

How to Identify 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.

What

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.

What

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.

Strategy Map

Step 3: Setting Organization-Wide Goals and Measures

What

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..

Strategic Planning Outcomes Table

Step 4: Select KPIs

What

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

NPS Step #5

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:

What

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.

Strategic Planning Calendar

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

What

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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strategic planning process conclusion

Strategic Planning Process: 7 Crucial Steps to Success

a transparent grid illustration connecting a circle and square representing the strategic planning process

What to read next:

Playing chess without a strong opening is a guaranteed way to disadvantage yourself. Just like in chess, organizations without an adequate strategic planning process are unlikely to thrive and adapt long-term. 

The strategic planning process is essential for aligning your organization on key priorities, goals, and initiatives, making it crucial for organizational success.   

This article will empower you to craft and perfect your strategic planning process by exploring the following:  

  • What is strategic planning
  • Why strategic planning is important for your business  
  • The seven steps of the strategic planning process   

Strategic planning frameworks

  • Best practices supporting the strategic planning process  

By the end of this article, you’ll have the knowledge needed to perfect the key elements of strategic planning. Ready? Let’s begin.  

What is strategic planning?

Strategic planning charts your business's course toward success. Using your organization’s vision, mission, and values — with internal and external information — each step of the strategic planning process helps you craft long-term objectives and attain your goals with strategic management.  

The key elements of strategic planning includes a SWOT analysis, goal setting , stakeholder involvement, plus developing actionable strategies, approaches, and tactics aligned with primary objectives.  

In short, the strategic planning process bridges the gap between your organization’s current and desired state, providing a clear and actionable framework that answers:   Where are you now?   Where do you want to be?   How will you get there?

7 key elements of strategic planning 

The following strategic planning components work together to create cohesive strategic plans for your business goals. Let’s take a close look at each of these:  

  • Vision : What your organization wants to achieve in the future, the long-term goal  
  • Mission : The driving force behind why your company exists, who it serves, and how it creates value  
  • Values : Fundamental beliefs guiding your company’s decision-making process  
  • Goals : Measurable objectives in alignment with your business mission, vision, and values  
  • Strategy : A long-term strategy map for achieving your objectives based on both internal and external factors  
  • Approach : How you execute strategy and achieve objectives using actions and initiatives   
  • Tactics : Granular short-term actions, programs, and activities  

Why a concrete strategic planning is important

Just as a chess player needs a gameplan to reach checkmate, a company needs a solid strategic plan to achieve its goals.   

Without a strategic plan, your business will waste precious time, energy, and resources on endeavors that won’t get your company closer to where it needs to be.   

Your ideal plan should cover all key strategic planning areas, while allowing you to stay present by measuring success and course-correcting or redefining the strategic direction when necessary. Ultimately, enabling your company to stay future-proof through the creation of an always-on strategy.   

An always-on strategy involves continuous environmental scanning even after the strategic plan has been devised, ensuring readiness to adapt in response to quick, drastic changes in the environment.

Let’s dive deeper into the steps of the strategic planning process.  

What are the 7 stages of the strategic planning process?

You understand the overall value of implementing a strategic planning process — now let’s put it in practice. Here's our 7-step approach to strategic planning that ensures everyone is on the same page:  

  • Clarify your vision, mission, and values  
  • Conduct an environmental scan  
  • Define strategic priorities  
  • Develop goals and metrics  
  • Derive a strategic plan  
  • Write and communicate your strategic plan  
  • Implement, monitor, and revise   

1. Clarify your vision, mission, and values 

The first step of the strategic planning process is understanding your organization’s core elements: vision, mission, and values. Clarifying these will align your strategic plan with your company’s definition of success. Once established, these are the foundation for the rest of the strategic planning process.   

Questions to ask:

  • What do we aspire to achieve in the long term?
  • What is our purpose or ultimate goal?
  • What do we do to fulfill our vision?
  • What key activities or services do we provide?
  • What are our organization's ethics?
  • What qualities or behaviors do we expect from employees?

Read more: What is Mission vs. Vision  

A green flag with hollow filling placed to the left of an outline of an eye, with the iris also outlined in green, all on a green background, to signal mission vs. vision

2. Conduct an environmental scan

Once everyone on the same page about vision, mission, and values, it's time to scan your internal and external environment. This involves a long-term SWOT analysis, evaluating your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.  

Internal factors 

Internal strengths and weaknesses help you understand where your organization excels and what it could improve. Strengths and weaknesses awareness helps make more informed decisions with your capabilities and resource allocation in mind.  

External factors

Externally, opportunities and threats in the market help you understand the power of your industry’s customers, suppliers, and competitors. Additionally, consider how broader forces like technology, culture, politics, and regulation may impact your organization.   

  • What are our organization's key strengths or competitive advantages?
  • What areas or functions within our organization need improvement?
  • What emerging trends or opportunities can we leverage?
  • How do changes in technology, regulations, or consumer behavior impact us?

3. Define strategic priorities

Prioritization puts the “strategic” in strategic planning process. Your organization’s mission, vision, values, and environmental scan serve as a lens to identify top priorities. Limiting priorities ensures your organization intentionally allocates resources.  

These categories can help you rank your strategic priorities:  

  • Critical : Urgent tasks whose failure to complete will have severe consequences — financial losses, reputation damage, or legal consequences  
  • Important : Significant tasks which support organizational achievements and require timely completion  
  • Desirable : Valuable tasks not essential in the short-term, but can contribute to long-term success and growth  
  • How do these priorities align with our mission, vision, and values?
  • Which tasks need to be completed quickly to ensure effective progress towards our desired outcomes?
  • What resources and capabilities do we need to pursue these priorities effectively?

4. Develop goals and metrics

Next, you establish goals and metrics to reflect your strategic priorities. Purpose-driven, long-term, actionable strategic planning goals should flow down through the organization, with lower-level goals contributing to higher-level ones.  

One approach that can help you set and measure your aligned goals is objectives and key results (OKRs). OKRs consist of objectives, qualitative statements of what you want to achieve, and key results, 3-5 supporting metrics that track progress toward your objective.  

OKRs ensure alignment at every level of the organization, with tracking and accountability built into the framework to keep everyone engaged. With ambitious, intentional goals, OKRs can help you drive the strategic plan forward.  

  • What metrics can we use to track progress toward each objective?
  • How can we ensure that lower-level goals and metrics support and contribute to higher-level ones?
  • How will we track and measure progress towards key results?
  • How will we ensure accountability?

Get an in-depth look at OKRs with our Ultimate OKR Playbook

an illustration of a circle in a shifting square to represent an okr playbook

5. Derive a strategic plan

The next step of the strategic planning process gets down to the nitty-gritty “how” — outlining a clear, practical plan for bridging the gap between now and the future.   

To do this, you’ll need to brainstorm short- and long-term approaches to achieving the goals you’ve set, answering a couple of key questions along the way. You must evaluate ideas based on factors like:  

  • Feasibility : How realistic and achievable is it?  
  • Impact : How conducive is it to goal attainment?  
  • Cost : Can we fund this approach, and is it worth the investment?  
  • Alignment : Does it support our mission, vision, and values?  

From your approaches, you can devise a detailed action plan, which covers things like:  

  • Timelines : When will we take each step, and what are the deadlines?  
  • Milestones : What key achievements will ensure consistent progress?  
  • Resource requirements : What’s needed to achieve each step?  
  • Responsibilities : Who's accountable in each step?  
  • Risks and challenges : What can affect our ability to execute our plan? How will we address these?  

With a detailed action plan like this, you can move from abstract goals to concrete steps, bringing you closer to achieving your strategic objectives.  

6. Write and communicate your strategic plan

Writing and communicating your strategic plan involves everyone, ensuring each team is on the same page. Here’s a clear, concise structure you can use to cover the most important strategic planning components:  

  • Executive summary : Highlights and priorities in your strategic overview   
  • Introduction : Background on your strategic plan  
  • Connection : How your strategic plan aligns with your organization’s mission, vision, and values  
  • Environmental scan : An overview of your SWOT analysis findings  
  • Strategic priorities and goals : Informed short and long-term organizational goals  
  • Strategic approach : An overview of your tactical plan   
  • Resource needs : How you'll deploy technology, funding, and employees  
  • Risk and challenges : How you’ll mitigate the unknowns if and when they arise  
  • Implementation plan : A step-by-step resource deployment plan for achieving your strategy  
  • Monitoring and evaluation : How you’ll keep your plan heading in the right direction  
  • Conclusion : A summary of the strategic plan and everything it entails  
  • What information or context do stakeholders need to understand the strategic plan?
  • How can we emphasize the connection between the strategic plan and the overall purpose and direction of the organization?
  • What initiatives or strategies will we implement to drive progress?
  • How will we mitigate or address risks?
  • What are the specific steps and actions we need to take to implement the strategic plan?
  • Any additional information or next steps we need to communicate?

7. Implement, monitor, and revise performance 

Finally, it’s time to implement your strategic plan, making sure it's up to date, creating a persistent, always-on strategy that doesn't lag behind. As you get the ball rolling, keep a close eye on your timelines, milestones, and performance targets, and whether these align with your internal and external environment.   

Internally, indicators like completions, issues, and delays provide visibility into your process. If any bottlenecks, inefficiencies, or misalignment arises, take corrective action promptly — adjust the plan, reallocate resources, or provide additional training to employees.  

Externally, you should monitor changes such as customer preferences, competitive pressures, economic shifts , and regulatory changes. These impact the success of your strategic action plan and may require tweaks along the way.   

Remember, implementing a strategic plan isn’t a one-time task — continual evaluation is essential for an always-on strategy. It involves extending beyond planning stages and contextualizing the strategy in real-time, allowing for swift adaptations to changing circumstances to ensure your plan remains relevant.

  • Are there any bottlenecks, inefficiencies, or misalignments we need to address?
  • Are we monitoring and analyzing external factors?
  • Are we prepared to make necessary tweaks or adaptations along the way?
  • Are we agile enough to promptly correct deviations from our strategic plan while maintaining an "always-on" strategy for continual adjustments?

You can use several frameworks to guide you through the strategic planning process. Some of the most influential ones include:

  • Balanced scorecard (BSC) : Takes an overarching approach to strategic planning, covering financial, customer, internal processes, and learning and growth, aligning short-term operational tasks with long-term strategic goals.
  • SWOT analysis : Highlights your business's internal strengths and weaknesses alongside external opportunities and threats to enable informed decisions about your strategic direction.
  • OKRs : Structures goals as a set of measurable objectives and key results. They cascade down from top-level organizational objectives to lower-level team goals, ensuring alignment across the entire organization. Get an in-depth look at OKRs here . 
  • Scenario planning : Involves envisioning and planning for various possible future scenarios, allowing you to prepare for a range of potential outcomes. It's particularly useful in volatile environments rife with uncertainties.
  • Porter's five forces : Evaluates the competitive forces within your industry — rivalry among existing competitors, bargaining power of buyers and suppliers, threat of new entrants, and threat of substitutes — to shape strategies that position the organization for success.

Common problems with strategic planning and how to overcome them

While strategic planning provides a roadmap for business success, it's not immune to challenges. Recognizing and addressing these is crucial for effective strategy implementation. Let's explore common issues encountered in strategic planning and strategies to overcome them.

Static nature

Traditional strategic planning models often follow a linear, annual, and inflexible process that doesn't accommodate quick changes in the business landscape. Strategies formulated this way may quickly become outdated in today's fast-paced environment.

To overcome the rigidity of traditional strategic planning, your organization should integrate continuous environmental scanning processes. This includes monitoring market changes, competitor actions, and technological advancements, ensuring real-time insights inform strategic decision-making. Additionally, adopting agile methodologies allows for iterative planning, breaking down strategies into smaller, manageable components reviewed and adjusted regularly, ensuring adaptability in today's fast-paced landscape.

Disconnect between strategic plan and execution

There's often a significant gap between the strategic objectives and their actual implementation, leading to misalignment, confusion, and inefficiency within the organization.

To bridge the gap, ensure accountability, alignment, and feedback-driven processes across the business. Linking team roles and responsibilities to lower-level objectives can fosters alignment and accountability, whereas aligning these with overarching strategic objectives ensure coherence in execution. To ensure goals are optimized on an ongoing basis, implement a feedback mechanism that continuously evaluates progress against goals, enabling regular adjustments based on market feedback and internal insights.

Lack of real-time insights

Traditional planning models rely on historical data and periodic reviews, which might not capture real-time changes or emerging trends accurately. This can result in misaligned strategies unsuitable for the current business landscape.

Leverage advanced analytics tools and AI-driven technologies. Invest in technologies that offer real-time tracking and reporting of key performance indicators, with dashboards and monitoring systems that provide up-to-date insights. These allow you to gather, process, and interpret real-time data for proactive decision-making that aligns with the current business landscape. 

Failure to close the feedback loop

The absence of a feedback loop between strategy formulation, execution, and evaluation can impact learning and improvement. Companies might therefore struggle to refine their strategies based on real-time performance insights.

Establish a structured feedback loop encompassing strategy formulation, execution, and evaluation stages. Encourage employees to actively contribute insights on strategy execution, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and adaptation.

Best practices during the strategic planning process

Navigating strategic planning goes beyond overcoming challenges. A successful strategic plan requires you to embrace a set of guiding best practices, helping you navigate the development and implementation of your strategic planning process.   

1. Keep the planning process flexible

With ever-changing business environments, a one-and-done approach to strategic planning is insufficient. Your strategic plan needs to be adaptable to ensure its relevancy and its ability to weather the effects of changing circumstances.  

2. Pull together a diverse group of stakeholders

By including voices from across the organization, you can account for varying thoughts, perspectives, and experiences at each step of the strategic planning process, ensuring cross-functional alignment .  

3. Document the process

Continuous documentation of the strategic management process is crucial in capturing and communicating the key elements of strategic planning. This keeps everyone on the same page and your strategic plan up-to-date and relevant.  

4. Make data-driven decisions

Root your decisions in evidence and facts rather than assumptions or opinions. This cultivates accurate insights, improves prioritization, and reduces biased (flawed) decisions.  

5. Align your company culture with the strategic plan 

Your strategic plan can only be successful if everyone is on board with it — company culture supports what you’re trying to achieve. Behaviors, rules, and attitudes optimize the execution of your strategic plan.  

6. Leverage AI 

Using AI in strategic planning supports the development of an always-on strategy — amplifying strategic agility, conducting comprehensive environmental scans, and expediting planning phases. It can streamline operations, facilitate data-driven decision-making, and provide transparent insights into progress to drive accountability, engagement, and alignment with the strategic plan.

The strategic planning process in a nutshell

Careful strategy mapping is crucial for any organization looking to achieve its long-term goals while staying true to its mission, vision, and values. The seven steps in the strategic planning process outlined in this article provide a solid framework your organization can follow — from clarifying your organization’s purpose and developing a strategic plan, to implementing, monitoring, and revising performance. These steps will help your company meet goal measurements and create an always-on strategy that's rooted in the present. 

It’s important to remember that strategic planning is not a one-time event. To stay effective and relevant, you must continuously monitor and adapt your strategy in response to changing circumstances. This ongoing process of improvement keeps your organization competitive and demonstrates your commitment to achieving your goals.  

  Quantive is your bridge between strategy and execution. Founded on the objectives and key results (OKR) methodology, our Strategy Execution solution is where businesses plan successful strategy, focus and align teams to it, and stay on the leading edge of progress.  

As your company looks to achieve the best possible results, you need a modern approach to run your business and change your business. The Modern Operating Model brings strategy, teams, and data together to help make decisions faster, optimize operations, and drive better business outcomes.  

Whether you’re a large enterprise facing competitive disruption or a small business leading the innovative charge, Quantive helps get you where you want to go.  

Ready to achieve the best possible? Start your free trial today. 

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Strategy execution in 4 steps: keys to successful strategy, how top companies are closing the strategy execution gap, 7 best practices for strategy execution, why your business needs strategy execution software, subscribe for our newsletter.

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1.7 Conclusion

This chapter provides an overview of strategic management and strategy. Ideas about strategy span many centuries, and modern understanding of strategy borrows from ancient strategies as well as classic military strategies. You should now understand that there are numerous ways to conceptualize the idea of strategy, and that effective strategic management is needed to ensure the long-term success of firms. The study of strategic management provides tools to effectively manage organizations, but it also involves the art of knowing how and when to apply creative thinking. Knowledge of both the art and the science of strategic management is needed to help guide organizations as their strategies emerge and evolve over time. Such tools will also help you effectively chart a course for your career as well as to understand the effective strategic management of the organizations for which you will work.

  • Think about the best and worst companies you know. What is extraordinary (or extraordinarily bad) about these firms? Are their strategies clear and focused or difficult to define?
  • If you were to write a “key takeaway” section for this chapter, what would you include as the material you found most interesting?

Strategic Management Copyright © 2020 by Reed Kennedy is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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What is strategic planning? A 5-step guide

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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

Get our free ebook and learn how to bridge the gap between mission, strategic goals, and work at your organization.

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?

[inline illustration] Strategic plan elements (infographic)

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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A Strategic Planning Process

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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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How to improve strategic planning

In conference rooms everywhere, corporate planners are in the midst of the annual strategic-planning process. For the better part of a year, they collect financial and operational data, make forecasts, and prepare lengthy presentations with the CEO and other senior managers about the future direction of the business. But at the end of this expensive and time-consuming process, many participants say they are frustrated by its lack of impact on either their own actions or the strategic direction of the company.

This sense of disappointment was captured in a recent McKinsey Quarterly survey of nearly 800 executives: just 45 percent of the respondents said they were satisfied with the strategic-planning process. 1 1. “ Improving strategic planning: A McKinsey Survey ,” The McKinsey Quarterly , Web exclusive, September 2006. The survey, conducted in late July and early August 2006, received 796 responses from a panel of executives from around the world. All panelists have mostly financial or strategic responsibilities and work in a wide range of industries for organizations with revenues of at least $500 million. Moreover, only 23 percent indicated that major strategic decisions were made within its confines. Given these results, managers might well be tempted to jettison the planning process altogether.

But for those working in the overwhelming majority of corporations, the annual planning process plays an essential role. In addition to formulating at least some elements of a company’s strategy, the process results in a budget, which establishes the resource allocation map for the coming 12 to 18 months; sets financial and operating targets, often used to determine compensation metrics and to provide guidance for financial markets; and aligns the management team on its strategic priorities. The operative question for chief executives is how to make the planning process more effective—not whether it is the sole mechanism used to design strategy. CEOs know that strategy is often formulated through ad hoc meetings or brand reviews, or as a result of decisions about mergers and acquisitions.

Our research shows that formal strategic-planning processes play an important role in improving overall satisfaction with strategy development. That role can be seen in the responses of the 79 percent of managers who claimed that the formal planning process played a significant role in developing strategies and were satisfied with the approach of their companies, compared with only 21 percent of the respondents who felt that the process did not play a significant role. Looked at another way, 51 percent of the respondents whose companies had no formal process were dissatisfied with their approach to the development of strategy, against only 20 percent of those at companies with a formal process.

So what can managers do to improve the process? There are many ways to conduct strategic planning, but determining the ideal method goes beyond the scope of this article. Instead we offer, from our research, five emergent ideas that executives can employ immediately to make existing processes run better. The changes we discuss here (such as a focus on important strategic issues or a connection to core-management processes) are the elements most linked with the satisfaction of employees and their perceptions of the significance of the process. These steps cannot guarantee that the right strategic decisions will be made or that strategy will be better executed, but by enhancing the planning process—and thus increasing satisfaction with the development of strategy—they will improve the odds for success.

Start with the issues

Ask CEOs what they think strategic planning should involve and they will talk about anticipating big challenges and spotting important trends. At many companies, however, this noble purpose has taken a backseat to rigid, data-driven processes dominated by the production of budgets and financial forecasts. If the calendar-based process is to play a more valuable role in a company’s overall strategy efforts, it must complement budgeting with a focus on strategic issues. In our experience, the first liberating change managers can make to improve the quality of the planning process is to begin it by deliberately and thoughtfully identifying and discussing the strategic issues that will have the greatest impact on future business performance.

Granted, an approach based on issues will not necessarily yield better strategic results. The music business, for instance, has discussed the threat posed by digital-file sharing for years without finding an effective way of dealing with the problem. But as a first step, identifying the key issues will ensure that management does not waste time and energy on less important topics.

We found a variety of practical ways in which companies can impose a fresh strategic perspective. For instance, the CEO of one large health care company asks the leaders of each business unit to imagine how a set of specific economic, social, and business trends will affect their businesses, as well as ways to capture the opportunities—or counter the threats—that these trends pose. Only after such an analysis and discussion do the leaders settle into the more typical planning exercises of financial forecasting and identifying strategic initiatives.

One consumer goods organization takes a more directed approach. The CEO, supported by the corporate-strategy function, compiles a list of three to six priorities for the coming year. Distributed to the managers responsible for functions, geographies, and brands, the list then becomes the basis for an offsite strategy-alignment meeting, where managers debate the implications of the priorities for their particular organizations. The corporate-strategy function summarizes the results, adds appropriate corporate targets, and shares them with the organization in the form of a strategy memo, which serves as the basis for more detailed strategic planning at the division and business-unit levels.

A packaged-goods company offers an even more tailored example. Every December the corporate senior-management team produces a list of ten strategic questions tailored to each of the three business units. The leaders of these businesses have six months to explore and debate the questions internally and to come up with answers. In June each unit convenes with the senior-management team in a one-day meeting to discuss proposed actions and reach decisions.

Some companies prefer to use a bottom-up rather than top-down process. We recently worked with a sales company to design a strategic-planning process that begins with in-depth interviews (involving all of the senior managers and selected corporate and business executives) to generate a list of the most important strategic issues facing the company. The senior-management team prioritizes the list and assigns managers to explore each issue and report back in four to six weeks. Such an approach can be especially valuable in companies where internal consensus building is an imperative.

Bring together the right people

An issues-based approach won’t do much good unless the most relevant people are involved in the debate. We found that survey respondents who were satisfied with the strategic-planning process rated it highly on dimensions such as including the most knowledgeable and influential participants, stimulating and challenging the participants’ thinking, and having honest, open discussions about difficult issues. In contrast, 27 percent of the dissatisfied respondents reported that their company’s strategic planning had not a single one of these virtues. Such results suggest that too many companies focus on the data-gathering and packaging elements of strategic planning and neglect the crucial interactive components.

Strategic conversations will have little impact if they involve only strategic planners from both the business unit and the corporate levels. One of our core beliefs is that those who carry out strategy should also develop it. The key strategy conversation should take place among corporate decision makers, business unit leaders, and people with expertise essential to the discussion. In addition to leading the corporate review, the CEO, aided by members of the executive team, should as a rule lead the strategy review for business units as well. The head of a business unit, supported by four to six people, should direct the discussion from its side of the table (see sidebar, "Things to ask in any business unit review").

Things to ask in any business unit review

Are major trends and changes in your business unit’s environment affecting your strategic plan? Specifically, what potential developments in customer demand, technology, or the regulatory environment could have enough impact on the industry to change the entire plan?

How and why is this plan different from last year’s?

What were your forecasts for market growth, sales, and profitability last year, two years ago, and three years ago? How right or wrong were they? What did the business unit learn from those experiences?

What would it take to double your business unit’s growth rate and profits? Where will growth come from: expansion or gains in market share?

If your business unit plans to take market share from competitors, how will it do so, and how will they respond? Are you counting on a strategic advantage or superior execution?

What are your business unit’s distinctive competitive strengths, and how does the plan build on them?

How different is the strategy from those of competitors, and why? Is that a good or a bad thing?

Beyond the immediate planning cycle, what are the key issues, risks, and opportunities that we should discuss today?

What would a private-equity owner do with this business?

How will the business unit monitor the execution of this strategy?

One pharmaceutical company invites business unit leaders to take part in the strategy reviews of their peers in other units. This approach can help build a better understanding of the entire company and, especially, of the issues that span business units. The risk is that such interactions might constrain the honesty and vigor of the dialogue and put executives at the focus of the discussion on the defensive.

Corporate senior-management teams can dedicate only a few hours or at most a few days to a business unit under review. So team members should spend this time in challenging yet collaborative discussions with business unit leaders rather than trying to absorb many facts during the review itself. To provide some context for the discussion, best-practice companies disseminate important operational and financial information to the corporate review team well in advance of such sessions. This reading material should also tee up the most important issues facing the business and outline the proposed strategy, ensuring that the review team is prepared with well-thought-out questions. In our experience, the right 10 pages provide ample fuel to fire a vigorous discussion, but more than 25 pages will likely douse the level of energy or engagement in the room.

Adapt planning cycles to the needs of each business

Managers are justifiably concerned about the resources and time required to implement an issues-based strategic-planning approach. One easy—yet rarely adopted—solution is to free business units from the need to conduct this rigorous process every single year. In all but the most volatile, high-velocity industries, it is hard to imagine that a major strategic redirection will be necessary every planning cycle. In fact, forcing businesses to undertake this exercise annually is distracting and may even be detrimental. Managers need to focus on executing the last plan’s major initiatives, many of which can take 18 to 36 months to implement fully.

Some companies alternate the business units that undergo the complete strategic-planning process (as opposed to abbreviated annual updates of the existing plan). One media company, for example, requires individual business units to undertake strategic planning only every two or three years. This cadence enables the corporate senior-management team and its strategy group to devote more energy to the business units that are “at bat.” More important, it frees the corporate-strategy group to work directly with the senior team on critical issues that affect the entire company—issues such as developing an integrated digitization strategy and addressing unforeseen changes in the fast-moving digital-media landscape.

Other companies use trigger mechanisms to decide which business units will undergo a full strategic-planning exercise in a given year. One industrial company assigns each business unit a color-coded grade—green, yellow, or red—based on the unit’s success in executing the existing strategic plan. “Code red,” for example, would slate a business unit for a strategy review. Although many of the metrics that determine the grade are financial, some may be operational to provide a more complete assessment of the unit’s performance.

Freeing business units from participating in the strategic-planning process every year raises a caveat, however. When important changes in the external environment occur, senior managers must be able to engage with business units that are not under review and make major strategic decisions on an ad hoc basis. For instance, a major merger in any industry would prompt competitors in it to revisit their strategies. Indeed, one advantage of a tailored planning cycle is that it builds slack into the strategic-review system, enabling management to address unforeseen but pressing strategic issues as they arise.

Implement a strategic-performance-management system

In the end, many companies fail to execute the chosen strategy. More than a quarter of our survey respondents said that their companies had plans but no execution path. Forty-five percent reported that planning processes failed to track the execution of strategic initiatives. All this suggests that putting in place a system to measure and monitor their progress can greatly enhance the impact of the planning process.

Most companies believe that their existing control systems and performance-management processes (including budgets and operating reviews) are the sole way to monitor progress on strategy. As a result, managers attempt to translate the decisions made during the planning process into budget targets or other financial goals. Although this practice is sensible and necessary, it is not enough. We estimate that a significant portion of the strategic decisions we recommend to companies can’t be tracked solely through financial targets. A company undertaking a major strategic initiative to enhance its innovation and product-development capabilities, for example, should measure a variety of input metrics, such as the quality of available talent and the number of ideas and projects at each stage in development, in addition to pure output metrics such as revenues from new-product sales. One information technology company, for instance, carefully tracks the number and skill levels of people posted to important strategic projects.

Strategic-performance-management systems, which should assign accountability for initiatives and make their progress more transparent, can take many forms. One industrial corporation tracks major strategic initiatives that will have the greatest impact, across a portfolio of a dozen businesses, on its financial and strategic goals. Transparency is achieved through regular reviews and the use of financial as well as nonfinancial metrics. The corporate-strategy team assumes responsibility for reviews (chaired by the CEO and involving the relevant business-unit leaders) that use an array of milestones and metrics to assess the top ten initiatives. One to expand operations in China and India, for example, would entail regular reviews of interim metrics such as the quality and number of local employees recruited and the pace at which alliances are formed with channel partners or suppliers. Each business unit, in turn, is accountable for adopting the same performance-management approach for its own, lower-tier top-ten list of initiatives.

When designed well, strategic-performance-management systems can give an early warning of problems with strategic initiatives, whereas financial targets alone at best provide lagging indicators. An effective system enables management to step in and correct, redirect, or even abandon an initiative that is failing to perform as expected. The strategy of a pharmaceutical company that embarked on a major expansion of its sales force to drive revenue growth, for example, presupposed that rapid growth in the number of sales representatives would lead to a corresponding increase in revenues. The company also recognized, however, that expansion was in turn contingent on several factors, including the ability to recruit and train the right people. It therefore put in place a regular review of the key strategic metrics against its actual performance to alert managers to any emerging problems.

Integrate human-resources systems into the strategic plan

Simply monitoring the execution of strategic initiatives is not sufficient: their successful implementation also depends on how managers are evaluated and compensated. Yet only 36 percent of the executives we surveyed said that their companies’ strategic-planning processes were integrated with HR processes. One way to create a more valuable strategic-planning process would be to tie the evaluation and compensation of managers to the progress of new initiatives.

Although the development of strategy is ostensibly a long-term endeavor, companies traditionally emphasize short-term, purely financial targets—such as annual revenue growth or improved margins—as the sole metrics to gauge the performance of managers and employees. This approach is gradually changing. Deferred-compensation models for boards, CEOs, and some senior managers are now widely used. What’s more, several companies have added longer-term performance targets to complement the short-term ones. A major pharmaceutical company, for example, recently revamped its managerial-compensation structure to include a basket of short-term financial and operating targets as well as longer-term, innovation-based growth targets.

Although these changes help persuade managers to adopt both short- and long-term approaches to the development of strategy, they don’t address the need to link evaluation and compensation to specific strategic initiatives. One way of doing so is to craft a mix of performance targets that more appropriately reflect a company’s strategy. For example, one North American services business that launched strategic initiatives to improve its customer retention and increase sales also adjusted the evaluation and compensation targets for its managers. Rather than measuring senior managers only by revenue and margin targets, as it had done before, it tied 20 percent of their compensation to achieving its retention and cross-selling goals. By introducing metrics for these specific initiatives and linking their success closely to bonus packages, the company motivated managers to make the strategy succeed.

An advantage of this approach is that it motivates managers to flag any problems early in the implementation of a strategic initiative (which determines the size of bonuses) so that the company can solve them. Otherwise, managers all too often sweep the debris of a failing strategy under the operating rug until the spring-cleaning ritual of next year’s annual planning process.

Some business leaders have found ways to give strategic planning a more valuable role in the formulation as well as the execution of strategy. Companies that emulate their methods might find satisfaction instead of frustration at the end of the annual process.

Renée Dye is a consultant in McKinsey’s Atlanta office, and Olivier Sibony is a director in the Paris office.

This article was first published in the Autumn 2007 issue of McKinsey on Finance . Visit McKinsey’s corporate finance site to view the full issue.

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What is Strategic Planning? The Key Components, Process & Role Leaders Play in Ensuring a Strategy's Success

What is Strategic Planning? The Key Components, Process & Role Leaders Play in Ensuring a Strategy's Success by SkylineG

Strategic planning is a process that is essential for companies to ensure successful and sustainable growth.

An intelligent and actionable strategic plan is a vital part of competing within the marketplace. It directs businesses to take meaningful action to help them reach their organization's goals by mapping out a clear direction, creating measurable goals, and allocating resources to pursue these specific objectives.

What is Strategic Planning?

A strategic plan is an essential process and strategy execution document for any company looking to make the most of its resources and reach long-term organizational goals.

This vital and continually evolving document outlines a clear direction, sets objectives that must be achieved, and provides an actionable roadmap for success; it also helps organizations stand out from competitors by allowing them to differentiate themselves in the marketplace with their unique approach.

A well-crafted strategic plan will help companies stay focused on their mission while making decisions based on core values guiding them toward achieving desired results by ensuring everyone is moving in the same direction.

strategic planning process conclusion

What are the Key Components of a Strategic Plan?

Several key components make up a well-developed strategic plan. These key components include:

A Mission Statement

An organization's mission statement states the company's purpose and the reasons why it exists. Although you might be already clear on the mission, reiterating your mission statement and connection to the plan acts as a foundation for the strategic plan and your strategy.

A Vision Statement

The company vision is the bigger objective that the company aspires to achieve. This may be as broad as making the world a better place through your product or service or ridding bathrooms of mildew. Whatever your vision, it should be connected to your strategic plan

Aligning the company mission and vision statements is the first crucial step to strategic planning.

SWOT Analysis

An overall evaluation of the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Knowing these points will help you leverage your resources, shore up gaps, and realistically plan your path and the potential risks. Your SWOT analysis will help ensure that your strategic plan is based upon reality and play an important part in your strategic management process.

Goals & Objectives

Goals and objectives need specific, measurable, achievable, and time-bound targets the company wants to achieve. Ensure your goals are achievable, measurable, and can be clearly communicated as part of your strategic planning. High-level company objectives should cascade and align with the objectives of various divisions and teams. The Strategic plans of each division and team should map directly to broader company goals and methods.

The specific courses of action that the company will take to achieve its measurable goals and specific strategic issues.

Action Plans

Detailed project plans outlining the specific steps that will be taken to implement the strategies.

Resource Allocation

The allocation of financial, human, and other resources to implement the action plans.

Evaluation and Control

Evaluation and control are based on measures and systems to monitor the company's progress toward achieving its organization's goals, objectives, and financial plan and to make adjustments as necessary.

strategic planning process conclusion

Who is Responsible for Creating a Strategic Plan?

In general, creating a strategic plan is the responsibility of the company's top management team - the CEO, CFO, other executives, etc.

However, though the top management will do the strategic thinking, it’s essential for key members throughout the entire organization to be involved in the strategic planning process as different departments, employees, and human resources will have valuable insights and perspectives to contribute to the strategy formation. Also, when various constituents are a part of and the planning process a sense of ownership and commitment to the strategic plan's success is reinforced.

It’s also common for companies to seek input from external stakeholders, customers, suppliers, and industry experts as part of the strategic planning process. As part of your planning process make sure to identify any critical stakeholders outside of your company.

What Makes the Strategic Planning Process Effective?

Below are some key factors that contribute to the overall effectiveness of a successful strategic plan and the strategic planning process. Understanding these points will help make your strategic planning process more effective:

The plan needs to be clear & concise, with specific strategic goals & objectives that are easy for everyone to understand. Senior leadership plays a critical role in ensuring that each objective is clear and how objectives will be achieved is understood.

The strategic plan needs to take the company's resources & capabilities into account, and the goals need to be realistic & achievable based on the market data.

The plan needs to be flexible enough to allow for adjustments to be made in response to changes in the external environment after deployment.

The plan must be aligned with the company's mission, vision & values and should support the organization's overall direction in terms of business plan and annual budgets.

Easily Communicated

The plan needs to be communicated effectively to all stakeholders & investors, including employees & customers.

The plan needs clear & actionable steps and a timeline for implementation. It must be followed consistently to ensure progress toward business goals like increasing sales and maximizing profit.

The plan needs to measure & evaluate progress, collect feedback, and be reviewed and updated regularly to ensure continuous progress toward company goals and that the plan remains relevant and practical and targets logical key performance indicators.

An effective strategic plan identifies potential factors that might derail the plan and, at a minimum, provides high-level alternatives should the plan become derailed.

strategic planning process conclusion

When Do Strategic Plans Fail?

Listed below are a few potential reasons why strategic planning might fail. Understanding why strategic plans fail will help create more effective strategic planning outcomes:

Lacks Clarity

Plans need to be clear and specific. If not, it may be difficult to understand and challenging to implement. When a strategic plan is ambitious it is tough for people to feel connected and motivated to take action.

Lack of Realistic Options and Objectives

Plans need to be realistic. If the plan cannot really be achieved, it'll be difficult to implement and lead to frustration, disappointment, and potential failure.

Lack of Flexibility

The plan needs to be flexible; if it's not is not flexible and doesn’t allow for adjustments in response to changes in the environment (internal and external) or from evaluation or measurement, it may become irrelevant or ineffective.

Lack of Alignment

The plan needs to be aligned with the company's mission, vision, and values; if not consistent with the organization's overall direction, it can quickly become out of sync with its underlying purpose and be ineffective in helping to reach desired goals.

Lack of Understanding

The plan needs to be communicated effectively to all key stakeholders and take feedback from all stakeholders; otherwise, it may be misunderstood or, worse - ignored or seen as not valuable.

Lack Actionable Steps

The strategic plan needs to be implemented swiftly and consistently; if the action steps are not clear or too hard to implement, they may not be implemented effectively.

Lack of Measurable Outcomes

The strategic plan needs to be reviewed and updated regularly, and its performance evaluated after implementation; otherwise, it may become ineffective or outdated, therefore ineffective at achieving desired outcomes.

External Factors

Changes in the external environment can have a huge effect. Changes like shifts in the economy or customer preferences, if not accounted for, can seriously impact the effectiveness of a once brilliant strategic plan.

However, as in life and business, things change, and every business must be able to adapt quickly to changing circumstances. This is why an effective plan includes contingencies.

strategic planning process conclusion

What is a Company Leader's Role in Ensuring the Strategic Plan is Implemented Successfully?

Strategic management.

Company leaders are responsible for ensuring that the strategic plan is implemented successfully.

Some specific ways business leaders can ensure the plan is implemented properly are:

Clearly Communicate the Plan

Business leaders need to communicate the strategic plan effectively to all key stakeholders, including employees, customers, and investors. Any questions need to be answered and clarified, so everyone is aligned. The strategic plan should be shared in a way that you (the leader) demonstrate ownership and enthusiasm and can share with your team how each role is vital to achieving the plan's objectives.

Providing Resources

Leaders need to ensure that resources, such as funding, personnel, and technology, are available to everyone needed in order to implement the plan successfully.

Setting Expectations

Leaders need to set clear expectations for implementing the plan and hold the designated employees accountable for meeting those expectations. Clear and achievable timelines need to be established and committed to by each stakeholder.

Leading by Example

Leaders need to model the behaviors and values outlined in the plan and encourage others to do the same.

Providing Support

Leaders need to provide support and guidance to employees as they work through problems toward achieving the strategic goals and objectives of the plan.

Monitoring Progress

Leaders need to monitor the progress towards achieving the goals and objectives outlined in the plan and make adjustments in the operational plans as they see fit, as needed.

Celebrating Successes

Leaders need to recognize and celebrate wins along the way to help keep morale high and encourage continued progress toward the ultimate goals.

strategic planning process conclusion

What's the Role of Each Individual Employee in Implementing & Supporting the Strategic Plans Success?

Employees are the driving force and critical in implementing and supporting the strategic plan's success. Your employees will be the eyes and ears of how the strategic plan works. This is why it is vital for leaders to create a business environment where there is open communication and all types of information can be shared and reviewed in relation to its impact on the long-term strategy. Leaders must foster an open environment where questions can be asked and bad and good news shared. Leaders can help employees play their part by ensuring employees are supported and are clear on their ability to do the following:

Understand the Plan

Employees need to understand the strategic plan, how it aligns with the company's mission, the steps to take, and most importantly, the goals.

Aligning Work and Job Goals with the Plan

Leaders, managers, and employees need to align their work with the strategic plan and prioritize tasks that support achieving the plan's goals & strategic objectives.

Manage Implementation

Employees must consistently follow through on their assigned tasks and responsibilities to implement the plans, steps, and processes.

Provide Feedback

During the initial review of the organization's current status, employees must provide feedback and suggestions to improve the plan. During its implementation, employees need to provide feedback based on performance and potentially adjust the plan if needed for better performance and goals.

Communicate Laterally and Up

Employees need to communicate with coworkers to ensure everyone is working towards the same goals & objectives and, most importantly, employees need to communicate to their manager on how their contribution is proceeding.

Seek Support and Guidance

Employees need to seek support and guidance from leaders if they need help implementing any steps of the plan or achieving goals.

strategic planning process conclusion

Do Some Companies Believe that Strategic Planning is a Waste of Time?

Sure. It's possible some companies may view strategic planning as a waste of time. This could be due to a variety of reasons: resources required upfront, lack of understanding of the benefits of strategic planning, a lack of buy-in from senior management, or a lack of resources to dedicate to the process.

However, for massively successful companies, strategic planning is recognized as an invaluable tool to help organizations achieve their long-term goals and be outstanding in a competitive marketplace.

Strategic planning can also help companies be more agile and adapt to changes in the external environment. For these reasons, it's generally recommended that companies engage in strategic planning and review results on a regular basis.

What Makes a Great Strategy?

What makes a great competitive strategy? Several characteristics are often considered to be key elements of great strategy execution:

A great strategy is clear & easy to understand, with specific goals & strategic objectives that are well-defined.

A great strategy is a focused strategy. A great strategy is focused on a specific area of the business and doesn't try to do too many things at once.

A great strategy is aligned with the company's overall mission, vision for the future, and values, supporting the organization's overall direction.

Flexibility

A great strategy is flexible and allows for adjustments to be made in response to results and changes in the external environment.

A great strategy is realistic & achievable, taking into account the company's resources & capabilities and what can actually get done.

Differentiation

The great strategy sets the company apart from its competitors in the marketplace and helps it to differentiate itself from competitors to customers.

A great strategy can be executed effectively, with clear action steps, a timeline for implementation, and who is responsible for each action step.

Evaluation & Feedback

The great strategy includes measures for evaluating progress and collecting feedback, and it needs to be reviewed regularly & potentially updated to ensure it remains relevant & effective.

When is a Great Strategy Not Enough to Ensure Company Success?

While a great strategy can certainly be a key factor in a company's success, it's not the only factor needed to be successful. There are a number of other internal and external factors that can impact a company's success, including:

Even the best strategy will not be a successful strategy if executed poorly.

A company needs resources, period. Resources like funding, personnel, and technology, are essential to implement strategy effectively.

Changes in external factors are equally important as the internal environment. For example, economic shifts or customer preferences can impact a company's success.

Competition

A company's success can also be impacted by its competitors' actions and even competitors' reactions to strategy implementation.

Market Demand

A company's success will depend partly on the market demand for its products or services. Demand should absolutely be a part of the strategy formulation.

A company's success will highly depend on the quality of its products or services and its ability for its products to meet customer needs.

The senior leadership of a company can play a key role in its success, or failure, as they set the vision & direction of the organization.

How Does Company Leadership Play a Critical Part in a Company's Strategic Success?

Without involved leadership, a strategic plan will more than likely fail. A company's leadership plays a critical role in strategic success in several ways:

Setting the Direction

A company's leadership is responsible for setting the organization's vision and direction and creating a strategic management plan that aligns with that direction.

A company's Leadership is responsible for ensuring that the necessary resources, such as funding, personnel, and technology, are available to implement the strategic plan.

Communicating the Plan

A company's leadership communicates the strategic management plan effectively and consistently to all stakeholders, including employees, customers, and investors.

A company's leadership needs to model the behaviors and values aligned with the plan and encourage others to do the same.

A company's leadership needs to provide support & guidance to employees as they work towards achieving the goals and objectives of the strategic plan. This will help in employee retention and strategic success.

A company's leadership needs to monitor progress toward achieving the goals & objectives of the plan and make necessary adjustments as needed.

A company's leadership needs to recognize and celebrate successes along the way to help keep team morale high and encourage continued progress to achieve goals.

How Can Companies Prepare & Support their Leaders to Implement & Ensure Strategic Planning Success?

There are many ways in which companies can prepare and support their leaders to implement and ensure the success of their strategic planning initiative.

Provide Proper Training

Companies need to provide training & strategy development opportunities to help their leaders acquire the knowledge and skills they need to implement & support the strategic vision effectively.

Encourage Open Communication

Companies need to foster an environment of open, clear communication and encourage leaders to seek input & feedback from their teams within the strategic framework - even when the strategy map is not positive.

Align Leadership with Company Values

Companies must ensure that their leadership's values align with the company's values and culture and that their leaders are committed to the mission and vision of the organization.

Encourage Collaboration

Companies need to encourage collaboration & cross-functional teamwork as a part of project management to ensure that all departments work towards the same goals & objectives.

Provide Resources

As part of the strategic planning process, companies need to ensure their leadership has the necessary resources, such as funding, personnel, & technology, to implement the strategic plan effectively for the entire duration.

Establish Clear Expectations

Companies must set clear expectations for how strategic planning should be activated and implemented and hold leadership accountable for meeting expectations as per the strategic plan document.

Monitor Progress

Company leaders need to monitor the progress toward achieving the goals and objectives of the strategic plan and provide their support and guidance as needed. Strategic planning is essential for business success, and the key to achieving successful results lies in the hands of leadership. For leaders to ensure a strategy's success, they must become strategic planners and the details of the business's strategic plan must be organized and understood by each person responsible.

Leaders and managers need to communicate the strategic plan through consistent discussions that foster collaborative decision-making. Responsibilities for the planning process and success also extend beyond the leader and onto each individual employee to help realize the steps of an effective strategic plan. Companies must set clear strategic objectives that align with their mission and strategic goals while preparing business leaders to carry out those plans. When done correctly, with careful attention paid to all levels of the organization, successful strategic planning can lead a company in the right direction toward long-term sustainability and future opportunities.

Having a clear strategic plan is one of those obvious items that every company should have in place yet many companies don't.

Although the effort of investing the time and resources into creating a strategic planning template can be demanding, the value and impact of your investment can return a healthy multiple.

Once your mission and vision statements and strategic plan are in place they become a touchstone to focus your business, align teams, and what makes your way of navigating your market and competition unique.

We hope that this resource provides a road map and helps facilitate the development of your strategic plan if you don't have one yet. For those that do have strategic plans, we hope this resource helps act as a checklist to fortify the strategy development you've already created.

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Strategy Execution: The 7 Step Process

Whether it’s a new marketing plan or a complete corporate strategy, it’s almost always a challenge for companies to follow up the planning process with strategy execution .

In this article, we explain exactly what strategy execution is all about, how to implement strategies successfully, and which mistakes are better avoided.

What to expect:

What does strategy execution mean? Definition

How do you implement a strategy.

  • Strategy implementation in 7 steps
  • Problems with strategy implementation: 6 common mistakes and how to avoid them

What is the key to implementation success? Models and study results

Conclusion: thinking about implementation from the start, strategy execution – faq.

The term “strategy execution” (or “strategy implementation”) is self-explanatory. It refers to the process of putting a strategic plan into action to achieve specific objectives. In other words, strategy execution is the art of getting things done .

Strategy execution as part of strategic management

Execution is also a sub-step in the holistic strategic management process. Specifically, this comprises five phases :

  • 1️⃣ Setting strategic objectives,
  • 2️⃣ analyzing the current situation,
  • 3️⃣ designing a strategy,
  • 4️⃣ executing the strategy, and
  • 5️⃣ evaluating progress.

Strategy execution, the fourth step, takes the most time.

A well thought-out company strategy is the basis for successful strategy execution, but it alone does not ensure that everything runs smoothly. It takes a bit more than that:

  • 🧑 People : Leaders alone cannot successfully execute a new strategy. It requires a team that understands the plan and has all the skills it needs to successfully put it into action.
  • 💸 Resources : It is important that resources, whether financial (e.g., costs for a project) or non-financial (e.g., working time), are effectively allocated and provided.
  • 📋 Organization : Everyone in the company should know their roles in the implementation process. It must be clearly defined and communicated who will take the lead and be the contact person for questions.
  • ⚙️ Systems : Implementation should be supported with judiciously selected management tools, technologies, and systems.
  • 🏆 Culture : A corporate culture in which employees receive all necessary information at all times and are involved mitigates the stress that the introduction of new strategies can mean for individual teams.

How to: Strategy implementation in 7 steps

Without a clear plan, the leap from strategy planning to strategic execution is practically doomed to failure. Additionally, it requires the necessary capacity, resources and support from employees.

Here is a summary of the seven steps a team or company must take to successfully execute strategy and achieve defined strategic objectives.

1. Choose framework and formulate goals

The two most important components of successful strategy execution are clearly articulated goals and a process to help the team achieve them. The goals should include the company’s vision, mission and KPIs. The more explicitly the goals are defined, the easier it will be to work towards them.

A management framework such as Objectives and Key Results (OKR) , Balanced Scorecard (BSC) , or Management by Objectives (MBO) can help paint a clearer picture of strategic plans and keep them simple and to the point. In addition, frameworks like Balanced Scorecard or OKRs help to manage the implementation, coordinate activities, stay up-to-date and check if you are still on the right track.

2. Assign roles

To implement a strategy effectively and efficiently, clear roles and responsibilities are needed. Everyone in the team needs to know what they have to do, what they are responsible for, and who works with whom on what. It should also be clear who will take the lead and what deadlines must be met. All of this should be clarified as early as possible so that no area of responsibility is overlooked.

3. Provide resources

Once all roles have been assigned, the next step is to provide the resources needed to implement strategic initiatives – for example, financial resources, tools or time capacities. It is not always easy to get an overview (and to keep it). But it helps to,

  • keep an eye on the end of the project right from the start,
  • define a clear project scope,
  • identify and list available resources in the team,
  • share the plan for the implementation process with all stakeholders and solicit opinions.

4. Execute the plan

The goals are set, everyone involved knows what they need to do, and the resource planning is in place? Then it’s time for the actual execution. As the team works to achieve the established strategic goals, it may be useful to solicit updates and provide interim reports at certain milestones in the process – for example, right after the start, in the middle, or in the final stages of the process. Challenges that have been overcome or mistakes that have happened are also good starting points to discuss progress.

Effectively implementing strategy can be a source of competitive advantage. ― Scott Edinger

5. Stay flexible

Once the implementation process has started, obstacles and unforeseen problems will inevitably arise. Then it’s a matter of responding flexibly to change and adjusting goals or approaches to solve or work around problems.

6. Offer support

Throughout the implementation process, once roles are distributed, leaders should trust everyone to do their jobs independently and work toward common goals. Micromanagement is out of place, slows down the strategy process and, at worst, can lead to a loss of motivation.

Regular feedback, support in the event of problems and the opportunity to ask questions at any time, on the other hand, have an encouraging and motivating effect. Managers should therefore take on more of a coaching role in strategy execution, keep an eye on the “big picture” and empower employees.

7. Reflect and optimize

Implementing a strategy is a lengthy process. Therefore, points should be defined to mark when the initial implementation process is complete and all tasks have been completed or have been advanced and set in motion to the point where a first conclusion can be drawn.

Once one of these points is reached, it is time for a debriefing or retrospective in which successes (and failures) in the implementation process are discussed, reflected upon, and evaluated. The results are noted and form the basis for future strategy projects. This way, mistakes can be ironed out and continuous improvement is initiated.

Strategy execution problems: 6 common mistakes and how to avoid them

Speaking of mistakes, no major project runs completely without obstacles. It’s normal for mistakes to happen – and it’s instructive. To make sure you’re as prepared as possible, we’ve summarized six of the most common mistakes here, including useful tips on how to avoid them on your next project.

1. The plan is too extensive or nonsensical.

If organizational goals are set too complex, too vague or too ambitious, or if strategic planning is simply too extensive and opaque, it can get in the way of implementation.

✅ The solution : A management framework that helps you formulate goals and provides rules brings clarity, structure, and focus – even in the planning phase. OKRs are increasingly becoming the “new standard” in this regard, but the SMART method can also be useful in formulating achievable, relevant goals.

2. The plan is followed too strictly.

No plan, no matter how good, survives a reality check without adjustments. It is simply not possible to foresee every eventuality. If it is nevertheless strictly adhered to, the implementation is doomed to failure.

✅ The solution : Managers and employees should keep an open mind, adapt to the circumstances, overcome unexpected obstacles, and seize opportunities. Staying agile, finding creative solutions to problems, and seizing opportunities to optimize strategy is what makes a successful strategy implementation and sets a company apart from the competition.

3. The communication is not clear enough.

Information is not shared transparently enough, and executives fail to present the strategic plan in a way that is easy to understand – even though they seem to be communicating it non-stop through various channels. This quickly creates a feeling of helplessness and being overwhelmed in the team.

✅ The solution : When it comes to communicating strategies, it’s not just the frequency that matters, but rather how information is presented and conveyed. The simpler, the better the message gets across to employees. Discussions, team meetings and messaging tools are also far more effective for communication than one-way channels such as newsletters, emails and the like.

4. Responsibilities are not clearly defined.

The team does not know exactly what it is supposed to do, how it is supposed to fulfill its tasks, and how it can execute the strategic requirements. As a result, implementation stalls before it has really begun.

✅ The solution : Clearly distributed responsibilities and tasks prevent misunderstandings and give employees the feeling that they are contributing an important part to the overall result. It is important that everyone is given some responsibility and has all the resources available to complete the assigned tasks.

5. There is a lack of alignment.

Even when all goals have been sensibly set and the strategy fits, implementation may stall because there is a lack of alignment. This leads to conflicts in collaboration, lack of priorities, and the strategic goals are forgotten.

✅ The solution : There should be a clear division of who works on which strategic goal and when. It is also helpful to repeatedly remind employees of the strategy and what they are working toward. Overarching strategies should be translated into easily understandable individual goals for all areas of the company so that everyone understands them and knows what has priority.

6. Progress cannot be tracked properly.

Many organizations fail to establish the right performance metrics or use confusing Excel spreadsheets to track their progress in the implementation process. This may work for small teams, but it quickly becomes confusing.

✅ The solution : It is better to use tools that help you with tracking. This makes monitoring company performance more transparent and all information is clearly collected and evaluated in one central location. This facilitates joint alignment, communication, collaboration, and makes the entire endeavor more efficient.

Of course, there are also numerous methods, models and tools that make strategy implementation easier and provide helpful guidelines. Two of the best-known models are McKinsey’s 7-S model and Scott Edinger’s three Cs of strategy implementation.

Implementing strategies with McKinsey’s 7-S model

The strategy and management consulting firm McKinsey has developed a model with seven factors that are necessary for successful strategy execution.

These are divided into “hard” and “soft” elements, with the hard elements being relatively easy to identify and influence, while the soft elements are less tangible and harder to shape.

The hard elements are:

  • Strategy : The strategy a company follows to secure an advantage over competitors in the market.
  • Structure : The hierarchy and organizational structure of a company
  • Systems : All the processes, tools and activities involved in daily structures

Soft elements include:

  • Style : The corporate culture as a basis for cooperation
  • Staff : All employees in the company
  • Skills : The skills and special competencies of the team
  • Shared Values : The shared basic values in the company

Overall, all elements in the model are interconnected. If one element changes, this always has an impact on the others. The shared values are at the center of this. Ideally, all elements are in harmony with each other.

The three Cs of strategy implementation

Business consultant and author Scott Edinger has also summarized three steps that should be taken for effective strategy execution in the form of the three Cs of implementing strategy : clarity, communication and cascade.

Let’s take a closer look at what is hidden behind the three Cs.

  • Clarity : A successful business strategy should be formulated in such a way that not only managers but also all employees understand it.
  • Communication : The organizational strategy should be communicated at all levels of the organization through various media (e.g., internal blogs, podcasts, meetings, discussions). It should become clear how each employee can individually contribute to successful strategy execution.
  • Cascade : Even if the company’s strategy as a whole has already been communicated, it should be ensured that it is really understood everywhere, in all areas and by all employees. (Senior) managers are particularly called upon in this step: They must have understood the strategy, be able to communicate it to their team (e.g., in team meetings or individual coaching sessions), and be able to transfer it to their own area.

Strategy execution study: The factors that make the difference

So much for theory – but what does practice look like? A study by management consultants McKinsey clearly shows how difficult it is to put strategies into practice: Fewer than half of the respondents (a total of more than 2,200 executives from 900 companies in all industries took part) said that most or all of their change efforts over the past five years had achieved their original goals and made a lasting difference.

Above all, most companies seem to be weak when it comes to conducting effective meetings, identifying and solving problems, and providing feedback to employees.

For those organizations that were able to successfully implement strategies, it was company-wide buy-in and commitment to change, clearly established priorities, and sufficient resources and capabilities that ultimately made the implementation a success.

In summary, implementing a strategy is anything but simple. It’s a complex task that offers potential for numerous mistakes and presents companies with significant challenges time and time again.

However, many of the most common problems in strategy execution can be solved or avoided relatively easily if you rely on a strategic framework right from the start that accompanies you all the way – and supports you in both planning and execution.

After all, only those who have already taken into account during strategic planning whether a strategy can actually be implemented later on will be successful with it in the long run.

What makes a good strategy?

A good strategy is characterized by focusing on the essentials and translating the company’s overarching vision into clear, measurable and achievable goals. It does not take decisions away from the employees, but creates a framework within which they can work in a self-determined manner.

What is needed for successful strategy implementation?

Successful strategy implementation requires, among other things, a team that understands the plan and has the right skills, sufficient resources, a good organization, wisely chosen tools and systems, and an open corporate culture.

Why is strategy execution important?

If you develop a strategy without considering whether it can be implemented, you will inevitably fail. Therefore, it is essential to think about execution from the very beginning.

When is a strategy successfully implemented?

A strategy is considered to have been successfully implemented when it is anchored in the minds of all employees, the first tasks have been advanced to the point where the foundation for further development has been laid and the first implementation phase has been completed.

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Strategic Planning and Decision Making in State Departments of Transportation (2004)

Chapter: chapter six - conclusions.

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48 CHAPTER SIX CONCLUSIONS Many state and provincial departments of transportation (DOTs) have adopted strategic planning as a means of charting future directions to ensure their long-run viability and performance. Although it is not possible based on the research of this report to make a reliable inference regard- ing the total number of DOTs that are seriously involved in strategic planning it is clear that many are actively engaged in developing and updating strategic plans and using them to manage their organizations. Although some DOTs may produce strategic plans pri- marily because they are required to do so by legislative or executive mandate, and may largely be “going through the motions” to comply with such a requirement, others proac- tively engage in strategic planning because they believe that it helps them to manage more effectively. At this time, several transportation departments have completed multi- ple rounds of strategic planning, have seen evidence that it is a worthwhile investment of time and effort, and are committed to continue using and improving this tool. Indeed, in at least some DOTs, strategic planning has become institutionalized beyond the tenure of a given ad- ministration or chief executive. Although support staff are sometimes concerned that it may be de-emphasized or even abandoned by a new administration, experience to date suggests that when effective strategic planning proc- esses have become imbedded in transportation depart- ments, new administrations are likely to employ them to flesh out their own strategic visions and drive them down into the organization. The new strategic agenda may be very different from the preceding one, and the process may well be further revised or enhanced; however, the value of an effective, responsive, policy-neutral strategic planning process is not likely to be lost on many incoming admini- strations. Evolving Processes—Most transportation departments in- volved with strategic planning reported that their chief ex- ecutive officers, executive teams, and senior managers are heavily involved in the process. Over time there has also been a trend of providing for more widespread involve- ment of managers and employees in the process of devel- oping initiatives and evaluating options. Although this makes the process more challenging to manage, it is con- sistent with the participative management culture in many departments, and it can help produce better plans and in- creased buy-in to those plans. A few departments have also experimented with including representatives of external stakeholder groups in their strategic planning efforts, and some DOTs coordinate with their FHWA divisions in de- veloping and managing their strategic plans. Strategic planning in DOTs tends to be an iterative process, often involving annual updates, with more com- prehensive efforts to revalidate or change plans undertaken periodically. In many departments the overall strategic planning and management process has evolved incremen- tally over several years. A typical pattern might focus on the following elements over a few years in a loose se- quence: • Mission, vision, and values; • Strategic goals; • Strategic objectives; • Objective owners; • Performance measures; • Business plan linked to strategic plans; and • Budgets tied to strategic plans through business plans. Simultaneously, transportation departments can con- tinue to refine their strategic planning and management processes, or even to make major overhauls, to develop better plans and use them more effectively to guide deci- sions and actions throughout their operations. Need for Selectivity—The goals, objectives, and strategies contained in most DOT’s strategic plans include a mix of substantive items that focus on organizational capacity (employee development, management capacity, organiza- tional effectiveness, and operating efficiency) and relation- ships with external stakeholders (customers, partners, and suppliers), as well as the transportation system itself (safety, system preservation, congestion reduction, and multi-modal enhancements). In addition, the strategic plans of DOTs are increasingly addressing economic develop- ment and environmental stewardship issues. Although DOT’s strategic plans have become increas- ingly broad in coverage, experience has shown that agen- cies often need to be more selective in defining the goals, objectives, initiatives, and priorities that constitute strate- gic plans to ensure that these plans are truly strategic and that they can be implemented effectively. When strategic planning begins to be accepted in an agency, there may be

49 a tendency to include any number of items in the plan and to “give everybody a piece of the action.” However, this can dilute the effectiveness of the plan by dispersing atten- tion across a wide variety of issues that do not have real long-term importance. Therefore, DOTs have found that it is important to dis- cipline the process by identifying the relatively few truly strategic issues facing the department, focusing attention on these issues, and devoting substantial energy and effort to developing strategies that will effectively address these issues. The Montana DOT, for example, is working now to reduce the number of action items included in its strategic plan to less than one-third of the current number. Similarly, the Texas DOT substantially reduced the number of per- formance measures in its balanced scorecard model, be- cause many of the indicators were not really beneficial. There has also been a trend among state DOTs toward pro- ducing very brief, concise strategic plans to be elaborated through further strategic and/or business planning by or- ganizational units. Integrated Strategic Management Systems—Some DOTs that have been involved in strategic planning for a longer time have developed, or are currently developing, compre- hensive approaches to strategic management. This entails linking a department’s strategic planning process with its operational planning, measurement, performance manage- ment, and budgeting systems in an integrated process that allows the strategic plan to be used effectively as a frame- work for guiding all other decision making in the depart- ment. Although some departments develop action plans to im- plement their strategic initiatives as separate projects, DOTs increasingly are using ongoing business planning, program planning, or work planning to drive their strategic agendas into the management and decision-making proc- esses of the organization. The business planning model re- quires, or at least encourages, districts, functional divi- sions, and other organizational units to address department- wide strategic goals and objectives. In most DOTs, the business plans developed by the organizational units must be approved by top management; however, that is not al- ways the case. Performance Measures—Most DOTs contacted for this synthesis use performance measures to track success in implementing strategic initiatives and in achieving strate- gic goals and objectives. Generally, DOTs are currently trying now to focus on real outcome measures more than previously, as illustrated by the California DOTs measure- ment pyramid, the Minnesota DOT’s parallel measures for different modal groups, and the Florida DOT’s mobility measures. However, defining good outcome measures that are meaningful, reliable, accessible, and cost-effective is still difficult in many areas. Interestingly, with respect to both output and outcome measures, DOTs increasingly are establishing numerical targets for the strategic goals and objectives. For example, both the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and the New Mexico DOT purposefully avoided numerical targets in the past, because their strategic plan- ning efforts were closely associated with their quality im- provement programs. However, at this time, both depart- ments are moving toward numerical targets as a more effective approach to defining and tracking strategic objec- tives. Building Commitment—Almost all DOTs that are seri- ously engaged in strategic planning assign individuals to take responsibility for implementing particular strategic initiatives. This process is more elaborate in some depart- ments than others. In some DOTs the process of assigning individual responsibilities for implementing action items in support of strategic plans extends down into the operating units, often tied to business plans or scorecards, and in some cases it is tied to the performance appraisal process in a way that provides a line of sight from the strategic plan down to individual employees’ performance plans, as is the case with the South Carolina DOT. Particularly in the case of implementing cross-cutting strategic initiatives that cross organizational lines and are not “owned” by any particular functional division, it is important for managers who share responsibility for them to know what expectations are regarding their individual contributions or performance with respect to these action items. Some departments provide more direction than oth- ers in terms of specifying how action items and tasks will be accomplished, although most rely on the use of per- formance measures to provide accountability. As with other organizations, DOTs will often encounter skepticism among managers and employees about the effi- cacy of strategic planning. Many have found that proactive communications and educational efforts are critical to de- velop buy-in to the process. In addition, involving larger numbers of managers and employees in strategic planning and subsequent business planning can help to build a stronger commitment to both the process and the resulting plan. On a similar note, particularly as strategic planning and business planning are extended down into the organi- zation for the first time, substantial training efforts may also be required to enable managers and employees to pro- ductively engage in these processes. Strategic Plans and Budgets—In many DOTs the strate- gic plan and the budget influence each other, with overall

50 budget realities influencing the development of strategic issues and plans, and strategic plans then influencing budget priorities within the range of discretionary decision making. However, it appears that costs are often not seri- ously considered in developing strategic initiatives. On the other hand, transportation departments do employ a mix of budgetary mechanisms, when necessary, to ensure that strategic initiatives are funded. In addition, states differ substantially in the extent to which their strategic initia- tives require additional resources In many transportation departments, the business plan- ning process provides the link between strategic initiatives and funding decisions (South Carolina DOT, New Mexico DOT, Minnesota DOT, Pennsylvania DOT) as organiza- tional units develop business plans that respond to strategic priorities and then prepare budget proposals to support the action items in their business plans. Furthermore, several DOTs are moving in the direction of performance-based budgeting systems in which they essentially budget funds directly to program structures, which may cross organiza- tional lines that facilitate tying resource allocations to stra- tegic priorities (New Mexico DOT, Minnesota DOT, and Colorado DOT). Transportation Planning and Programming—DOTs’ strategic plans and their transportation systems plans are usually seen as complementary or overlapping. However, the relation between the two is conceived differently by different departments. At the Wisconsin DOT, for example, they are largely independent of each other, with the strate- gic plan focusing on the organization and the long-range transportation plan focusing on the system. In other DOTs, such as the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, Minnesota DOT, and Pennsylvania DOT, the strategic plan sets the overall direction regarding what the department needs to do, and at least to some degree it drives the long-range transportation plan. Conversely, in at least one department (Florida DOT), the long-range plan establishes key initia- tives and outcomes regarding performance of the transpor- tation system, and the department’s strategic plan is in- tended to be a road map for what the department needs to do to bring that plan to realization. In any case, the state transportation improvement plans (STIPs) are seen as being responsive to strategic priorities in departments whose strategic plans include elements that need to be implemented at least in part through the STIP. Most departments with asset management programs in place or under development indicated that these programs are designed within the framework of their strategic plans. A few indicated that these two processes are largely inde- pendent of each other. Performance measures and targets provide the critical link between strategic plans and asset management programs. Not surprisingly, some DOTs indi- cated that they need to forge stronger linkages between the two to ensure that their strategic plans and transportation systems plans are consistent or mutually reinforcing. Observations Regarding Effective Practices—Given the nonexperimental, descriptive nature of this synthesis re- search, the ability to draw hard and fast conclusions about causal relationships between strategic management prac- tices and outcomes is limited. In addition, the possibility of nonresponse bias in the survey makes interpretation of the self-reported data collected in this study less than certain. Furthermore, it is clear that this is an area, not surprisingly, in which “one size does not fit all.” Different agencies are at different stages in developing their strategic manage- ment capabilities; they differ substantially in terms of man- agement style, organization culture, and skill sets available to support strategic management; and they tend to empha- size different aspects of the overall process. Nevertheless, this research has generated numerous in- sights concerning the strategic management process, and the information obtained through the survey and follow-up interviews leads to some observations concerning effective practices for driving strategic plans down into an organiza- tion’s management and decision making. Therefore, al- though there is no one best way to manage strategically, success factors that enhance the efficacy of strategic man- agement in state DOTs could include the following: • Department-level strategic plans that focus selectively on corporate-level issues and priorities and provide overall direction for major decisions throughout the organization on an ongoing basis. • Development of strategic plans by major divisions, districts, and/or other organizational units within the framework of the corporate-level strategic plan. • Widespread participation of managers and employees at various stages of developing strategic plans, per- formance measurement systems, and other elements of the overall strategic management process. • A customer orientation in terms of strategy, sup- ported through systematic customer feedback and customer-oriented performance measures. • Performance measurement systems incorporating outcome and output and measures that are specifi- cally designed to track success in achieving strategic goals and objectives. • Numerical targets to be accomplished within speci- fied time frames tied to strategic objectives and per- formance measures, as appropriate. • Proactive use of performance measures to manage strategic agendas. • Top management commitment to the strategic agenda and its effective implementation, as demonstrated by the use of planning, decision-making, and evaluation processes that flow directly from overall strategy.

51 • Formal assignment of responsibility to high-level staff for facilitating the strategic management process throughout the department and supporting the execu- tive team in this area. • Requirements for business plans at the division or program level, and/or project-level action plans, which must be evaluated and approved at the execu- tive level in terms of consistency with overall de- partmental strategic plans. • Identification of “owners” for strategic objectives, initiatives, measures, and/or action plans, who are re- sponsible for accomplishing specific elements of strategic plans. • Use of individual-level goals and objectives derived from strategic agendas in performance management and appraisal processes. • Communication of the importance of, and the organi- zation’s commitment to, strategic goals and objec- tives to both internal and external stakeholders at every opportunity. • Budget processes that allocate resources directly to strategic initiatives and strategically derived action plans and business plans. • Emphasis on building “omni-directional alignment” between customer concerns and departmental goals, higher-level goals and lower-level goals, strategic priorities and budget allocations, strategies and per- formance measures, etc. • A process for reviewing strategic agendas and environ- mental circumstances, refreshing relevant data collected both internally and externally, and revalidating or updat- ing strategic plans on a regular basis. Although this synthesis on strategic management in state DOTs has found that the state of the practice is indeed advanc- ing, several outstanding issues remain. Further research is needed in a number of areas to help DOTs strengthen their strategic planning practices and integrate them with other management and decision-making processes. Therefore, sug- gested areas for future research include the following: • The frequent disconnect between strategic planning and budgeting and the types of budgeting systems and processes that lend themselves most readily to strategic management. • The role of work-force planning in strategic man- agement and the extent to which work-force alloca- tions are adjusted in response to changes in strategic priorities. • The skills that are required at various levels to sup- port effective strategic management processes and the kinds of training programs that are needed to en- sure that they are available among managers and em- ployees as needed. • The most effective practices for implementing cross- functional strategic initiatives and achieving cross- functional strategic goals and objectives. • The varying relationships between strategic planning and transportation systems planning in state DOTs, and promising approaches to ensure consistency among strategic plans, transportation system plans, STIPs, and asset management processes. • The length of time typically required to implement comprehensive, effective strategic management processes and the level of effort required to sup- port them. • Effective approaches for institutionalizing strategic management processes to withstand top management turnover and be responsive to policy directions of new administrations. • The extent to which strategic management processes actually result in producing the desired outcomes over both the short term and the long term. These issues can be addressed through a variety of sur- veys, site visits, interviews, and executive forums. How- ever, truly useful results along these lines are most likely to be produced by the development of a set of in-depth com- parative case studies of strategic management processes in a number of state DOTs. In addition to leading edge cases, this research should also include cases where strategic management efforts have been derailed and/or where major problems have arisen and been overcome. Based on the review of relevant documents and other materials, along with a mix of surveys, telephone inter- views, site visits, and in-depth interviews conducted on- site, this research would make comparisons across DOTs to gain further insight regarding approaches to strategic man- agement that are effective in different organizational con- texts. A principal product built on the findings of these comparative case studies could be an in-depth guide to best practices for developing strategic plans and using them to lead DOTs into the future.

TRB’s National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Synthesis 326: Strategic Planning and Decision Making in State Departments of Transportation examines state and provincial transportation departments' experience with strategic planning and synthesizes current approaches to linking strategic planning with other decision-making processes, including operational and tactical planning, resource allocation, performance management, and performance measurement.

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An analysis of the strategic plan development processes of major public organisations funding health research in nine high-income countries worldwide

Cristina morciano.

1 Research Coordination and Support Service, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena, 299, 00161 Rome, Italy

Maria Cristina Errico

Carla faralli.

2 National Centre for Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy

Luisa Minghetti

Associated data.

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article in Additional file 1 .

There have been claims that health research is not satisfactorily addressing healthcare challenges. A specific area of concern is the adequacy of the mechanisms used to plan investments in health research. However, the way organisations within countries devise research agendas has not been systematically reviewed. This study seeks to understand the legal basis, the actors and the processes involved in setting research agendas in major public health research funding organisations.

We reviewed information relating to the formulation of strategic plans by 11 public funders in nine high-income countries worldwide. Information was collected from official websites and strategic plan documents in English, French, Italian and Spanish between January 2019 and December 2019, by means of a conceptual framework and information abstraction form.

We found that the formulation of a strategic plan is a common and well-established practice in shaping research agendas across international settings. Most of the organisations studied are legally required to present a multi-year strategic plan. In some cases, legal provisions may set rules for actors and processes and may establish areas of research and/or types of research to be funded. Commonly, the decision-making process involves both internal and external stakeholders, with the latter being generally government officials and experts, and few examples of the participation of civil society. The process also varies across organisations depending on whether there is a formal requirement to align to strategic priorities developed by an overarching entity at national level. We also found that, while actors and their interactions were traceable, information, sources of information, criteria and the mechanisms/tools used to shape decisions were made less explicit.

Conclusions

A complex picture emerges in which multiple interactive entities appear to shape research plans. Given the complexity of the influences of different parties and factors, the governance of the health research sector would benefit from a traceable and standardised knowledge-based process of health research strategic planning. This would provide an opportunity to demonstrate responsible budget stewardship and, more importantly, to make efforts to remain responsive to healthcare challenges, research gaps and opportunities.

Advances in scientific knowledge have contributed greatly to improvements in healthcare, but there have been claims that health research is not adequately addressing healthcare challenges. These concerns are reflected in the increasing debate over the adequacy of the mechanisms used to plan investment in health research and ensure its optimal distribution [ 1 – 5 ].

Over recent decades, methods and tools have been produced in order to guide the process of setting the health research agenda and facilitate more explicit and transparent judgment regarding research priorities. There is no single method that is considered appropriate for all settings and purposes, yet it is recognised that their optimal application requires a knowledge of health needs, research gaps and the perspectives of key stakeholders [ 6 – 10 ].

A number of studies have described initiatives to set health research agendas. Several articles refer to experiences focusing on specific health conditions, for example, those undertaken under the framework of the James Lind Alliance [ 11 ]. There are also reviews of disparate examples of research agenda-setting in low- and middle-income countries [ 12 , 13 ] as well as in high-income countries (HICs) [ 14 ]. These initiatives were highly heterogeneous with regard to their promotor (public organisations, academics, advocacy groups, etc.), the level of the research system (global, regional, national, sub-national, organisational or sub-organisational) and the scope of the prioritisation process (broad themes or specific research questions).

However, there are no studies that have specifically investigated the way large public organisations in HICs devise their research agendas and to what extent this is linked to regulations and organisational setup. In 2016, Moher et al. reported on how research funders had addressed recommendations to increase value and reduce waste in biomedical research [ 15 ]. Within this framework, they provided a general overview of setting the overall agenda in a convenient sample of six public funders of health research. They also affirmed the need for a “ periodic survey of information on research funders’ websites about their principle and methods used to decide what research to support ” [ 15 ]. At the same time, Viergever et al. identified the 10 largest funders of health research in the world and recommended further study of their priority-setting processes [ 16 ].

Given this context, we wished to provide an updated and thorough description of the way public funders of research in HICs devise their research agenda. We therefore analysed the regulatory framework for the actors and processes involved in developing the strategic plan in 11 major English and non-English speaking public research funders across 9 HICs worldwide.

Strategic planning

Our analysis focused on the development of the strategic plan, or strategic planning, at organisational level as a crucial step in the setting of the research agenda by the organisation. By the term ‘setting the research agenda’, we meant the whole-organisation research management planning cycle, which may encompass multiple decision-making level (organisational, sub-organisational, research programme level, etc.) actors and funding flows.

Strategic planning has been defined in social science as a “ deliberative, disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization (or other entity) is, what it does, and why ” [ 17 ].

The strategic plan is assumed to be the final outcome of the strategic planning process, in which priority-setting is the key milestone. It is therefore expected that the research priorities of the organisation will be included. Depending on mandate, priorities could be related to research topics (e.g. health conditions or diseases), types of research (e.g. basic or clinical) and/or other planned initiatives (e.g. workforce or research integrity).

The choice to focus on strategic planning was also guided by the fact that it is known from social science that strategic planning is a well-established practice within public organisations worldwide [ 17 , 18 ]. This would enable us to ensure comparability of information on modalities of decision-making in research planning across organisations from different countries.

Selection of public organisations

We created a list of public funders of health research, drawing from a previous study in which the authors identified 55 public and philanthropic organisations and listed them according to their annual expenditure on health research [ 16 ]. In order to strike a balance between learning about the practices of health research funders, and keeping data collection feasible and manageable, we restricted our sample to two organisations per country, with health research budgets of more than 200 million USD annually. In doing so, we identified a manageable subsample of 35 organisations having the greatest potential influence on research agendas, both locally and globally, and representing different health research systems in different countries.

We based our overview on publicly available information and restricted our sample to those organisations with published strategic research plans in English, French, Italian or Spanish (Additional file 1 ).

Information search and abstraction

Since we expected processes to vary across organisations, we did not use guidelines or best practices for strategic planning, which allowed us to document a wide range of experiences. As mentioned earlier, we based this overview on the collection of publicly available information by means of a conceptual framework and an information abstraction form (Box  1 , Additional file 1 ).

We based the conceptual framework on Walt and Gilson’s policy analysis model [ 19 ] and the information that could actually be retrieved after an initial assessment of the available information. The conceptual framework and the data abstraction form were conceived in an effort to (1) standardise the search for and collection of information across organisations, (2) render the collection process more transparent, and (3) make the retrieved information more understandable to readers.

Three authors (CM, CF and MCE) performed the review of information and the compilation of the form independently, with differences of opinion resolved by discussion. Information was collected in duplicate from 1 January 2019 to 31 July 2019. Before submitting the article, we updated the information by accessing and reviewing the official websites of the included organisations until 10 December 2019.

We searched for information that answered our questions by (1) browsing the funding organisations’ official websites and following links providing information about the organisations, e.g. Who we are, About us, Mission, Laws and statutes, Funding opportunities and other similar web pages, and by (2) identifying and reviewing strategic plans. When an organisation was composed of multiple sub-organisations, we limited our analysis to the strategic planning of the overarching organisation.

A second phase of research consisted of producing a profile for each organisation according to the data extraction form (Additional file 1 ). Bearing in mind that the results of this analysis could have been very general, we also used two organisations as case studies to provide more detailed examples of planning and implementing research priorities at the organisational level. We accessed and reviewed the official websites of the case study organisations until 14 April 2020. We did not contact organisations directly to obtain additional information. After collecting and analysing the information, we produced a narrative overview of our findings.

Box 1 Conceptual framework

Organisation profile

 This section describes the funding organisation and its role and relationship with other overarching governmental bodies.

What are the contents of the strategic plan?

 This section examines the publicly available strategic plan of the funding organisation. The strategic plan is assumed to be the final outcome of the strategic planning process and includes the research priorities of the organisation. Depending on the mandate of the organisation, the research priorities are those related to research topics (for example, health conditions/diseases), types of research (for example, basic research, clinical research) and/or other planned initiatives within the mandate of the organisation (e.g. workforce, research integrity).

Regulatory basis

 This part seeks to understand if there is an official basis for strategic planning, for example, a law or a government document that establishes processes and actors for setting priorities.

What are the process and tools of strategic planning?

 This section seeks to describe the processes and tools for identifying the research priorities included in the strategic plan, including whether or not there are explicit mechanisms, criteria, instruments and information to guide and inform the process of strategic planning such as a research landscape analysis or a more structured experience of priority-setting.

Who are the actors involved?

 This section examines who the involved actors are in preparing the strategic plan; for example, who coordinates the process and who is involved in the process (e.g. clinicians, patients, citizens, researchers) and how the organisation relates with other entities in preparing the strategic plan.

Included organisations

We included 11 public organisations with a publicly available strategic plan in English, Spanish, French or Italian (Additional file 1 ). There were two from the United States, two from France, and one each from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Japan, Italy, Spain and Singapore. The mandates of the organisations were diverse – some had the task of funding research and other activities in support of health research, while others were involved in both funding and conducting health research (Table  1 ).

Description of the selected organisations and of the development of their strategic plan

The strategic plan: format and content

The strategic plans varied in format (Additional file 1 ). While some organisations indicated broad lines of research, others structured their strategic plan in a complex hierarchy with high-level priorities connected to goals and sub-goals. In some cases, indicators, or menus of indicators, were added to monitor progress of the planned work and/or assess the impact of the research. In some research plans, the type of research funding (e.g. responsive, commissioned, research training) and budget were explicitly linked to research priorities.

With regard to content, some organisations focused their strategy on supporting the production of new knowledge of specific diseases or conditions. Others prepared a comprehensive strategy to support different functions of the health research system, such as producing knowledge, sustaining the workforce and infrastructure, developing policies for research integrity and conceiving processes for making more informed decisions. Some strategic plans briefly described the research environment at the national, organisational or programme level. One organisation described the process used to develop health research priorities.

Most of the organisations are legally required to present a multi-year strategic plan or at least annual research priorities. In addition, legislation sets rules and procedures by covering subjects such as the actors to be involved, the documents to be consulted and the format of the strategic plan document to be adopted. In some cases, legal provisions indicate areas and/or types of research to be funded (Table  1 ).

Commonly, the main actors are the top-level policy-makers of the organisations. A spectrum of external stakeholders from multiple sectors may be involved and their participation varies across organisations. External stakeholders can be members of academia or government research agencies, or industry professionals and policy-makers. Most frequently, they have a membership role in organisational governing bodies (boards and committees) (Table  1 ).

The government maintains a role in shaping the strategic plan to various extents in different organisations. This may involve producing nationwide strategic plans for research that the organisations have to adopt or align to, directing attention to specific research priorities or types of research, having representatives in the governing bodies of the organisations and retaining the power of final approval of the organisations’ strategic plans (Table  1 ). Other actors involved are overarching government agencies, which play a role in managing or coordinating the research plan at the national level. Examples of this are the Spanish National Research Agency and United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI). When this study was being conducted, the latter had just been established and been given the role of developing a coherent national research strategy.

The participation of civil society in governing bodies, temporary committees or consultation exercises was far less common. There are representatives of the public in the advisory bodies of the National Institutes of Health (NIH; e.g. the Advisory Committee to the Director).

The Chief Executive Officer of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), acting under the terms of the NHMRC Act, established the Community and Consumer Advisory Group. This is a working committee whose function is to provide advice on health questions and health and medical research matters, from consumer and community perspectives. Most notably, the United States Department of Defense – Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (DoD-CDMRP) involve consumers (patients, their representatives and caregivers) at all levels of the funding process, from strategic planning to the peer-review process of research proposals. Organisations also have external consultation exercises, in which the target audiences and mechanisms implemented vary (Table  1 ).

In order to illustrate the interactions between different actors, we identified two broad categories of organisation. The first comprises those organisations that develop their own plans with a certain degree of independence. Government and legal provisions might provide some direction. In this group are the NIH, the Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (Inserm), the Italian Ministry of Health (MoH), the NHMRC, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Medical Research Council (MRC), the DoD-CDMRP, the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) (Table  1 ).

The second category is made up of those organisations whose research planning derives from the strategic plan of an overarching entity. In this group are the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), the National Medical Research Council (NMRC) and the MRC. Both categories are represented in the case studies below.

An example of the first category from the United States is the 5-year strategic plan, NIH-Wide Strategic Plan, Fiscal Years 2016–2020: Turning Discovery Into Health, developed by the NIH at the request of Congress. Legislation provides direction on some criteria for setting priorities in the plan, but it is the NIH Director who develops it in consultation with internal (Centres, Institutes and Offices) and external stakeholders (see the NIH case study).

In Australia, the Chief Executive Officer of the NHMRC identifies major national health issues likely to arise during the 4-year period covered by the plan and devises the strategy in consultation with the Minister for Health and the NHMRC governing bodies. The Minister provides guidance on the NHMRC’s strategic priorities and approves or revises the plan. In Canada, the governing bodies of the CIHR are responsible for devising the strategic plan. The Deputy Minister of the Department of Health participates as a non-voting member of one of the governing bodies.

The common characteristic of the second category is that the process of strategic planning derives from one or more overarching entities. This means that the strategic plans of the organisations are informed to various extents by the research programmes of such an entity or entities. In some cases, there is a main institution with research coordination and/or management roles at the national level. For example, in Spain, in order to inform funding grants, the ISCIII adopted the research priorities set out in the Strategic Action for Health included in the State Plan for Science, Innovation and Technology 2017–2020 . This plan, elaborated by the Government Delegated Committee for the Policies for Research, Technology and Innovation ( la Comisión Delegada del Gobierno para Política Scientífica, Tecnológica y de Innovación ), in cooperation with the Ministry of Fianance, is aligned with the four strategic objectives of the Spanish Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation 2013–2020. The newly established Spanish State Research Agency ( Agencia Estatal de Investigacion ) also participated in the development of the State Plan. However, its role is mainly in monitoring the plan’s funding, including ISCIII funding for the Strategic Action for Health.

UKRI, sponsored by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, is the body responsible for the development of a coherent national research strategy that balances the allocation of funding across different disciplines. In 2018, the MRC became a committee body of UKRI, alongside eight other committees, called ‘Councils’, which represent various research sectors. The MRC is required to develop a strategic plan that is coherent with the strategic objectives set by UKRI. This plan must be approved by the UKRI Board, the governing body responsible for ensuring that Council plans are consistent with the UKRI strategy.

In Singapore, the NMRC refers to the strategic plan developed by the National Research Foundation, a department within the Prime Minister’s Office. The NMRC has a well-described system for incorporating national priorities into the organisation’s research plan (see the NMRC case study).

With regard to the information, sources of information, criteria and mechanisms used to shape decisions, the included organisations were less explicit. Most commonly, organisations introduced health research priorities with an overview of major general advancements in biomedical research or a catalogue of organisational activities and a research portfolio.

A small number of organisations presented a brief situational analysis of the health and health research sectors. In these cases, the scope and nature of the presented information varied from one organisation to another (Additional file 1 ).

For example, the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan contains a brief summary of the state of research at the organisational level. The plans of each DoD-CDMRP health research programme present a summary of both the current health and health research landscapes at the national level.

Other organisations stated that the plan had been supported by information analysis of the research field, but they did not report explicitly on this work.

Case studies

The national institutes of health (nih).

The NIH is an operating division of the United States Department of Health and Human Services whose mission is to improve public health by conducting and funding basic and translational biomedical research. It is made up of 27 theme-based Institutes, Centers and Offices, each of which develops an individual strategic plan [ 20 ].

The first 5-year strategic plan, NIH-Wide Strategic Plan, Fiscal Years 2016–2020: Turning Discovery into Health, was prepared at the request of Congress and published in 2016 [ 21 ]. The legal framework stipulates that the NIH-coordinated strategy will inform the individual strategic plans of the Institutes and Centers. In addition, it provides some direction regarding content and the process to be adopted for generating the overall NIH strategy [ 22 , 23 ]. For example, it sets out specific requirements for the identification of research priorities. These include “ an assessment of the state of biomedical and behavioural research ” and the consideration of “ (i) disease burden in the United States and the potential for return on investment to the United States; (ii) rare diseases and conditions; (iii) biological, social, and other determinants of health that contributes to health disparities; and (iv) other factors the Director of National Institutes of Health determines appropriate ” [ 23 ]. The NIH Director is also required to consult “ with the directors of the national research institutes and national centers, researchers, patient advocacy groups and industry leaders ” [ 23 ]. To fulfil the request of Congress, the NIH Director and the Principal Deputy Director initiated the process by creating a draft ‘framework’ for the strategic plan. This framework was designed with the purposes of identifying major areas of research that cut across NIH priorities and of setting out principles to guide the NIH research effort (‘unifying principles’).

The development of the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan involved extensive internal and external consultations throughout the process. Consultees included the ad hoc NIH-Wide Strategic Plan Working Group, composed of representatives of all 27 Institutes, Centers and Offices, the Advisory Committee to the Director, which is an NIH standing committee of experts in research fields relevant to the NIH mission, and representatives of the research community (from academia and the private sector) and the general public. The framework was also presented at meetings with the National Advisory Councils of the Institutes and Centers.

In addition, the framework was disseminated to external stakeholders for comments and suggestions, which were solicited via a series of public webinars and through the initiative Request for Information: Inviting Comments and Suggestions on a Framework for the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan. In this case, a web-based form collected comments and suggestions on a predefined list of topic areas from a wide array of stakeholders representative of patient advocacy organisations, professional associations, private hospitals and companies, academic institutions, government and private citizens [ 24 – 27 ]. A report on the analysis of the public comments is publicly available [ 27 ].

The National Medical Research Council (NMRC)

The NMRC is the organisation that has the role of promoting, coordinating and funding biomedical research in Singapore [ 28 ]. It has developed its own research strategy by adopting the research priorities indicated by the national research strategy in the domain of health and biomedical sciences [ 29 ].

The national research strategy is the responsibility of the National Research Foundation, a department of the Prime Minister’s Office. It defines broad research priorities relating to various areas of research identified as ‘domains’. Within the health and biomedical sciences domain, five areas of research have been proposed with input from the Ministry of Health and the Health and Biomedical Sciences International Advisory Council. These are cancer, cardiovascular diseases, infectious diseases, neurological and sense disorders, diabetes mellitus and other metabolic/endocrine conditions. Criteria for selection of the areas of focus were “ disease impact, scientific excellence in Singapore and national needs ” [ 29 ].

The approach of NMRC to implementing the national research strategy at organisational level involves the establishment of ‘task forces’, i.e. groups of experts, with the role of defining the specific research strategy for each of the five areas of focus. Each task force provides documentation of research recommendations and methods used to prioritise research topics [ 30 ].

For example, the Neurological and Sense Disorders Task Force identified sub-areas of research 1 after analysing the local burden of neurological and sense disorders as well as considering factors such as local scientific expertise and research talent, ongoing efforts in neurological and sense disorders, industry interest, and opportunities for Singapore. As part of the effort, input was also solicited from the research community and policy-makers. This research prioritisation exercise served for both the NMRC grant scheme and a 10-year research roadmap [ 31 ].

Our study is the first to report on the processes used by a set of large national public funders to develop health research strategic plans. In line with findings from public management literature [ 16 , 17 ], we found that the formulation of a strategic plan is a well-established practice in shaping research agendas across international settings and it is a legal requirement for the majority of the organisations we studied.

We were able to reconstruct the process for developing the strategic plan by identifying the main actors involved and how they are connected. A complex picture emerges, in which multiple interactive entities and forces, often organised in a non-linear dynamic, appear to shape the research plans. In general, an organisation has to take into account legislative provisions, government directives, national overall research plans, national health plans and specific disease area plans. In some cases, it has to consider ‘institutionalised’ allocation of resources across organisations’ sub-entities (institutes, centres and units), which are historically associated with a particular disease or type of research.

On the other hand, we found little documentation of the decision-making mechanisms and information used to inform decision-making. There were, for example, few references to health research needs, research capabilities, the sources of information consulted, and the principles and criteria applied. This despite the increasing attention being paid nationally and internationally to the need for an explicit evidence-based or rational approach to setting health research priorities, particularly in the light of current economic constraints [ 3 , 32 , 33 ]. Given the complexity of the influences of different parties and factors, the governance of the health research sector would benefit from a traceable knowledge-based process of strategic planning, similar to that advocated for the health sector [ 34 ].

We found, however, evidence of an increasing interest in improving ways to establish research priorities at the organisational level. For example, NIH has brought forward the Senate request to develop a coordinated research strategy by including, in the strategic plan, the intention to further improve the processes for setting NIH research priorities and to optimise approaches to making informed funding decisions [ 21 ].

Recently, the DoD-CDMRP, the second largest funder of health research in the United States, reviewed its research management practices upon the recommendations of an ad hoc committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. In the area of strategic planning, the committee recommended an analysis of the funding landscape across different agencies and organisations, the identification of short- and long-term research needs, and harmonisation with the research priorities of other organisations [ 35 ].

In its strategic plan, the JSPS has placed particular emphasis on the development of research-on-research capacity and infrastructures to analyse the research landscape at organisational, national and international levels in order to ensure that funding decisions are evidence based [ 36 ].

The allocation of sufficient resources to develop the infrastructure and technical expertise required for collection, analysis and dissemination of a portfolio of relevant data should be considered a necessary step when a funding organisation or country decides to implement standardised approaches for strategic planning and priority-setting.

Additionally, from the perspective of health research as a system, data collection and analyses should not be limited to ‘what is funded’, but should also include ‘who is funded and where’, and be linked to research policies and their long-term outcomes. The benefit of such an approach is not limited to the prevention of unnecessary duplication of research. Support would also be provided for producing formal mechanisms to coordinate research effort across research entities, within and among countries. Collaborations with other non-profit as well as for-profit organisations would be promoted and the capacity for research would be created and strengthened where necessary.

A number of resources and initiatives in this field already exist at organisational and national level. For example, the NIH has the Research Portfolio Online Reporting Tools, a public repository of data and other tools from NIH research activities [ 37 ]. This repository is linked to Federal RePORTER, an infrastructure that makes data on federal investments in science available. In the United Kingdom, the Health Research Classification System performs regular analysis of the funding landscape of United Kingdom health research to support monitoring, strategy development and coordination [ 38 ].

At the international level, there is ongoing global work to shape evidence-based health research decisions and coordination. In 2013, the WHO Global Observatory on Health R&D was established “ in order to monitor and analyze relevant information on health research and development, […] with a view to contributing to the identification of gaps and opportunities for health research and development and defining priorities […] and to facilitate the development of a global shared research agenda ” [ 33 ]. This effort has been coupled with a global call to action, which asks governments to create or strengthen national health research observatories and contribute to the WHO Observatory. Furthermore, the Clinical Research Initiative for Global Health, a consortium of research organisations across the world, has ongoing projects that will map clinical research networks and funding capacity and conduct clinical research at a global level [ 39 ].

A further key area that deserves comment is the engagement of stakeholders. In general, a spectrum of external stakeholders from multiple sectors is involved and the extent of this involvement varies across organisations. Decision-making processes commonly include people from government bodies, academia, research agencies and industry. However, we found that the participation of civil society, here represented by the intended beneficiaries of research such as health professionals, patients and their carers, remains limited. The fact that decision-making is still the domain of government officials and experts is an unexpected finding. There is a widespread consensus that the participation of a mix of stakeholders can improve the process of strategic planning. The logic behind this is that representatives of those who are affected by decisions can bring new information and perspectives and improve the effectiveness of the process [ 17 , 32 , 40 ]. Broader inclusion is desirable, both for granting legitimacy to strategic planning and for advancing equity in healthcare. Decisions on research priorities shape knowledge and, ultimately, they determine whether patients and their carers will have access to healthcare options that meet their needs [ 41 ].

Additionally, our study shows that the involvement of civil society is not only desirable but is also feasible. Organisations that support the participation of civil society have this practice firmly embedded in their governance, although it may be implemented in different ways.

Strengths and limitations

A particular strength of our study is the innovative way in which we approached the disorienting complexity of whole-organisation planning cycle management. This allowed us to contribute to an understanding of the processes used by large public funders not only in English-speaking countries but also in France, Italy and Spain.

However, one potential limitation concerns the accuracy and completeness of the information. This drawback was imposed by both the unstructured nature of the information and its fragmentation across multiple webpages and legal and/or administrative documents. Nevertheless, we strove to ensure accuracy, consistency and a clear presentation of the relevant information by means of a conceptual framework and a data abstraction form. In addition, to guarantee the reliability of the data, two reviewers abstracted the information independently, before discussing it and reaching a consensus. The use of more accessible information, e.g. through single documents, would therefore be advisable to improve accountability and transparency. This would also be of particular importance for exchanging knowledge and promoting research in the specific field of research governance.

In addition to the limitations imposed by the available data, there is a potential limitation in the methodology of the study. In conducting our research, we decided to rely only on publicly available information and we did not ask organisations for further details. Consequently, we may have missed some actions and drawn an incomplete picture of the organisations presented. Our strategy was based on the assumption that, if a strategic plan existed, both it and a description of its associated decision-making process would be present in the public domain, given that transparency in decision-making is an acknowledged element of good public organisation governance [ 42 ]. We would therefore counter that the process should be more transparent and should address, in particular, the criteria and information used to support decision-making.

In addition, it was not possible to ascertain in detail how processes actually took place. For example, engaging external stakeholders, such as representatives of civil society, is a key feature of the organisations included in the study but we do not know whether this engagement was meaningful or simply granted legitimacy to leadership decisions.

Furthermore, by limiting our inclusion criteria to organisations with strategic plans publicly available in English, French, Spanish and Italian, we excluded two German organisations (the German Research Foundation and the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung – the Federal Ministry of Education and Research) and two Chinese bodies (the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Ministry of Health). These organisations could have been included on the basis of their health research budgets. While it is unlikely that these bodies from two countries with similar health research systems have practices that would have changed our conclusions, it would nevertheless be useful in the future to acquire information regarding their experiences in this area.

Future research

Having considered the abovementioned limitations, we recommend that qualitative research be conducted to further validate our findings by complementing the information presented here with data gathered from key informants within each organisation. We also suggest that the study be extended to include other organisations and countries. Additional research should also expand on our study by more deeply exploring the perspectives of the members of external stakeholder bodies regarding their involvement in strategic planning within each organisation. Making this information accessible would benefit those funder organisations who wish to both increase public engagement in health research decision-making and make it more meaningful.

It would also be interesting to explore whether and why funder organisations are influenced by the research plans of other organisations (including academic, advocacy and international bodies) within and among countries, and whether they have formal mechanisms in place to coordinate with other such organisations. This information would be of use in guiding research coordination policies, with the aim of avoiding duplication of effort and identifying not only gaps in research but also overlapping interests and opportunities for partnerships.

Our study illustrates the variety of the processes adopted in developing strategic plans for health research in the international setting. A complex picture emerges in which multiple interactive entities appear to shape research plans. Although we found documentation of the actors involved in the processes, much less was available on the mechanisms, information, criteria and tools used to inform decision-making.

Given the complexity of the influences of different parties and factors, both funding organisations and health sector governance would benefit from a traceable knowledge-based process of strategic planning. The benefits of such an approach are not limited to demonstrating responsible budget stewardship as it would also provide opportunities to respond to research gaps and healthcare needs and to move more effectively from basic to translational research.

Supplementary information

Acknowledgements.

The authors thank Letizia Sampaolo, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, the information specialist who made an initial search of relevant scientific articles, and Stephen James for English language review of the manuscript.

Abbreviations

Authors’ contributions.

CM conceived of the study and made a first drafted the work. CM, MCE and CF abstracted the data and compiled the organisations’ profiles. LM contributed to the draft and substantively revised the work. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

This research was partly supported by funding for 'Ricerca Corrente' of  the Istituto Superiore di Sanità. 

Availability of data and materials

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Competing interests.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

1 Neurodegenerative diseases (vascular dementia and Parkinson’s diseases), neurodegenerative eye diseases (age-related macular degeneration and glaucoma), mental health disorders (depression) and neurotechnology.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Contributor Information

Cristina Morciano, Email: [email protected] .

Maria Cristina Errico, Email: [email protected] .

Carla Faralli, Email: [email protected] .

Luisa Minghetti, Email: [email protected] .

Supplementary information accompanies this paper at 10.1186/s12961-020-00620-x.

BUS300: Operations Management

strategic planning process conclusion

Strategic Planning and Ten-Ten Planning

This chapter explains the nature of planning and the importance of analysis in creating differentiated products or services or higher levels of efficiency. Understanding the nature of strategic planning and the types of analysis used during the strategic planning process are important for operation managers.

In this chapter, we have reviewed many popular approaches for strategic planning. The key points are the following:

  • The two basic strategies for business planning include product differentiation and striving to be the low-cost producer.
  • Product differentiation can be accomplished by focusing on Midas versions of products using extravagant engineering and design. Being the low-cost producer can be accomplished by focusing on Hermes versions of products using frugal engineering and design.
  • Planning approaches can be classified as having an internal organizational focus (looking inside) or an external or environmental focus (looking outside).
  • The development of an abbreviated SWOT analysis that is supported with a strategy analysis can be used to integrate the key attributes of the various strategic planning approaches.
  • The planning process never ends. With continuous pressure from market and competition, firms are suggested to develop new strategy and planning from time to time.

This chapter reviewed the various analytic approaches for strategic planning. There is no single business plan that can be used to deal with the complexity of monopolistic competition nor is there a single planning approach that will take the organization down the right path. A revised analysis tool, called quick SWOT analysis, was introduced that combines the various strategic planning approaches. This chapter also sets the stage for the Ten–Ten planning process, a simplified yet robust approach to planning. The next chapter will present two templates for developing a business plan. The first template is the Organizational and Industry Analysis template and it incorporates the quick SWOT approach along with concepts from value chain analysis, the resource-based approach, Blue Ocean market analysis, and the other strategic analysis approaches discussed in this chapter. This information is then used to fill in the Business Plan Overview template. The use of the two templates is part of the Ten–Ten planning process. The approach can be used to produce one plan and also to churn out new plans in order to compete in dynamic environments characterized by monopolistic competition.

Strategic Planning Essay

What is strategy and why is it important? Find here the answers to these questions. The strategic planning essay below explains the impact of strategy on the spheres of marketing and logistics as well as on small businesses in general.

  • What Is Strategy
  • The Importance of Strategy for Businesses
  • Improving Business Performance
  • The Main Problems

Introduction

Strategic planning is a process of making certain choices within an organization. It can be defined as a designed process that is meant to support organizational leaders both locally and internationally in terms of operations methods, goals and objectives. Alternatively, strategic planning can be defined as a management tool used for the purpose of enabling an organization to work effectively and efficiently towards achieving its goals and objectives.

The process of managing the operations of a business is referred to as strategic because it entails how best a business organization respond to the circumstances arising from a dynamic and in other cases hostile business environment.

Meanwhile, Small business is a kind of business entity that is owned privately by an individual or a group of partners and that which operates with a small number of labor forces. Small business may include privately owned partnerships, sole proprietorships and corporations. Nonetheless, it is important to note that the legal definition of a small business varies greatly according various nations of the world; this also depends on the type of industry in which a business entity may be categorized into.

This research paper will examine strategic planning; with regards to this, the essay will examine the strategic planning, practices, importance of strategic planning and the pitfalls of strategic planning amongst small businesses and finally provides a conclusion about strategic planning in small businesses.

What Is Strategy in Business?

It has always been falsely thought strategic planning is only for big and multinational corporations. It is important to note that strategic planning is crucial for every organization, both for profit and non-profit organizations. In this case, strategic planning is very crucial for small business organizations.

Small business organizations require to be more committed to strategic thinking and actions more than the large scale established business entities. In the process of conducting strategic planning, small organizations are preparing to meet future business challenges as they remain focused in meeting their strategic goals and objectives.

Strategic planning prepares small businesses to deal with the future in five steps. The first one is that the firm foresees both potential opportunities and threats in order to meet its vision and mission. The second step is that the small businesses make decisions on how best they can respond to potential business opportunities and threats that they will encounter.

The third step is for the small businesses to single out the likely sources from which the opportunities and threats will originate from. The fourth step entails examining the viability of an opportunity and the likelihood of the risk occurrence. The last step calls for measures in potential threats alleviation or seizing available opportunities (Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness, 2010).

While performing strategic planning, it is important to review the small businesses’ past performance, the current and the projected or expected future performance. Knowing where the businesses have come from, where they are now and where they expect to go is very important during strategic planning process (Neely, 2002).

An example of a small business entity is Ann Taylor, an American business for a group of women specializing in apparel retail chain stores. The business makes use of its expert personnel resources in formulating strategic planning. In the process, the business anticipates issues, identify latent problems and establishing strategies to address the problems and take advantage of arising opportunities.

Strategic Planning & Its Importance for Small Businesses

One of the most important functions of strategic planning is that it assists a small business organization to set the direction of its future. In this case, strategic planning is like a map clearly outlining how a business destination is to be reached (Marien, 1990).

The strategic planning process helps small business organizations to identify their available resources and hence plan on how to appropriately and effectively utilize the resources for maximum benefit of the small businesses. Besides, it provides a framework within which a small business organization can operate so as to realize both of its short-term and long-term objectives.

For instance, compared to those that do not plan, small businesses that engage in strategic planning have been found to register higher sales growth and financial performance; this implies that strategic planning is necessary for accelerated business growth (Hodgetts, 1992).

Strategic planning is also away of communicating information about the small businesses. Through strategic planning, small business entities get to inform its employees and other significant stakeholders on the position of the business and where the business anticipates going in terms of growth.

It also communicates the input employees have contributed and hence enable them to understand the role they play in the organization. Moreover, strategic planning also helps the small businesses to set clear strategies on how to tackle the future possible challenges and take advantage of the potential opportunities that are likely to arise. The success of these strategies requires the commitment of all stakeholders who must be provided with necessary and sufficient resources (Hodgetts, 1992).

Strategic Planning as a Way to Improve Business Performance

The link between strategic planning and performance of small business organizations has been a theme of rising interests in relation to strategic management. It is important to note that strategic planning is a process that provides a long-range strategic schedule which includes a statement about a business objectives and mission statement.

Besides, strategic pan also entails strategies showing how the business objectives will be achieved. It also provides the yard stick by which all the business performance can be monitored and checked or controlled (Watson, 2007).

Going by the above points, it is therefore important to mention that strategic planning is crucial for organizational performance. Several research studies have indicated that there is strong relationship between strategic planning and the performance of a given small business organization; in fact, more research findings have shown that small business organizations that engage in strategic planning perform more than those that do not do strategic planning. For this reason, the value of strategic planning cannot be wished a way.

The process of doing formal planning forces individuals involved to bring out ideas that are essential in propelling the organization towards its goals and objectives (Watson, 2007).

The importance of strategic planning in improving the performance of small businesses is reinforced by recent research findings that indicate that the more complex the strategic plan the higher the performance of a small business organization; it is noteworthy to mention that these findings are not only applicable to small businesses, but also to any business entity or organization that is involved in strategic planning (Watson, 2007).

However, it is of significance to mention that formulating and putting into place strategic planning process is one thing of its own and implementing it is another. Failure to implement strategic plan may make strategic planning process unproductive.

It is also crucial to mention that the success of strategic planning in improving business performance is greatly dependent on the available resources and whether the stakeholders, especially the employees, understand fully the content of the business strategic plan. Otherwise, the process of strategic planning does not guarantee improved business performance as its positive impact still depends of steps taken by the business organizations in implementing the strategic plan.

The Problems of Strategic Planning

As much as strategic planning has a lot of benefits to business organizations, it is a process that has its own negative side. One of the problems associated with strategic planning is that it is costly, especially with small businesses. The process may require the hiring of strategic planning consultants who may need to be paid large amount of money.

The big problem with strategic planning is that the planning process may not be completed; strategic planning is more detailed and in most cases requires a level of commitment that may prove to fatigue planners (Kerzner & Rea, 1997). This may leave the general plans already put into place to appear as white elephant projects.

Strategic Planning Conclusion

Strategic planning is an important process of small businesses. Small businesses undertake strategic plans in order to determine where they have come from, their current position and projected future position in terms of business performance. Strategic planning also helps a small business to formulate strategies to meet future business challenges and take advantage of potential opportunities.

Besides, it also assists the business organizations in determining the amount of resources they have and hence decide on how to best allocate them for the benefit of business organizations.

Strategic planning can actually be described as a management tool used in managing the business operations of a given business entity. In this case, it used to manage the future of the business organization and hence position the businesses at positions where they can strategically meet their business goals and objectives effectively and efficiently (Marien, 1990).

Strategic planning improves the overall performance of small businesses. In relation to this, it is important to note that research findings point out that the more complex the strategic plan the higher the performance of a business organization.

However, it is important to be aware of the fact that the process of strategic planning is not a guarantee that a business entity will enhance its performance. The successful implementation of strategic plan requires sufficient resources and also that all the stakeholders understand the contents of the strategic plan.

Strategic planning process does not only have its good part; it has a number of problems associated with it. Strategic planning process is elaborate and sometimes may get complex and hence may be left unfinished due to lack of motivation to complete the planning process. Besides, strategic planning is relatively costly in terms of finances and time.

This is one of the reasons many business entities, especially the small businesses fail to be involve in strategic planning. The consequence is that such small businesses may not have strong and effective strategies to tackle future business challenges and take advantage of beneficial opportunities that are likely to arise in the business process (Marien, 1990).

Reference List

Center for Management and Organization Effectiveness. (2010). Strategic Planning is for Small Businesses Too-Part1 . Retrieved from: https://cmoe.com/blog/strategic-planning-is-for-smaller-businesses-too/ .

Hodgetts, R. (1992 ). Effective Small Business Management . U.S: Harcourt.

Kerzner, H. & Rea, P. (1997). Strategic Planning: A Practical Guide. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.

Marien, M. (1990). Future Survey 1990: A Guide to the Recent Literature of Trends, Forecasts, and Policy Proposals . United States: Transaction Publishers.

Neely, A. (2002). Business performance measurement: theory and practice . London: Cambridge University Press.

Watson, G. (2007). Strategic benchmarking reloaded with six sigma: improve your company’s performance using global best practice . New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.

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IvyPanda. (2022, August 1). Strategic Planning Essay. https://ivypanda.com/essays/strategic-planning-3/

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1. IvyPanda . "Strategic Planning Essay." August 1, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/strategic-planning-3/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Strategic Planning Essay." August 1, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/strategic-planning-3/.

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strategic planning process conclusion

Strategic Thinking vs Strategic Planning: Which One Leads the Way to Success?

What is strategic thinking, what is strategic planning, strategic thinking vs strategic planning, what are the 7 steps in strategic planning.

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  • A company CEO looking to expand business in a new market will use strategic thinking. They will analyze the market, consider the competition, and identify potential opportunities and risks. They will then develop a long-term plan of action to enter the market successfully.
  • A nonprofit organization that wants to increase its impact on a specific social issue will engage in strategic thinking. They will analyze the problem, consider the stakeholders, and identify potential solutions. They will then develop a long-term plan of action to achieve their mission.
  • A government agency that wants to improve its services to citizens will engage in strategic thinking. They will analyze the current system, consider the needs of citizens, and identify potential improvements. They will then develop a long-term plan of action to implement those improvements.
  • A company that wants to launch a new product will engage in strategic planning. They will identify the resources required, set priorities, and establish metrics for measuring success. They will then develop a detailed roadmap or action plan to successfully bring the product to market.
  • A nonprofit organization that wants to increase its fundraising efforts will engage in strategic planning. They will identify the resources required, set priorities, and establish metrics for measuring success. They will then develop a detailed plan of action to achieve their fundraising goals.
  • A government agency that wants to improve its cybersecurity capabilities will engage in strategic planning. They will identify the resources required, set priorities, and establish metrics for measuring success. They will then develop a detailed plan of action to implement the necessary improvements to their cybersecurity infrastructure.
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  • Establishing the Mission and Vision: The first step in strategic planning is establishing the organization’s mission and vision. This involves defining the organization’s purpose, values, and goals.
  • Conducting a SWOT Analysis: The second step is to conduct a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats). This helps to identify the organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats.
  • Setting Objectives: Based on the SWOT analysis, the organization can set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives.
  • Developing Strategies: With the objectives in mind, the organization can develop strategies to achieve them. This involves identifying and evaluating different options, considering available resources, and selecting the most appropriate action.
  • Allocating Resources: Once the strategies are in place, the organization must allocate resources to implement them effectively. This involves identifying the necessary financial, human, and physical resources and ensuring they are available.
  • Developing Implementation Plans: The next step is to create detailed implementation plans for each strategy. This involves identifying specific tasks, timelines, responsibilities, and performance measures.
  • Monitoring and Evaluation: Finally, the organization needs to monitor and evaluate the implementation of the strategies to ensure they are achieving the desired outcomes. This involves tracking progress, reviewing performance measures, and adjusting as needed to stay on track.

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strategic planning process conclusion

Strategic Planning Process (Steps, Examples)

Strategic Planning Process

Strategic planning is a process that helps out organizations achieve their desired future state. Strategic planning aims to create a roadmap to help the organization reach its goals. 

Many steps and models are involved in the strategic planning process, but all have the same aim – helping the organization succeed.

This article will discuss the strategic planning process and explore some of the steps and elements involved. We will also examine the benefits of using a strategic planning process and outline some key principles that guide successful planners.

What is the strategic planning process?

Strategic planning is a process to help organizations create a roadmap to reach their desired future state. The strategic planning process aims to set overall goals and objectives, identify strategies for achieving them, and then ensure that those strategies are effectively implemented.

Strategic planning process steps

Strategic Planning Process Steps

1. Identify the organization’s current position and future goals

Strategic planning will start by analyzing the company’s current situation and goals.

  • An up-to-date strategic plan is essential to success as it provides a roadmap to reach the desired destination and anticipates potential challenges. 
  • A strategic plan will help an organization understand where they are now, determine where they want to go, and develop a plan of action with tangible objectives, measurable outcomes, and timelines for success.
  • By engaging in strategic planning processes, an organization can properly identify its current position and develop sound, achievable goals for the future.

2. Analyze the external environment to identify potential opportunities and threats

Strategic planning is a second step that begins with a thorough analysis of the external environment to identify potential opportunities and threats. 

  • Companies must consider changes in technology, customer preferences, competitive landscape, and other external influences that may impact their operations. 
  • This process is used to detect current and emerging trends, forecast challenges and opportunities, develop strategic alternatives, evaluate risks related to the strategic plan, and formulate strategic objectives. 
  • Monitoring the external environment is critical in helping create a competitive advantage and staying ahead of the curve when adapting to market trends. 
  • Ultimately, strategic planners need to stay informed about external factors to anticipate business world changes effectively.

3. Develop strategies that will enable the organization to reach its desired future state

The third step is developing a strong strategy to complete future desires. 

  • This process involves forming strategic objectives, analyzing their feasibility, and incorporating them into a plan.
  • A strategic plan should address the organization’s resources and goals and how they can be most effectively achieved. 
  • To ensure success, organizations must develop strategies that prioritize their objectives and identify potential threats or opportunities to leverage efficiently. 
  • Organizations can confidently plot their path to meeting their desired future state and achieve success through effective strategic planning.

4. Create an implementation plan for carrying out those strategies

The fourth step is the implementation plan. Creating a comprehensive and detailed implementation plan is important for implementing strategic plans successfully. 

  • This plan should include an idea of how long each strategy will take to be implemented, clear steps on what needs to be done for its success, who will be involved in the process, and any resources that may be needed.
  • After creating this plan, it is important to regularly evaluate progress to ensure that strategic plans stay on track.
  • Ultimately, having a plan will make it much easier for strategic goals to be achieved effectively.

5. Monitor progress and make changes as needed

Last but not least, monitor the progress.

The strategic planning process should be viewed as something other than a one-time event. Instead, it needs to be an ongoing process to ensure success. 

  •  To reach goals and achieve strategic objectives, it is essential to monitor progress along the way and make changes as needed. 
  • This could include running periodic scans of the external environment for new opportunities or potential threats. 
  • It offers internal reviews of strategic projects to identify areas that need additional attention. 
  • Setting up triggers for regular reviews of metrics performance versus goals and assessing team morale by conducting surveys on new initiatives. 
  • Taking these precautions as part of a strategic planning process is key to optimizing performance and efficiency.

Models used in the strategic planning process

There are a variety of models that can be used to help guide this process. Some of the most popular include 

  • SWOT(Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis,
  • PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental) analysis, 
  • Porter’s Five Forces Model, 
  • Balanced Scorecard.
  • Gap planning
  • OKRs(Objectives and key results)
  • Blue ocean strategy
  • VIRO Framework and many more

Each of these models provides a different approach to identifying opportunities and threats that may impact an organization’s ability to reach its goals.

How to use strategic planning effectively?

  • The key to successful strategic planning is ensuring that all steps are carried out promptly, and that appropriate resources are allocated to each step.
  • Furthermore, ensuring that the strategies developed through the process are realistic and achievable is important.
  • It is also crucial to involve stakeholders in all aspects of the process to allow for their input and feedback.

Examples of successful strategies

Implemented through a strategic planning process While it is impossible to list every successful strategy implemented through a strategic planning process, some of the most well-known examples include

  •  Coca-Cola’s global expansion strategy
  •  Toyota’s lean production system
  •  Apple’s iPod product launch. 

These strategies were developed through careful analysis, consideration of various external and internal factors, and input from stakeholders.

The importance of evaluation in the strategic planning process

While creating an implementation plan for carrying out strategies is important, evaluating progress and making changes as needed is essential.

  •  Evaluation should be conducted regularly throughout the process to ensure that strategies achieve desired results and resources are allocated appropriately.
  •  Furthermore, an evaluation can help identify areas that need improvement or potential opportunities and threats in the external environment.

In conclusion, strategic planning is essential for organizations looking to stay ahead of the competition and achieve their goals. Therefore, it is important to involve stakeholders in the process and evaluate progress regularly.

With the right approach, a strategic planning process can be used to ensure that organizations are properly prepared for the future.

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College of Nursing

Driving change: a case study of a dnp leader in residence program in a gerontological center of excellence.

View as pdf A later version of this article appeared in Nurse Leader , Volume 21, Issue 6 , December 2023 . 

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) published the Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Practice Nursing in 2004 identifying the essential curriculum needed for preparing advanced practice nurse leaders to effectively assess organizations, identify systemic issues, and facilitate organizational changes. 1 In 2021, AACN updated the curriculum by issuing The Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Nursing Education to guide the development of competency-based education for nursing students. 1 In addition to AACN’s competency-based approach to curriculum, in 2015 the American Organization of Nurse Leaders (AONL) released Nurse Leader Core Competencies (updated in 2023) to help provide a competency based model to follow in developing nurse leaders. 2

Despite AACN and AONL competency-based curriculum and model, it is still common for nurse leaders to be promoted to management positions based solely on their work experience or exceptional clinical skills, rather than demonstration of management and leadership competencies. 3 The importance of identifying, training, and assessing executive leaders through formal leadership development programs, within supportive organizational cultures has been discussed by national leaders. As well as the need for nurturing emerging leaders through fostering interprofessional collaboration, mentorship, and continuous development of leadership skills has been identified. 4 As Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) nurse leaders assume executive roles within healthcare organizations, they play a vital role within complex systems. Demonstration of leadership competence and participation in formal leadership development programs has become imperative for their success. However, models of competency-based executive leadership development programs can be hard to find, particularly programs outside of health care systems.

The implementation of a DNP Leader in Residence program, such as the one designed for The Barbara and Richard Csomay Center for Gerontological Excellence, addresses many of the challenges facing new DNP leaders and ensures mastery of executive leadership competencies and readiness to practice through exposure to varied experiences and close mentoring. The Csomay Center , based at The University of Iowa, was established in 2000 as one of the five original Hartford Centers of Geriatric Nursing Excellence in the country. Later funding by the Csomay family established an endowment that supports the Center's ongoing work. The current Csomay Center strategic plan and mission aims to develop future healthcare leaders while promoting optimal aging and quality of life for older adults. The Csomay Center Director created the innovative DNP Leader in Residence program to foster the growth of future nurse leaders in non-healthcare systems. The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of the development and implementation of the Leader in Residence program, followed by suggested evaluation strategies, and discussion of future innovation of leadership opportunities in non-traditional health care settings.

Development of the DNP Leader in Residence Program

The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle has garnered substantial recognition as a valuable tool for fostering development and driving improvement initiatives. 5 The PDSA cycle can function as an independent methodology and as an integral component of broader quality enhancement approaches with notable efficacy in its ability to facilitate the rapid creation, testing, and evaluation of transformative interventions within healthcare. 6 Consequently, the PDSA cycle model was deemed fitting to guide the development and implementation of the DNP Leader in Residence Program at the Csomay Center.

PDSA Cycle: Plan

Existing resources. The DNP Health Systems: Administration/Executive Leadership Program offered by the University of Iowa is comprised of comprehensive nursing administration and leadership curriculum, led by distinguished faculty composed of national leaders in the realms of innovation, health policy, leadership, clinical education, and evidence-based practice. The curriculum is designed to cultivate the next generation of nursing executive leaders, with emphasis on personalized career planning and tailored practicum placements. The DNP Health Systems: Administration/Executive Leadership curriculum includes a range of courses focused on leadership and management with diverse topics such as policy an law, infrastructure and informatics, finance and economics, marketing and communication, quality and safety, evidence-based practice, and social determinants of health. The curriculum is complemented by an extensive practicum component and culminates in a DNP project with additional hours of practicum.

New program. The DNP Leader in Residence program at the Csomay Center is designed to encompass communication and relationship building, systems thinking, change management, transformation and innovation, knowledge of clinical principles in the community, professionalism, and business skills including financial, strategic, and human resource management. The program fully immerses students in the objectives of the DNP Health Systems: Administration/Executive Leadership curriculum and enables them to progressively demonstrate competencies outlined by AONL. The Leader in Residence program also includes career development coaching, reflective practice, and personal and professional accountability. The program is integrated throughout the entire duration of the Leader in Residence’s coursework, fulfilling the required practicum hours for both the DNP coursework and DNP project.

The DNP Leader in Residence program begins with the first semester of practicum being focused on completing an onboarding process to the Center including understanding the center's strategic plan, mission, vision, and history. Onboarding for the Leader in Residence provides access to all relevant Center information and resources and integration into the leadership team, community partnerships, and other University of Iowa College of Nursing Centers associated with the Csomay Center. During this first semester, observation and identification of the Csomay Center Director's various roles including being a leader, manager, innovator, socializer, and mentor is facilitated. In collaboration with the Center Director (a faculty position) and Center Coordinator (a staff position), specific competencies to be measured and mastered along with learning opportunities desired throughout the program are established to ensure a well-planned and thorough immersion experience.

Following the initial semester of practicum, the Leader in Residence has weekly check-ins with the Center Director and Center Coordinator to continue to identify learning opportunities and progression through executive leadership competencies to enrich the experience. The Leader in Residence also undertakes an administrative project for the Center this semester, while concurrently continuing observations of the Center Director's activities in local, regional, and national executive leadership settings. The student has ongoing participation and advancement in executive leadership roles and activities throughout the practicum, creating a well-prepared future nurse executive leader.

After completing practicum hours related to the Health Systems: Administration/Executive Leadership coursework, the Leader in Residence engages in dedicated residency hours to continue to experience domains within nursing leadership competencies like communication, professionalism, and relationship building. During residency hours, time is spent with the completion of a small quality improvement project for the Csomay Center, along with any other administrative projects identified by the Center Director and Center Coordinator. The Leader in Residence is fully integrated into the Csomay Center's Leadership Team during this phase, assisting the Center Coordinator in creating agendas and leading meetings. Additional participation includes active involvement in community engagement activities and presenting at or attending a national conference as a representative of the Csomay Center. The Leader in Residence must mentor a master’s in nursing student during the final year of the DNP Residency.

Implementation of the DNP Leader in Residence Program

PDSA Cycle: Do

Immersive experience. In this case study, the DNP Leader in Residence was fully immersed in a wide range of center activities, providing valuable opportunities to engage in administrative projects and observe executive leadership roles and skills during practicum hours spent at the Csomay Center. Throughout the program, the Leader in Residence observed and learned from multidisciplinary leaders at the national, regional, and university levels who engaged with the Center. By shadowing the Csomay Center Director, the Leader in Residence had the opportunity to observe executive leadership objectives such as fostering innovation, facilitating multidisciplinary collaboration, and nurturing meaningful relationships. The immersive experience within the center’s activities also allowed the Leader in Residence to gain a deep understanding of crucial facets such as philanthropy and community engagement. Active involvement in administrative processes such as strategic planning, budgeting, human resources management, and the development of standard operating procedures provided valuable exposure to strategies that are needed to be an effective nurse leader in the future.

Active participation. The DNP Leader in Residence also played a key role in advancing specific actions outlined in the center's strategic plan during the program including: 1) the creation of a membership structure for the Csomay Center and 2) successfully completing a state Board of Regents application for official recognition as a distinguished center. The Csomay Center sponsored membership for the Leader in Residence in the Midwest Nurse Research Society (MNRS), which opened doors to attend the annual MNRS conference and engage with regional nursing leadership, while fostering socialization, promotion of the Csomay Center and Leader in Residence program, and observation of current nursing research. Furthermore, the Leader in Residence participated in the strategic planning committee and engagement subcommittee for MNRS, collaborating directly with the MNRS president. Additional active participation by the Leader in Residence included attendance in planning sessions and completion of the annual report for GeriatricPain.org , an initiative falling under the umbrella of the Csomay Center. Finally, the Leader in Residence was involved in archiving research and curriculum for distinguished nursing leader and researcher, Dr. Kitty Buckwalter, for the Benjamin Rose Institute on Aging, the University of Pennsylvania Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, and the University of Iowa library archives.

Suggested Evaluation Strategies of the DNP Leader in Residence Program

PDSA Cycle: Study

Assessment and benchmarking. To effectively assess the outcomes and success of the DNP Leader in Residence Program, a comprehensive evaluation framework should be used throughout the program. Key measures should include the collection and review of executive leadership opportunities experienced, leadership roles observed, and competencies mastered. The Leader in Residence is responsible for maintaining detailed logs of their participation in center activities and initiatives on a semester basis. These logs serve to track the progression of mastery of AONL competencies by benchmarking activities and identifying areas for future growth for the Leader in Residence.

Evaluation. In addition to assessment and benchmarking, evaluations need to be completed by Csomay Center stakeholders (leadership, staff, and community partners involved) and the individual Leader in Residence both during and upon completion of the program. Feedback from stakeholders will identify the contributions made by the Leader in Residence and provide valuable insights into their growth. Self-reflection on experiences by the individual Leader in Residence throughout the program will serve as an important measure of personal successes and identify gaps in the program. Factors such as career advancement during the program, application of curriculum objectives in the workplace, and prospects for future career progression for the Leader in Residence should be considered as additional indicators of the success of the program.

The evaluation should also encompass a thorough review of the opportunities experienced during the residency, with the aim of identifying areas for potential expansion and enrichment of the DNP Leader in Residence program. By carefully examining the logs, reflecting on the acquired executive leadership competencies, and studying stakeholder evaluations, additional experiences and opportunities can be identified to further enhance the program's efficacy. The evaluation process should be utilized to identify specific executive leadership competencies that require further immersion and exploration throughout the program.

Future Innovation of DNP Leader in Residence Programs in Non-traditional Healthcare Settings

PDSA Cycle: Act

As subsequent residents complete the program and their experiences are thoroughly evaluated, it is essential to identify new opportunities for DNP Leader in Residence programs to be implemented in other non-health care system settings. When feasible, expansion into clinical healthcare settings, including long-term care and acute care environments, should be pursued. By leveraging the insights gained from previous Leaders in Residence and their respective experiences, the program can be refined to better align with desired outcomes and competencies. These expansions will broaden the scope and impact of the program and provide a wider array of experiences and challenges for future Leaders in Residency to navigate, enriching their development as dynamic nurse executive leaders within diverse healthcare landscapes.

This case study presented a comprehensive overview of the development and implementation of the DNP Leader in Residence program developed by the Barbara and Richard Csomay Center for Gerontological Excellence. The Leader in Residence program provided a transformative experience by integrating key curriculum objectives, competency-based learning, and mentorship by esteemed nursing leaders and researchers through successful integration into the Center. With ongoing innovation and application of the PDSA cycle, the DNP Leader in Residence program presented in this case study holds immense potential to help better prepare 21 st century nurse leaders capable of driving positive change within complex healthcare systems.

Acknowledgements

         The author would like to express gratitude to the Barbara and Richard Csomay Center for Gerontological Excellence for the fostering environment to provide an immersion experience and the ongoing support for development of the DNP Leader in Residence program. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

  • American Association of Colleges of Nursing. The essentials: core competencies for professional nursing education. https://www.aacnnursing.org/Portals/42/AcademicNursing/pdf/Essentials-2021.pdf . Accessed June 26, 2023.
  • American Organization for Nursing Leadership. Nurse leader core competencies. https://www.aonl.org/resources/nurse-leader-competencies . Accessed July 10, 2023.
  • Warshawsky, N, Cramer, E. Describing nurse manager role preparation and competency: findings from a national study. J Nurs Adm . 2019;49(5):249-255. DOI:  10.1097/NNA.0000000000000746
  • Van Diggel, C, Burgess, A, Roberts, C, Mellis, C. Leadership in healthcare education. BMC Med. Educ . 2020;20(465). doi: 10.1186/s12909-020-02288-x
  • Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Plan-do-study-act (PDSA) worksheet. https://www.ihi.org/resources/Pages/Tools/PlanDoStudyActWorksheet.aspx . Accessed July 4, 2023.
  • Taylor, M, McNicolas, C, Nicolay, C, Darzi, A, Bell, D, Reed, J. Systemic review of the application of the plan-do-study-act method to improve quality in healthcare. BMJ Quality & Safety. 2014:23:290-298. doi: 10.1136/bmjqs-2013-002703

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  1. Overview of the Strategic Planning Process

  2. The steps of the strategic planning process in under 15 minutes

  3. Strategic Planning Process: How to Create a Strategic Plan

  4. What is Strategic Planning

  5. What Is the Strategic Planning Process Model Steps Examples Video Lesson Transcript Studycom

  6. Part-2 Types of Planning-What is Strategic Planning? Process & Benefits of Strategic Planning

COMMENTS

  1. The Strategic Planning Process in 4 Steps

    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 ...

  2. Strategic Planning Process: 7 Crucial Steps to Success

    Here's our 7-step approach to strategic planning that ensures everyone is on the same page: Clarify your vision, mission, and values. Conduct an environmental scan. Define strategic priorities. Develop goals and metrics. Derive a strategic plan. Write and communicate your strategic plan. Implement, monitor, and revise.

  3. PDF How to write a strategic plan

    Overcoming Challenges and Pitfalls. Challenge of consensus over clarity. Challenge of who provides input versus who decides. Preparing a long, ambitious, 5 year plan that sits on a shelf. Finding a balance between process and a final product. Communicating and executing the plan. Lack of alignment between mission, action, and finances.

  4. PDF The Complete Guide to Strategic Planning

    Conclusion: A strategic plan needs to be adaptive to survive changing or unanticipated conditions. An organization that ... Strategic issues are critical unknowns that are driving you to embark on a strategic planning process now. These issues can be problems, opportunities, market shifts or anything else that is keeping you awake at ...

  5. 1.7 Conclusion

    1.7 Conclusion. This chapter provides an overview of strategic management and strategy. Ideas about strategy span many centuries, and modern understanding of strategy borrows from ancient strategies as well as classic military strategies. You should now understand that there are numerous ways to conceptualize the idea of strategy, and that ...

  6. What is strategic planning? A 5-step guide

    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 ...

  7. Strategic Planning: A Comprehensive Guide

    Enter: strategic planning. This process involves defining a company's direction, making informed decisions on allocating resources, and laying out a roadmap for the future. Let's dive deep into understanding its importance, how to draft a strategic plan, and the wonders of strategic planning software. ... In conclusion, strategic planning is ...

  8. A Strategic Planning Process

    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 ...

  9. How to improve strategic planning

    00:00. Audio. How to improve strategic planning. This sense of disappointment was captured in a recent McKinsey Quarterly survey of nearly 800 executives: just 45 percent of the respondents said they were satisfied with the strategic-planning process. 1 Moreover, only 23 percent indicated that major strategic decisions were made within its ...

  10. What is Strategic Planning? The Key Components, Process & Role Leaders

    As part of the strategic planning process, companies need to ensure their leadership has the necessary resources, such as funding, personnel, & technology, to implement the strategic plan effectively for the entire duration. ... Conclusion. Having a clear strategic plan is one of those obvious items that every company should have in place yet ...

  11. Strategic Management and Strategic Planning Process

    Abstract and Figures. This Chapter on the strategic management and strategic planning process provide an insight on the basic knowledge on what is strategy and strategic management. it further ...

  12. Strategy Execution: The 7 Step Process [+ Study Findings]

    Strategy execution as part of strategic management. Execution is also a sub-step in the holistic strategic management process. Specifically, this comprises five phases: 1️⃣ Setting strategic objectives, 2️⃣ analyzing the current situation, 3️⃣ designing a strategy, 4️⃣ executing the strategy, and. 5️⃣ evaluating progress.

  13. CHAPTER SIX

    In many departments the overall strategic planning and management process has evolved incremen- tally over several years. A typical pattern might focus on the following elements over a few years in a loose se- quence: â ¢ Mission, vision, and values; â ¢ Strategic goals; â ¢ Strategic objectives; â ¢ Objective owners; â ¢ Performance ...

  14. Does Strategic Planning Improve Organizational Performance? A Meta

    Strategic planning (SP) is one of the more popular management approaches in contemporary organizations, and it is consistently ranked among the five most popular managerial approaches worldwide (Rigby and Bilodeau 2013; Wolf and Floyd 2017).Typically operationalized as an approach to strategy formulation, SP includes elements such as analysis of the organization's mandate, mission, and values ...

  15. An analysis of the strategic plan development processes of major public

    The strategic plan is assumed to be the final outcome of the strategic planning process, in which priority-setting is the key milestone. It is therefore expected that the research priorities of the organisation will be included. ... Conclusion. Our study illustrates the variety of the processes adopted in developing strategic plans for health ...

  16. Strategic Planning and Ten-Ten Planning: Conclusion

    The planning process never ends. With continuous pressure from market and competition, firms are suggested to develop new strategy and planning from time to time. This chapter reviewed the various analytic approaches for strategic planning. There is no single business plan that can be used to deal with the complexity of monopolistic competition ...

  17. Why is Strategic Planning Important? & Top 4 Benefits

    Strategic planning is a systematic process that helps an organization set priorities, focus energy and resources, ensure that employees and other stakeholders are working toward common goals, and assess and adjust the organization's direction in response to a changing environment. ... In conclusion, strategic planning is an essential tool for ...

  18. Strategic Planning Essay: What Is Strategy & Why It Is Important

    Strategic Planning Conclusion. Strategic planning is an important process of small businesses. Small businesses undertake strategic plans in order to determine where they have come from, their current position and projected future position in terms of business performance. Strategic planning also helps a small business to formulate strategies ...

  19. Strategic Thinking vs Strategic Planning: Which One Leads the ...

    In summary, strategic thinking is a more abstract, high-level activity that involves developing an organization's strategic vision and goals. In contrast, strategic planning is a more specific, detailed process that involves creating an action plan to achieve those goals. However, both strategic thinking and planning are essential components ...

  20. Strategic Planning Process (Steps, Examples)

    The strategic planning process aims to set overall goals and objectives, identify strategies for achieving them, and then ensure that those strategies are effectively implemented. ... Conclusion. In conclusion, strategic planning is essential for organizations looking to stay ahead of the competition and achieve their goals. Therefore, it is ...

  21. Strategic planning in turbulent times: Still useful?

    Strategic planning and management are used for adapting an entity, often an organisation, to an anticipated future development (Miles and Snow, 1978).Strategic planning differs from other planning in that it addresses the most important issues and aims to ensure that the entity as a whole is adapted to these important issues so that the entity can serve its purposes in the best possible way ...

  22. Conclusion in conclusion strategic planning is very

    MBA 580. Conclusion. In conclusion strategic planning is very important for any organization to achieve its short and long term goals. Especially, with the boom and busts of the global economies in the last few decades, it has become even more important for companies to execute their strategies carefully. A very important part of the strategy ...

  23. Strategic Plan: 2015

    IN CONCLUSION. Guided by this Strategic Plan, the Skidmore community will strive to cultivate creativity in service of integrative learning, inclusive excellence, access, well-being, and sustainability. In pointing the way for the College to achieve the goals identified above, this Plan represents the convergence of our aspirations and the ...

  24. Driving change: a case study of a DNP leader in residence program in a

    The current Csomay Center strategic plan and mission aims to develop future healthcare leaders while promoting optimal aging and quality of life for older adults. The Csomay Center Director created the innovative DNP Leader in Residence program to foster the growth of future nurse leaders in non-healthcare systems.