9 Strategic Planning Models and Tools for the Customer-Focused Business

Meredith Hart

Published: July 11, 2023

strategic plan abstract visual of hands holding a tablet with a plan on it and chess pieces to the right.

As the economist and business strategy guru, Michael Porter, says, “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”

With strategic planning, businesses identify their strengths and weaknesses, choose what not to do, and determine which opportunities should be pursued. In sales operations, having a clearly defined strategy will help your organization plan for the future, set viable goals, and achieve them.

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So, how do you get started with strategic planning? You‘ll begin with strategic planning models and tools. Let’s take a look at nine of the most prominent ones here.

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Strategic planning models.

Strategic planning is used to set up long-term goals and priorities for an organization. A strategic plan is a written document that outlines these goals.

Don't confuse strategic planning and tactical planning . Strategic planning is focused on long-term goals, while tactical planning is focused on the short-term.

Here are a few strategic planning models you can use to get started.

1. The Balanced Scorecard

The Balanced Scorecard is one of the most prominent strategic planning models, tailored to give managers a comprehensive overview of their companies' operations on tight timelines. It considers both financial and operational metrics to provide valuable context about how a business has performed previously, is currently performing, and is likely to perform in the future.

The model plays on these concerns: time, quality, performance/service, and cost. The sum of those components amount to four specific reference points for goal-setting and performance measurement:

  • Customer: How customers view your business
  • Internal Process: How you can improve your internal processes
  • Organizational Capacity: How your business can grow, adapt, and improve
  • Financial: The potential profitability of your business

Those four categories can inform goals that are more thoughtful and focused while surfacing the most appropriate metrics with which you can use to track them. But the elements you choose to pursue and measure are ultimately up to you. As there's no definitive list, they will vary from organization to organization.

That being said, there‘s a universally applicable technique you can use when leveraging the model—creating a scorecard. This is a document that keeps track of your goals and how you apply them. Here’s an example of what a scorecard might look like:

Strategic Planning Model Balanced Scorecard

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The Balanced Scorecard is ideal for businesses looking to break up higher-level goals into more specific, measurable objectives. If you're interested in translating your big-picture ambitions into actionable projects, consider looking into it.

Example of the Balanced Scorecard

Let‘s imagine a B2B SaaS company that sells a construction management solution. It’s been running into trouble from virtually all angles. It‘s struggling with customer retention and, in turn, is hemorrhaging revenue. The company’s sales reps are working with very few qualified leads and the organization's tech stack is limiting growth and innovation.

The business decides to leverage a Balanced Scorecard approach to remedy its various issues. In this case, the full strategic plan—developed according to this model—might look like this:

  • The company sets a broad financial goal of boosting revenue by 10% year over year.
  • To help get there, it aims to improve its customer retention rate by 5% annually by investing in a more robust customer service infrastructure.
  • Internally, leadership looks to improve the company's lead generation figures by 20% year over year by revamping its onboarding process for its pre-sales team.
  • Finally, the business decides to move on from its legacy tech stack in favor of a virtualized operating system, making for at least 50% faster software delivery for consistent improvements to its product.

The elements listed above address key flaws in the company‘s customer perception, internal processes, financial situation, and organizational capacity. Every improvement the business is hoping to make involves a concrete goal with clearly outlined metrics and definitive figures to gauge each one’s success. Taken together, the organization's plan abides by the Balanced Scorecard model.

2. Objectives and Key Results

As its name implies, the OKR strategic planning model revolves around translating broader organizational goals into objectives and tracking their key results. The framework rests on identifying three to five attainable objectives and three to five results that should stem from each of them. Once you have those in place, you plan tactical initiatives around those results.

After you‘ve figured out those reference points, you determine the most appropriate metrics for measuring their success. And once you’ve carried out the projects informed by those ideal results, you gauge their success by giving a score on a scale from 0 to 1 or 0%-100%.

For instance, your goal might be developing relationships with 100 new targets or named accounts in a specific region. If you only were able to develop 95, you would have a score of .95 or 95%. Here's an example of what an OKR model might look like:

Strategic Planning Model Objectives and Key Results

It's recommended that you structure your targets to land at a score of around 70% — taking some strain off workers while offering them a definitive ideal outcome. The OKR model is relatively straightforward and near-universally applicable. If your business is interested in a way to work towards firmly established, readily visible standards this model could work for you.

Example of the Objectives and Key Results

Let's consider a hypothetical company that makes educational curriculum and schedule planning for higher-education institutions. The company decides it would like to expand its presence in the community college system in California, something that constitutes an objective.

But what will it take to accomplish that? And how will the company know if it's successful? Well, in this instance, leadership within the business would get there by establishing three to five results they would like to see. Those could be:

  • Generating qualified leads from 30 institutions
  • Conducting demos at 10 colleges
  • Closing deals at 5 campuses

Those results would lead to initiatives like setting standards for lead qualification and training reps at the top of the funnel on how to use them appropriately, revamping sales messaging for discovery calls, and conducting research to better tailor the demo process to the needs of community colleges.

Leveraging this model generally entails repeating that process between two and four more times, ultimately leading to a sizable crop of thorough, actionable, ambitious, measurable, realistic plans.

3. Theory of Change (TOC)

The Theory of Change (TOC) model revolves around organizations establishing long-term goals and essentially “working backward” to accomplish them. When leveraging the strategy, you start by setting a larger, big-picture goal.

Then, you identify the intermediate-term adjustments and plans you need to make to achieve your desired outcome. Finally, you work down a level and plan the various short-term changes you need to make to realize the intermediate ones. More specifically, you need to take these strides:

  • Identify your long-term goals.
  • Backward map the preconditions necessary to achieve your goal, and explain why they're necessary.
  • Identify your basic assumptions about the situation.
  • Determine the interventions your initiative will fulfill to achieve your goals.
  • Come up with indicators to evaluate the performance of your initiative.
  • Write an explanation of the logic behind your initiative.

Here's another visualization of what that looks like.

Strategic Planning Model Theory of Change

This planning model works best for organizations interested in taking on endeavors like building a team, planning an initiative, or developing an action plan. It's distinct from other models in its ability to help you differentiate between desired and actual outcomes. It also makes stakeholders more actively involved in the planning process by making them model exactly what they want out of a project.

It relies on more pointed detail than similar models. Stakeholders generally need to lay out several specifics, including information related to the company's target population, how success will be identified, and a definitive timeline for every action and intervention planned. Again, virtually any organization — be it public, corporate, nonprofit, or anything else — can get a lot out of this strategy model.

Example of the Theory of Change

For the sake of this example, imagine a business that makes HR Payroll Software , but hasn‘t been doing too well as of late. Leadership at the company feels directionless. They think it’s time to buckle down and put some firm plans in motion, but right now, they have some big picture outcomes in mind for the company without a feel for how they're going to get done.

In this case, the business might benefit from leveraging the Theory of Change model. Let‘s say its ultimate goal is to expand its market share. Leadership would then consider the preconditions that would ultimately lead to that goal and why they’re relevant.

For instance, one of those preconditions might be tapping into a new customer base without alienating its current one. The company could make an assumption like, “We currently cater to mid-size businesses almost exclusively, and we lack the resources to expand up-market to enterprise-level prospects. We need to find a way to more effectively appeal to small businesses.”

Now, the company can start looking into the specific initiatives it can take to remedy its overarching problem. Let's say it only sells its product at a fixed price point that suits midsize businesses much more than smaller ones. So the company decides that it should leverage a tiered pricing structure that offers a limited suite of features at a price that small businesses and startups can afford.

The factors the company elects to use as reference points for the plan's success are customer retention and new user acquisition. Once those have been established, leadership would explain why the goals, plans, and metrics it has outlined make sense.

If you track the process I‘ve just plotted, you’ll see the Theory of Change in motion. It starts with a big-picture goal and works its way down to specific initiatives and ways to gauge their effectiveness.

4. Hoshin Planning

The Hoshin Planning model is a process that aims to reduce friction and inefficiency by promoting active and open communication throughout an organization. In this model, everyone within an organization—regardless of department or seniority—is made aware of the company's goals.

Hoshin Planning rests on the notion that thorough communication creates cohesion, but that takes more than contributions from leadership. This model requires that results from every level be shared with management.

The ideal outcomes set according to this model are also conceived of by committee to a certain extent. Hoshin Planning involves management hearing and considering feedback from subordinates to come up with reasonable, realistic, and mutually understood goals.

Strategic Planning Model Hoshin Planning

The model is typically partitioned into seven steps:

  • establishing a vision
  • developing breakthrough objectives
  • developing annual objectives
  • deploying annual objectives
  • implementing annual objectives
  • conducting monthly and quarterly reviews
  • conducting an annual review.

Note: The first three steps are referred to as the “catchball process.” It's where company leadership sets goals and establishes strategic plans to send down the food chain for feedback and new ideas. That stage is what really separates Hoshin Planning from other models.

Example of Hoshin Planning

For this example, let‘s imagine a company that manufactures commercial screen printing machines. The business has seen success with smaller-scale, retail printing operations, but realizes that selling almost exclusively to that market won’t make for long-term, sustainable growth.

Leadership at the company decides that it's interested in making an aggressive push to move up-market towards larger enterprise companies. However, before they can establish that vision, they want to ensure that the entire company is willing and able to work with them to reach those goals.

Once they‘ve set a tentative vision, they begin to establish more concrete objectives and send them down the management hierarchy. One of the most pressing activities they’re interested in pursuing is a near-comprehensive product redesign to make their machines better suited for higher volume orders.

They communicate those goals throughout the organization and ask for feedback along the way. After the product team hears their ideal plans, it relays that the product overhaul that leadership is looking into isn‘t viable within the timeframe they’ve provided. Leadership hears this and adjusts their expectations before doling out any sort of demands for the redesign.

Once both parties agree on a feasible timeline, they begin to set more definitive objectives that suit both the company‘s ambitions and the product team’s capabilities.

Strategic Plan Example

The strategic plan above is for a fictitious shoe company and outlines the way in which it'll differentiate itself within the market. It effectively uses each step in the strategic planning model framework and is written in a way to give a brief overview of how the company will enter the market and sustain longevity.

If you're working on a strategic planning model for an existing business, your plan will look similar, but have a few tweaks to the goals, including more goals about improving sales and processes. When drafting the action plan and evaluation parts of the plan, be sure to think tactically about the actions that will help you achieve the goals, and use your mission, vision, and values to guide the choices you make.

Strategic Planning Tools

There are additional resources you can use to support whatever strategic planning model you put in place. Here are some of those:

1. SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool and acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It's used to identify each of these elements in relation to your business.

This strategic planning tool allows you to determine new opportunities and which areas of your business need improvement. You'll also identify any factors or threats that might negatively impact your business or success.

Strategic Planning Tools SWOT Analysis

2. Porter's Five Forces

Use Porter‘s Five Forces as a strategic planning tool to identify the economic forces that impact your industry and determine your business’ competitive position. The five forces include:

  • Competition in the industry
  • Potential of new entrants into the industry
  • Power of suppliers
  • Power of customers
  • Threat of substitute products

To learn more, check out this comprehensive guide to using Porter's Five Forces .

Strategic Planning Tools Porter's Five Forces

3. Visioning

Visioning is a goal-setting strategy used in strategic planning. It helps your organization develop a vision for the future and the outcomes you'd like to achieve.

Once you reflect on the goals you‘d like to reach within the next five years or more, you and your team can identify the steps you need to take to get where you’d like to be. From there, you can create your strategic plan.

4. PESTLE Analysis

The PESTLE analysis is another strategic planning tool you can use. It stands for:

  • P: Political
  • E: Economic
  • T: Technological
  • E: Environmental

Each of these elements allow an organization to take stock of the business environment they're operating in, which helps them develop a strategy for success. Use a PESTLE Analysis template to help you get started.

Strategic Planning Tools: Pestle

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Strategic Planning Tools for 2024

What is strategic planning, what are the benefits of strategic planning, types of strategic planning tools, which strategic planning method is right for your business, charting your course.

Ever feel like your small business is navigating a never-ending maze of decisions, deadlines, and daily demands? You're not alone. Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) struggle with many issues, like being short-staffed, having limited resources, and more. In this environment, making the right decisions and keeping things running can seem like monumental tasks.

But they don't have to be. Strategic planning can help you conquer this chaos. It's not a magic wand, but it's a structured step-by-step process that enables you to define your vision, set achievable goals, and chart a course for growth.

Strategic planning is the process of laying out a clear path for your business. It's about defining what you want to achieve, how you'll get there, and what steps you need to take along the way. Think of it as a map that guides you from where you are now to where you want to be.

SMBs often grapple with many challenges, including limited resources and fierce competition. Strategic planning is the antidote to these challenges. It's not just a theoretical exercise but a practical solution that allows you to identify, prioritize, and tackle the hurdles obstructing your path to success.

Strategic planning can unlock tangible benefits for your business by removing the obstacle of uncertainty and opening up a path to smoother, more efficient growth . Here are just a few of the benefits:

Sharper focus and increased clarity : By defining your core values, long-term goals, and target audience, you give everyone in your organization a shared understanding of where you're heading.

Improved decision-making: Strategic planning facilitates important big-picture conversations among leadership about capabilities, market forces, and scenarios. This aligns everyone on where they should be heading in the future.

Increased productivity: Strategic planning provides a roadmap for action, streamlining your workflow and maximizing your team's potential.

Better motivation and improved morale: By creating a shared vision and purpose, you give your team a reason to feel invested in the business's success, leading to a more engaged and productive workforce .

Greater adaptability: Strategic planning equips you with the tools to anticipate change and adapt quickly. By identifying potential risks and opportunities early on, you can develop contingency plans and adjust your course as needed.

There are many tools for strategic planning, each offering a unique perspective and approach. These tools serve as the strategic gears that set your business in motion toward its envisioned future.

According to Gartner, “CIOs should use strategic principles to provide a framework that ensures all decisions made when creating and executing strategy are aligned with the enterprise's objectives, goals, and strategies.” [1]

Strategic principles come first, and they guide how you use strategic planning frameworks. Here are some common strategic planning tools, along with strategic plan examples.

SWOT analysis

In SWOT analysis, strategic planning teams brainstorm to come up with several strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for their business and list those items in four quadrants.

SWOT analysis helps teams visualize strengths, opportunities, and threats to their business

Teams identify connections between the quadrants—especially connections between strengths and opportunities—to inform their strategy. The thing about SWOT analysis is that you can use it for annual strategic planning or everyday decision-making. Adapt SWOT analysis to a rapidly evolving market by using it at the individual project level.

For example, say your office cleaning service is considering expanding. Using SWOT, you could come up with the following assessment:

Strength: Efficient, established cleaning teams

Weakness: Limited client base

Opportunity: Expand services to home cleaning

Threat: Market is nearly saturated with existing home cleaning services

In this case, the business could match its strength to the opportunity to expand and leverage its experienced teams to make headway in an already competitive market.

OKRs work by establishing a clearly defined goal (the objective ) along with a handful of key results —that is, measurable checkpoints that are designed to achieve the target goal. Here is how it works:

Define your objective: Articulate a clear and inspiring goal that captures your team's aspirations.

Identify key results: Establish three to five measurable outcomes that, when achieved, will demonstrate meaningful progress toward your objective.

Track and adapt: Regularly assess your progress for each key result, typically on a quarterly or monthly basis.

The key to OKRs is their adaptability. They empower you to respond to shifts in market conditions, seize emerging opportunities, and pivot strategies when needed. An example is adapting to the Great Resignation:

Original objective: Achieve a 95% employee retention rate

By adjusting key results, the company can tackle the challenges of the Great Resignation head-on, fostering a more engaged and resilient workforce.

PEST analysis

With PEST (political, economic, socio-cultural, and technological) analysis, strategic planning teams weigh socioeconomic factors into their business forecasting . PEST analysis can also include legal and environmental factors (PESTLE analysis). For PEST analysis to be used effectively, it helps to have representatives on the strategic planning team with a working knowledge of the component factors.

PEST analysis is somewhat complex due to the breadth and depth of the factors it accounts for. On one hand, this necessitates an experienced strategic planning team to use PEST analysis effectively. On the other hand, this makes PEST adaptable to changing conditions. Think of each of the factors that make up PEST as levers. When the market changes, you may have to pull one or more of those levers to adjust your planning.

Here is an example of PESTLE analysis on the rise of electric vehicles:

Political: Government incentives for EV adoption

Economic: Fluctuations in oil prices

Social: Growing awareness of climate change

Technological: Advancements in battery technology

Legal: Intellectual property rights for battery technology

Environmental: Impact of lithium mining on natural resources

Balanced scorecard

Balanced scorecard is a strategic planning model designed to incorporate both financial and non-financial (customer, internal, innovation) measures.

To use the balanced scorecard, strategic planning teams seek to answer the following four questions:

How do customers see us?

What must we excel at?

Can we continue to improve and create value?

How do we look to shareholders?

Teams should answer those questions in four quadrants, linking them together where possible (similar to SWOT analysis), then translate those answers into operational strategy , individual performance goals , and business planning.

Here is an example of balancing financial goals with non-financial measures using this model for a small independent bookstore:

Customer perspective: Achieve a 95% positive rating on online review platforms.

Internal process perspective: Train staff on hosting author talks and literary workshops to create engaging experiences.

Growth and learning perspective: Invest in staff development by sponsoring book club memberships and industry conferences.

Financial perspective: Increase revenue year-over-year by 5% through diversified income streams from events and merchandise.

Hoshin planning

Hoshin planning guides your organization toward long-term goals through a collaborative, step-by-step process. Its core lies in a top-down vision, where leadership sets ambitious company-wide objectives. These goals then cascade down through the organization, transforming them into smaller, achievable objectives customized for each department and team.

Through open dialogue and feedback, every level of the organization participates, fostering understanding, buy-in, and a shared sense of ownership. Visual management tools, like strategic boards, become the canvas upon which progress is tracked, keeping everyone on the same page and celebrating victories along the way.

Here's an example of Hoshin planning in a manufacturing company that wants to increase production by 20%:

This vision cascades down to departments and goals like reducing setup time by 10% and minimizing waste by 5%, which become part of it.

Each department then creates action plans to achieve its objectives.

Regular meetings facilitate communication, address roadblocks, and ensure alignment.

Progress is visualized on Hoshin boards, motivating teams and celebrating success.

Throughout the process, the company learns from setbacks and adapts its strategies for continuous improvement.

Selecting the ideal strategic planning techniques requires considering your unique needs and goals. While each tool offers valuable insights, its strengths and complexities cater to different business types. Here's a quick guide to finding the best match:

Common mistakes to avoid during strategic planning

Once you choose a strategic planning method, make sure to steer clear of these pitfalls:

Going solo: Strategic planning thrives on collaboration , with perspectives from different levels of the organization. According to Gartner, CIOs should work with key stakeholders to develop strategic principles to provide a shared view of business goals. [1]

Vagueness: Set clear, measurable goals with concrete timelines and actionable steps.

Data blindness: Back up your decisions with data and insights to avoid guesswork and ensure evidence-based planning.

Ignoring reality: Be realistic about your resources, capabilities, and market conditions. Don't set yourself up for failure with unrealistic goals.

Static vision: The world is constantly changing. Be flexible and adaptable, revisiting and adjusting your plan as needed.

Navigating the ever-changing business landscape doesn't have to be a guessing game. By exploring the diverse world of strategic planning processes, you can identify the perfect map for your specific journey. From the adaptable flexibility of OKRs to the comprehensive foresight of PESTLE analysis, there's a tool perfectly suited to help you achieve your vision.

Now it's your turn to:

Evaluate your business context and goals to identify the tool that best fits your size, stage, and industry context.

Involve key stakeholders , gather diverse perspectives, and leverage the collective intelligence of your team.

Regularly revisit and adapt your strategic approach and embrace the mindset of continuous improvement.

In the meantime, here are some resources that will help you plan your business's future:

Strategic Planning Software

How to Balance Short-Term Execution and Long-Term Strategy

How To Track Project Progress Effectively in 4 Easy Steps

Use Strategic Principles to Provide Direction for Strategic Planning and Execution , Gartner

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  • What is strategic planning? A 5-step gu ...

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.

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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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10 Best Strategic Planning Software Tools in 2024

Senior Content Marketing Manager

February 14, 2024

Building a strategy takes a huge amount of effort and time. You need to build your vision for the business, set your goals accordingly, and outline how you’ll get there. The number of variables and uncertainties involved, along with the long planning horizon, can quickly turn the creation of that strategic plan into a headache.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be. With the right strategic planning software, capturing and tracking key metrics makes it easier for teams to prioritize the right work.

What is Strategic Planning?

What should you look for in strategy software, 2. achieveit, 4. charthop, 5. lucidspark, 9. clearpoint strategy, 10. peoplebox.

A strategic planning process involves outlining the vision for your organization’s future along with the direction everyone needs to take to get there. The ultimate goal is a formal strategic plan that lets everyone know exactly what they’re working toward.

Every industry and organization approaches planning and progress tracking in different ways. But strategic planning always includes a few core components.

To start, you need a future vision. That’s exactly where leadership sees your organization end up in the future, and it helps stakeholders visualize progress over time.

Then you need to identify the more specific goals that the organization needs to accomplish on the way to fulfilling the vision. They’re still high-level, overarching goals that everyone uses to prioritize their work , track performance, and daily tasks.

Finally, you need a plan of action, the approach you’ll take to accomplish your strategic plan. This final step can become complex as it reaches into the day-to-day tactical plans of every organizational unit.

When going through our list of the best strategic planning software below, you’ll quickly notice just how different they are in their attempts to help you plan more effectively and strategically. Every complete solution you research, however, should include at least a few core strategic planning features on one centralized dashboard:

  • Organization: Data visualization capabilities and tools to organize complex timelines, using tools such as Gantt charts or flowcharts
  • Flexibility: More free-flowing dashboards and interfaces, such as whiteboard templates, that enable brainstorming and creative thought early in the process
  • Customization: Customizable features that allow you to make the software work for your strategic planning process and track progress
  • Agility: The ability to adjust on the fly is necessary, keeping potential contingency plans in mind
  • Team-focused: Collaboration tools that allow more than one user to contribute to the project, especially in virtual environments where the strategy planning team may be distributed remotely
  • Integration: Integration options with other tools, including those you use for project execution or secondary plans, such as product roadmaps ; this sets the stage for a complete product management solution
  • Reporting: Customized performance reports to help monitor key performance indicators and optimize resource management throughout all of your strategic initiatives

Not every tool you find will be equally strong in these features and benefits. The key, then, is finding strategic planning software that matches your specific business game plan, situation, and environment.

The 10 Best Strategic Planning Software Tools to Use in 2024

It’s tough to make an argument for anything other than strategic planning to be the most important process in your organization. Tactics without the strategy behind them likely won’t succeed. These tools can simplify creating that strategy and streamline the process for everyone involved.

ClickUp is the perfect strategic planning software for any organization. It provides a comprehensive suite of tools to help teams organize plans, prioritize tasks, and manage projects. Plus, its visual strategic planning templates give project managers a jumpstart in the creation process.

And if you’re looking for a complete product management solution, ClickUp integrates with thousands of other work apps to streamline portfolio management into one central hub!

ClickUp best features

  • A huge library of templates, including Gantt charts, visual timelines, whiteboards, board views, and ClickUp’s Strategic Roadmap Template !
  • ClickUp Goals feature that allows you to turn your organizational vision into measurable and intuitive goals you can track and work on directly in the software
  • Interactive Dashboards that allow key users to view organizational analytics and adjust their strategic plans
  • A visual and user-friendly interface that works largely on dropdowns and drag-and-drop, enabling anyone involved in the planning to contribute
  • Integrated document management that can house the outcome of the strategic planning process—the written plan—in a centralized and easily accessible space
  • Communication tools that enable multiple members of the organization to collaborate on the planning process from beginning to end

ClickUp limitations

  • The comprehensive nature of the software and its many features can make for a longer learning curve for new users
  • This is a desktop-first strategic planning software; while there are some mobile capabilities and a mobile app, its functionality will always be most effective on desktop devices
  • The pre-built automation can sometimes be limiting, causing some users to request more customized automation opportunities

ClickUp pricing plans

  • Free Forever: A free service for users
  • Unlimited: $7/month per user
  • Business Plus: $19/month per user
  • Enterprise: Contact for pricing

ClickUp ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.7/5 (2,000+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.7/5 (2,000+ reviews)

ClickUp Strategic Roadmap Template

The first dedicated strategic planning tool on our list, AchieveIt focuses on automating and digitizing the planning process. That includes not just creating plans but also monitoring them across the organization and toward long-term success.

The planning process becomes more visible and transparent across the organization. With the intuitive dashboard, everyone remains on the same page regarding the goals, what they’ve achieved, and what they still need to do.

AchieveIt best features

  • Planning templates optimized for industries, including healthcare, government, education, banking, manufacturing, and more
  • A visual dashboard for users to keep track of both the planning and execution process across the organization
  • A scorecard system to measure ongoing progress toward particular strategic goals
  • An extensive knowledgebase complete with both video and written content to simplify onboarding and starting your planning process
  • Close vendor-client relationships that lead to strong customer support and a higher chance of using the software successfully

AchieveIt limitations

  • Limited ability to customize some fields in the templates and dashboards depending on the customization needed
  • Fewer integrations than some leading software solution tools on this list, making it more difficult to plan and track outside the platform
  • The pre-built reporting functions can be somewhat limiting, requiring time spent on custom reports in many industries

AchieveIt pricing plans

  • Core: Contact for pricing
  • Plus: Contact for pricing
  • Pro: Contact for pricing

AchieveIt ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.5/5 (45 reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.7/5 (21 reviews)

Elate strategic planning software

Built by former strategic organizational leaders, Elate helps others streamline their strategy sessions and planning. Like most of the best strategic planning tools, it focuses on three stages: planning, execution, and success tracking.

Each stage focuses on ongoing cross-unit alignment and optimization to keep your business on track.

Elate best features

  • Set objectives and strategic goals in the platform, then communicate them to your larger teams via integrations, such as Slack and Microsoft Teams
  • Create a unified dashboard view of your strategic plan that users and everyone else in the organization can easily see and reference
  • Monitor the status of the plan’s execution through real-time success and progress reports in the platform
  • Use the intuitive interface for easy planning without getting off target

Elate limitations

  • The intentional simplicity of the product can sometimes be a limitation for more complex planning processes
  • External data can be difficult to import into the software, which doesn’t always read typical file types
  • There is currently no integration with project management tools, such as ClickUp, Asana, or Monday, that could lead to more complex execution projects

Elate pricing plans

  • Contact for pricing

Elate ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.9/5 (11 reviews)
  • Capterra: No reviews recorded

ChartHop people management tool

As a people management tool, ChartHop offers a digital solution for effectively tracking, analyzing, and understanding your workforce. It centralizes data such as employee information, roles, skills, and performance metrics, providing a holistic view of your organization.

By having access to this comprehensive dataset, you can gain valuable insights into your workforce and make informed decisions regarding resource allocation, talent development, and organizational strategy.

ChartHop best features

  • A comprehensive employee and people management tool that provides all the depth and insights you need for strategic planning
  • Integration abilities into other websites, such as your organization’s intranet
  • A great mix of user experience and customizability to create an easy tool for all employees and leadership alike

ChartHop limitations

  • There are so many features that it can be easy to lose the overview of what matters most in managing your people and plans
  • The search function within the platform has some bugs and doesn’t always return comprehensive results
  • Reports could use more segmentation abilities to analyze individual employees and data groups in greater detail

ChartHop pricing plans

  • ChartHop Basic: Free for up to 150 employees
  • ChartHop Standard: $8/month per employee
  • ChartHop Premium: Contact for pricing

ChartHop ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.2/5 (98 reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.6/5 (65 reviews)

Lucidspark project management tools

Strategic planning almost always has to start with creative brainstorming and ideation. That’s where a tool like Lucidspark, which thrives on its virtual whiteboarding features, truly shines. Companies, including Google, General Electric, and NBC Universal, use it in the strategic planning process.

Lucidspark best features

  • Strong desktop and mobile capabilities that make whiteboarding and collaboration simple in any situation
  • An integrated chat function that allows multiple users working on the same whiteboard to stay in real-time contact
  • Templates from decision trees to roadmaps that make getting started in the planning process simple

Lucidspark limitations

  • Somewhat limited features and templates for any multi-layered planning process
  • Pricing is not listed publicly, and some reviews have called it out as more expensive than other whiteboarding tools

Lucidspark pricing plans

Lucidspark ratings and reviews.

  • G2: 4.5/5 (2,000+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.7/5 (350+ reviews)

Empiraa objective dashboard for strategic planning

Designed specifically for small businesses, Empiraa employs an established strategic framework that’s easy to integrate your organization and plan into. Simplicity is front and center for all users involved, whether you’re creating a vision or collaborating toward achieving that vision.

Empiraa best features

  • Simplicity is intentional throughout, and this makes Empiraa one of the easiest tools available to start your planning process
  • Streamlined functionality for switching directions or changing alignments to account for shifting business environments
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) integrations that use industry trends and data to suggest both business goals and strategies help achieve these goals

Empiraa limitations

  • Simplicity is its downfall in scenarios where more complex tools and integrations, such as basic task management or calendar functionality, become necessary
  • Lacks a clone function to quickly duplicate content, features, or set-up items when creating more complex or multiple plans and reports

Empiraa pricing plans

  • Empiraa Starter: $4.90/month per user
  • Empiraa Pro: $13.90/month per user
  • Empiraa Max: $23.90/month per user

Empiraa ratings and reviews

  • G2: 5/5 (1 review)
  • Capterra: 5/5 (1 review)

Hive project management software

Similar to ClickUp, Hive integrates strategic planning with more task-oriented project management. It has goal and milestone features, visualization tools, and an easy ability to move directly from the more overarching goals and strategy into managing individual projects connected with them. Meanwhile, Hive Pages is a dashboard specifically designed for strategic tracking.

Hive best features

  • Robust templates that come with full customizability, allowing you to build repeatable processes that help the planning process
  • Centralized and automated reporting and tracking of your goals to keep everyone who needs to stay in the loop involved
  • Automated notifications for every aspect of the strategic planning process, maximizing visibility when building or adjusting the plan

Hive limitations

  • The chat function is a great collaboration tool in theory, but some users report lost messages that make it less reliable than other collaboration tools
  • The mobile app exists largely for checking tasks and notifications and doesn’t have the same functionality as the website and desktop app

Hive pricing plans

  • Free: A free service for users
  • Teams: $12/month per user

Hive ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.6/5 (400+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.5/5 (150+ reviews)

Envisio is designed to manage complexities. What makes it especially unique is its focus on planning transparency when it comes to external stakeholders, who take on a more significant role in these industries compared to most others.

Envisio best features

  • A customizable plan structure that allows every organization to account for its nuances and complications in the process
  • The ability to build multiple plans on a single account, enabling especially complex healthcare and nonprofit organizations to better manage their strategic planning infrastructure
  • Fully customizable public dashboards that can generate automated reports to email lists and sign-ups who are interested in the execution of the plans

Envisio limitations

  • The platform is still evolving, which means new features or layout changes can pop up unexpectedly for users
  • A single plan with custom pricing makes it difficult to plan exactly how much you’ll need to spend on this software without in-depth engagement

Envisio pricing plans

Enivisio ratings and reviews.

  • G2: 4.6/5 (10 reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.7/5 (26 reviews)

ClearPoint Strategy software for strategy execution

ClearPoint Strategy builds its business model on AI automation, and its strategic planning solution is no different. An AI assistant helps organizations with any type of strategic planning, including balanced scorecards, GTSM planning mechanisms, and beyond. The software also automates the execution of that planning process through automated tasks, notifications, reporting, and more.

ClearPoint Strategy best features

  • An AI-enabled budget forecasting that adds a tangible component to the strategic planning process without any calculations needed
  • A fully customizable dashboard that helps all levels of management in both the planning and execution of the plan
  • Plenty of customization possibilities, including custom fields and reports, that allow for a more personalized planning process

ClearPoint Strategy limitations

  • A relatively long learning curve, thanks in part to features, such as AI, that aren’t always intuitive to set up at the beginning compared to other strategic planning solutions
  • Relatively rigid time frames with a standard monthly cadence that is difficult to change in the software

ClearPoint Strategy pricing plans

Clearpoint strategy ratings and reviews.

  • G2: 4.7/5 (100+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.9/5 (38 reviews)

Peoplebox performance management platform

How does your people strategy connect to your business strategy? Find out with Peoplebox. It’s a performance management platform that combines traditional strategic planning tools with those that improve employee engagement and performance management.

Peoplebox best features

  • Performance management tools that allow you to see where and how your teams are performing, which you can connect to your strategic forecasting efforts
  • Objectives and Key Results (OKR)-focused software that’s especially beneficial for organizations using the OKR approach to strategic planning
  • Automated notifications for any red flags that may impede business progress or employee performance

Peoplebox limitations

  • User roles are not always well-defined, with all users being able to create company-wide goals that can confuse the reporting
  • Integrations are still in development, currently limiting the software to a relatively self-contained planning platform

Peoplebox pricing plans

  • Professional: $7/month per user
  • Premium: $15/month per user

Peoplebox ratings and reviews

  • G2: 4.5/5 (250+ reviews)
  • Capterra: 4.7/5 (120+ reviews)

Ready to Start Mastering Your Business Strategy?

ClickUp offers features such as collaboration tools, goal tracking, and real-time data analysis. This allows you to monitor progress and make adjustments as needed. You can also invite stakeholders and assign tasks to ensure everyone is working towards the same end goal. With ClickUp’s help, your team will reach its objectives faster than before.

Start with a free ClickUp Workspace and leverage strategic planning features for your next project!

Questions? Comments? Visit our Help Center for support.

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The online tool for strategic planning

Propel your plans from strategy through execution. Run engaging kickoff sessions, build visual presentations, and manage and track progress collaboratively, all in one online planning tool.

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Over 60M users love Miro.

Build strategy, manage execution

Collaboratively build strategy and manage projects by combining your thought process and data in one workspace. Use Miro’s planning tools to develop strategy, align teams, and communicate plans across the whole organization.

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Visualize projects and dependencies

Organize all your project tasks and resources in one place. Draw dependency lines, manage workloads, and make adjustments on the fly to stay aligned and on track. Easily visualize timelines and the strategic planning process from start to finish.

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Present strategy and execute with the latest info

Turn strategic plans into engaging presentations with live dashboards, wireframes, and diagrams on beautiful frames. Give more context in real time, or make a board recording async and ensure everyone is in the loop.

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Why Miro is the best online planning tool

Run strategic meetings.

Facilitate strategic planning sessions where everyone can participate regardless of location. Generate ideas, discuss, and build plans in real time or continue work async. You'll never run out of space or get erased.

Present your vision

Develop, implement, and evaluate strategic plans and turn them into beautiful presentations with just a few clicks. Present live, or export as an image or PDF. Embed boards as visual documentation in Confluence, Jira, and more.

Bring agility to teams

Establish a culture of trust and transparency through visibility & inclusion. Structure your strategy in a way everyone understands, streamlining communication and workflows.

Maximize resource and time efficiency with cross-functional alignment, no duplicated work. Use Miro’s planning tools to automate processes and jump to execution faster.

Related templates

Strategy Map Template

Visually build your strategy and help your team move forward.

Strategy Diamond

Consider all the elements you need to create an integrated and powerful business strategy using our template for the Strategy Diamond Model.

Strategy Presentation Template

Ensure that your team understands the direction to take and how to execute plans.

PI Planning Template

Manage your team's backlog, increase productivity, and build the foundation for a successful PI Planning event.

Competitive Analysis Template

Identify the other companies you're competing with and how your product or service compares.

2x2 Prioritization Matrix Template

Help your team base important decisions on weighted criteria.

More than just an online planning tool

Miro is designed to do much more than just streamline your strategic processes. With intuitive features, collaborative capabilities, and precision in execution, transform your planning into an inspiring and engaging experience, and lead with confidence in any organization.

Strategy Development

Strategy Development

Propel your plans from strategy through execution. Run engaging kickoff sessions, build visual presentations, manage and track progress collaboratively, all in one online planning tool.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis

Understand the market landscape and anticipate opportunities and threats with a SWOT analysis tool. Make better-informed decisions and align teams on company goals and strategies.

Project management

Project management

Unleash your team's potential and bring your projects to life with Miro, your all-in-one workspace for project management.

strategic planning analysis tools

Communicate timeframes, context, priorities, and deadlines, and create workflows that bring projects to life.

strategic planning analysis tools

Gantt Charts

Design projects efficiently and visualize all tasks in one timeline. Run engaging sessions, and manage progress collaboratively.

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Visualize information with Miro’s T-chart maker. Easily identify patterns and improve decision-making.

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Supply and Demand Graphs

Quickly create a supply and demand graph and get insights on pricing and the best way to target consumers.

How to use Miro for strategic planning

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Select the ready-made templates

From SWOT analysis to project planning and  Gantt charts, find all the resources you need.

Use the template frameworks to guide you, or simply add your data to the board. Include diagrams, notes, and context to your plans.

Invite others to join

Share your board link and brainstorm how to move forward.

Keep your board as the single source of truth, so people can refer to it whenever they need.

Planning tools FAQs

What are the most common planning tools.

There are many planning tools you can use to move projects forward. Every tool supports you at a different stage of your process, from Porter’s Five Forces to Balanced Scorecard and Ansoff Matrix. Miro’s online workspace lets you add as many frameworks as you want without any space constraints, making it easy for teams to have everything they need in one shared tool.

How can I choose the best strategic planning tool for me?

Start by analyzing your project needs and scope to see which frameworks are fitting your needs. Make sure to choose an online planning tool that is intuitive and easy, so everyone is kept in the loop and works collaboratively. Miro lets you work in real time or async, making it easy for teams to connect and develop actionable plans and strategies, no matter where they are.

Are Miro’s planning tools free?

Yes! Sign up for free, browse through our Templates Library, and start your planning immediately, right on the board.

How to write a strategic plan (and what it should include)

How to use the Ansoff Matrix for strategic planning (with examples)

How to hold a strategic planning meeting: A simple, step-by-step guide for facilitators

What is the Strategic Management Process? + How to Get Started

How to facilitate an OKR planning workshop

What is a Lean Canvas?

What is an action plan and how to write one

What is a business model canvas (BMC)?

How to make a good business plan: step-by-step guide

What is a key performance indicator (KPI)?

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9 effective strategic planning models for your business

strategic planning analysis tools

Strategic planning models can make a big difference to your organization. That remains true whether you’re a startup developing an overall strategy or an established business fine-tuning internal processes.

But there are many strategic planning models, and it’s vital to pick one that suits your purpose and needs. The right framework will help you streamline processes, drive alignment, and propel your business.

To help your research process, we’ve compiled a list of the most effective strategic planning models and their top use cases. Let’s take a look.

🧐 Looking for a flexible framework to help you reach your business objectives? Leapsome’s goal management tools fit any strategic planning process. 👉 Learn more

What is a strategic planning model?

A strategic planning model is a framework that allows organizations to map out their short- and long-term business plans. They can help:

  • Identify and overcome obstacles 
  • Improve and streamline operations
  • Reach overarching business goals
  • Create alignment between different departments
  • Track progress over time

And you don’t have to limit your organization to one strategic planning model. Businesses can benefit from using multiple approaches, even simultaneously. But different strategic planning models are best suited for different situations, so make your choice based on your business type, growth stage, priorities, and goals. 

9 models for strategic planning

These are some of the most popular strategic planning models. Our list covers a definition of each model, an example of it in action, and which use cases it works best for.

1. Objectives & key results (OKRs)

OKRs are a popular goal-setting framework that organizations, teams, and individuals use to define long-term objectives and track progress. To better understand the meaning of OKRs , let’s unpack the acronym:

  • Objectives — ambitious but achievable long-term goals
  • Key results — milestones used to measure progress toward each objective

When establishing your OKRs, create quarterly objectives for all company levels — Leapsome has a free OKR template to help you get started. Then, revisit your OKRs regularly to monitor your progress and make adjustments if necessary. You can also introduce regular OKR meetings to your organization’s internal processes.

OKR example

Here’s an example of an OKR for a B2B SaaS company:

Objective | Significantly scale our customer base and deliver our great product to more people

  • Key results: 
  • Increase sales conversion rate from 25% to 30%
  • Reduce user churn from 5% to 3%
  • Publish a successful case study on our website every quarter
  • Achieve a minimum of 4.7 out of 5 rating across all major review sites

OKRs work best for organizations that want to create more alignment behind their goals. By breaking down company-wide objectives into smaller, more manageable tasks, OKRs ensure everyone works toward a common purpose.

‍ OKRs also show employees how their work contributes to the big picture, giving them a sense of purpose and boosting employee engagement . Research by Gallup links engaged employees to lower turnover rates, better work performance, and a thriving work culture. Consequently, OKRs help companies build successful workplaces.

A screenshot of Leapsome’s Goals & OKRs product showing company-wide objectives.

💡 Wondering how to introduce OKRs to your organization? Use Leapsome’s flexible framework to set company-wide objectives and track them in one intuitive place. 👉 Learn more

2. SWOT analysis

SWOT stands for strengths , weaknesses , opportunities , and threats . Use the SWOT model to define internal and external factors affecting your business. Then, compare the different factors to assess the risk of a potential strategy. 

For example, if your organization’s strengths match opportunities in the market — say, you have a lot of capital, and your competitors don’t — you know you have a competitive advantage. In that scenario, you can take an offensive business strategy with relatively low risk.

SWOT example

Here’s a SWOT example for a sales-based organization:

  • Strengths — We have an excellent rapport with our customers and a loyal customer base.
  • Weaknesses — Our current supply chain is inadequate.
  • Opportunities — There’s high customer demand for one of our products.
  • Threat — Our main competitor is developing a similar product.

Based on this SWOT analysis, our example organization isn’t in a strong strategic position. There’s a risk they won’t produce or distribute enough of their product to meet demand, and their competitor has the potential to outperform them. They should prioritize optimizing their product offering and solving supply chain issues over generating leads or working on an aggressive marketing campaign.

Any business can benefit from SWOT analysis. However, it’s best to use it at the beginning stages of a new strategy and with a specific goal in mind. You could try a SWOT approach when deciding priorities, like implementing new technology or restructuring your organization.

3. PEST or PESTLE analysis

PEST analysis focuses on external factors that can affect your organization. The letters stand for:

  • Socio-cultural
  • Technological

And depending on your industry, you might add legal and environmental factors to make PESTLE. 

PEST or PESTLE example

Here’s an example of a PESTLE analysis for a multinational confectionery company:

  • Political factors — The government of a country where we sell many products is planning to raise import tariffs.
  • Economic factors — Our target demographic (13 to 21-year-olds) has more disposable income now that Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted.
  • Socio-cultural factors — Surveys report that customers consider our products healthy.
  • Technological factors — Engineers devised a more efficient way to farm the main ingredient in half our products.
  • Legal factors — The FDA approved our latest chocolate bar.
  • Environmental factors — NGOs are pressuring us to use more environmentally friendly processes.

PEST analysis lets you assess the business environment for a product or service, so it’s best used during the beginning stages of a project.

4. The Balanced Scorecard framework

The Balanced Scorecard framework lets you take a holistic approach to business planning that doesn’t just focus on economic performance. Instead, you look at four perspectives: 

  • Financial perspective — how well your organization is performing economically
  • Customer perspective — your customer satisfaction and retention levels
  • Internal business perspective — the quality and efficiency of your internal operations
  • Innovation and learning perspective — your ability to improve, pivot, and grow your business

Then, create objectives and define measures to track your progress for each perspective. Those measures will support you in planning and executing initiatives to achieve your goals. And as you carry out this strategy, you can update your scorecard to show your progress.

Balanced Scorecard example

The management at ECI (Electronic Circuits Inc.) wanted to improve their delivery times. But when they talked to customers about the issue, the organization received unreliable feedback — different people had different definitions of being ‘on time.’

Using the Balanced Scorecard framework, managers shifted focus to their operations and checked the efficiency of their manufacturing process. They discovered ways to optimize the business’s cycle time, yield, and costs. 

Despite not having a reliable customer perspective, the Balanced Scorecard’s comprehensive overview of the ECI organization provided a versatile solution for reducing delivery times and streamlining the business’s overall operations.

The Balanced Scorecard framework is best for understanding your business health and creating alignment across your company.

5. Porter’s Five Forces

Porter’s Five Forces is an approach that lets you assess your product or service’s competitive advantage in the market. Identifying potential threats can guide your organization in developing a more dynamic strategic plan.

The ‘Five Forces’ that may affect your product are:

  • The threat of new competitors — Are many new businesses popping up in your industry? How easy is it for new companies to develop a product or service similar to yours?
  • The number of existing competitors — How many direct competitors are you contending with? What about adjacent competitors? Are any of them growing quickly?
  • The bargaining power of suppliers — Could suppliers put pressure on you to lower costs or change your business model?
  • The bargaining power of customers — Are your products or services available elsewhere? Is there a demand for them? Do people have issues with your pricing or quality?
  • The threat of a substitute — How likely is a similar product or service to enter the market?

Porter’s Five Forces example

Let’s take the example of a cosmetics company planning to release a shampoo with SPF 50:

  • The threat of new competitors — The shampoo requires expertise to develop, which is an obstacle for competitors entering the market.
  • The number of existing competitors — Two companies with similar products are poised to grow. They could create an almost identical product and pressure them to lower costs.
  • The bargaining power of suppliers — There’s a large number of suppliers, so they have little bargaining power.
  • The bargaining power of customers — Depending on where customers live, they’ll consider the shampoo a seasonal product. As it’s almost winter in the countries with the largest customer base, demand is lower.
  • The threat of a substitute — Research suggests that no products currently in development could fill the same need (protecting the scalp from sunburn).

Porter’s Five Forces are best for evaluating your product or service after development but before entering the market. It’s also helpful for assessing an organization’s overall competitive position. 

6. The VRIO framework

The VRIO framework helps organizations determine whether they can turn a resource into a competitive advantage. These can be physical resources like inventory, tools, and technology, or nonphysical ones like patents, skills, and work culture.

Let’s break down the VRIO acronym to understand how to evaluate each resource:

  • Valuable — The resource increases revenue or decreases operational costs.
  • Rare — The resource is limited or you control the supply.
  • Inimitable — The resource is unique or complex, meaning it’s difficult for competitors to copy.
  • Organizational — Your organization can exploit the full potential of the resource.

VRIO example

Here’s an example of a delivery company determining whether they can exploit their resource — distribution centers — to gain a competitive advantage:

  • Valuable — All the distribution centers are in strategic positions, which makes them a valuable resource as the company can use their location to create more efficient delivery routes.
  • Rare — The distribution network is a scarce resource because there are only a few ports for international delivery.
  • Inimitable — Competitors could build distribution centers in nearby locations.
  • Organizational — Delivery drivers aren’t using the most efficient routes between distribution centers.

The delivery company could have a temporary competitive advantage, but they’re not exploiting this resource. Management needs to address whatever stops delivery drivers from using the fastest route before rival delivery companies copy and control the same resource. ‍

Photo of professionals evaluating their organization's resources around a table.

The VRIO framework works best for businesses deciding how to launch a new product or service or determining how to improve their existing business model. 

Specifically, the organizational metric shows how efficiently your organization uses its resources. If you have a high score for the first three metrics but consistently fail to capture the value of your resources, it’s a sign you need to improve your internal processes.

Combine the VRIO framework with Porter’s Five Forces for a clear strategic direction when launching a new product.

7. The Hoshin Planning framework

The Hoshin Planning framework is mainly a top-down approach. This method outlines seven strategic planning stages, which are:

  • Define your vision to clarify your organization’s primary purpose.
  • Develop your main objectives to give your organization a competitive advantage.
  • Break down objectives into smaller annual goals.
  • Set goals across your entire organization — at C-level, managerial, departmental, and individual levels.
  • Implement your plans.
  • Perform monthly reviews to reflect and monitor progress.
  • Do an annual review to determine if you’ve achieved your goals and what to work on next.

It’s worth noting that the Hoshin Planning framework doesn’t have to be strictly top-down. Another core idea behind this method is that managers should ‘play catch ball’ — that is, bounce ideas between management, department heads, and team members during the first four stages.

Hoshin Planning example

Here’s how a car manufacturer might implement the Hoshin Planning framework:

  • Management shares their vision of developing the most innovative technology on the market.
  • They decide their main goal is to develop the first self-driving car by the end of 2025. But when leadership talks to the head of engineering, they say this breakthrough won’t be possible by 2025. They collectively adjust the deadline to 2027.
  • Management breaks this goal down into smaller targets. One of them is mapping out what the self-driving car should be able to do in every scenario. The engineering department agrees with this plan.
  • ​​Those targets inform detailed initiatives, like observing real-life driving incidents and collecting data on traffic and accidents.
  • All parties carry out the agreed-upon initiatives. After a month, management conducts a meeting to check everyone’s progress.
  • A year later, the engineering department has data on most scenarios the self-driving car would encounter on the road.

Companies with complex processes — like manufacturing and tech businesses — are more likely to use the Hoshin Planning framework. Their operations benefit from the ‘catch ball’ idea because it’s easier to spot problems when you filter them through diverse teams.

The Hoshin Planning Framework is also ideal for creating alignment within your company. Consider it for a larger organization that’s experienced project issues and bottlenecks.

8. The Theory of Change model

The Theory of Change model involves establishing long-term goals and working backward. Start with your desired outcome and go through all preconditions necessary for it to become a reality. During this process, you determine what needs to change to reach your objectives.

Theory of Change example

Nonprofit organizations with specific missions often use the Theory of Change model. Take adult literacy, for example. The project team would start with an ideal situation — like their country having a 100% literacy rate — and work backward to find out what’s preventing them from achieving that aim. The issues might range from a lack of funding to a need to increase awareness about resources that are already available. Then, the nonprofit team could start addressing the issues they identified.

Any organization can benefit from the Theory of Change framework. Still, it works best for specific projects, like expanding your company abroad or opening a new department, as it involves scenario planning. 

9. The Blue Ocean strategy

The Blue Ocean strategy is a strategic planning model that’s become popular recently. Developed in 2004, this method assesses whether your organization operates in a saturated market. If so, the underlying assumption of the Blue Ocean strategy is that it’s better to create new demand.

In the strategy, the ‘ocean’ is a metaphor for the market. The ‘red ocean’ is full of predators (large companies) competing for food (customers) and turning the water red, whereas the ‘blue ocean’ is deep, unexplored water that’s full of potential (uncontested market space). Here’s a list of indicators that you’re in a ‘blue ocean’:

  • You’ve found uncontested market space
  • You’ve made the competition irrelevant
  • You’re creating and capturing new demand
  • You’re breaking the value-cost trade-off

Blue Ocean example

Apple is a famous example of a business that operates in a ‘blue ocean.’ Although it’s one of the leading technology companies in the world, the Apple team still prefers to innovate new products rather than beat the competition.

The Blue Ocean strategy is ideal for small businesses and start-ups trying to establish themselves among larger organizations. Established companies in dynamic industries like tech can also use it to stay ahead of their competition.

How to implement a strategic planning model

Once you’ve set up your strategic plan, you’ll want to utilize it to its full potential. Here are some tips to make sure your strategy goes into action.

Align your approach to strategic planning with your values

There are many strategic planning models to choose from, and your organization can only implement so many. Although all of them have pros and cons, none are necessarily better than the others. So, choose the strategic planning models that reflect your organization’s values. That way, it’ll be easier to introduce your strategy and get all team members on board.

If you’re a people-first organization, OKRs are an ideal choice. OKRs involve your employees in company initiatives, make internal decisions more transparent, and give everyone a sense of purpose. 

Allocate resources to the strategic planning process

Strategic planning is like any other task: It requires resources like funding, time, and research. You should have a budget and schedule for every part of the process.

The employees helping you with strategic planning and implementation are also vital assets — offer them training and consistent support. Free up their schedule for strategic planning and create a timeline for the entire process to set your team up for success. ‍

Photo of a group of professionals working on a strategic plan around a table.

Review your progress

Aside from planning and implementing your strategy, you’ll need to check on your progress regularly. That means monthly and annual reviews at all levels.

Many strategic planning models already have reviews built into their stages. But even if they don’t, you should reevaluate at regular intervals. You can define some key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of your initiatives and your overall business health. Popular KPIs include revenue growth, client retention rate, and employee satisfaction.

Be ready to adjust your strategic plan

As the saying goes, even the best-laid plans often go awry. You may find that conditions change as you implement your strategic plan or that you didn’t predict certain issues. The key isn’t necessarily to strategize better, but to have a dynamic strategy. This will allow you to adjust your plan and deal with problems as they arise.

For instance, you might opt for the PEST analysis, but be open to considering important legal and environmental factors when they come up. You can try to predict what new legislation or world events may affect your industry. Then, if any conditions arise that affect your business, you’ll be able to pivot your strategy without too much additional effort.

Boost your organization’s performance with strategic planning models

Strategic planning models help you assess the current state of your organization, decide which direction to take in the future, and communicate your plans to your employees. They can be the difference between your business merely sustaining itself and thriving.

If you’re wondering how to implement a new strategic planning model, Leapsome can offer professional support. Our Goals and OKR Management Software provides an adaptable framework for your chosen strategic model.

🚀 Kickstart your strategic plan with Leapsome Our goals and OKR management tools make it easy to implement your strategy of choice. 👉 Book a demo

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Utilizing the Various Strategic Analysis Tools

Strategic Analysis is a core step in the Strategic Learning Cycle. Every strategist should have a toolset of analytical models at his or her disposal. However, there are many techniques and tools available for strategy analysis. If you google around the web, you will find a long list of options available. The challenge is to acquire the right techniques and tools for a given business problem. This article give you a brief introduction for you to jumpstart the strategic analysis learning process.

What is Strategic Analysis?

First comes first, what is strategic analysis? Strategic analysis helps you explore your growth options, addresses challenges within your industry, and makes better corporate decisions. Strategy analysis is an approach to facilitating, researching, analyzing, and mapping an organization's abilities to achieve a future envisioned state based on present reality and often with consideration of the organization's processes, technologies, business development and people's capabilities.

Strategic Analysis

You need to look outside of our organization to identify the changes out there and to look forward and think about the opportunities in future. Strategic analysis is not just about understanding changes. It is about turning this into concrete actions through generating options and choices, making decisions and integrating this into your organization's planning process.

Selected Strategic Analysis Tools

Just as having the right tools won't necessarily make you a good mechanic, having the right strategy analysis tools won't automatically make you a good strategist - but they will help you get jobs done more effectively. Here is a list of essential tools for strategy analysis:

SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis is a technique developed at Stanford in the 1970s, frequently used in strategic planning . SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats and is a structured planning method that evaluates those four elements of an organization, project or business venture. A SWOT analysis is a simple, but powerful, framework for leveraging the organization's strengths, improving weaknesses, minimizing threats, and taking the greatest possible advantage of opportunities.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT analysis is a process where the management team identifies the internal and external factors that will affect the company's future performance. It helps us to identify of what is happening internally and externally, so that you can plan and manage your business in the most effective and efficient manner.

PEST Analysis

The PEST analysis is a useful tool for understanding market growth or decline, and as such the position, potential and direction for a business. PEST is an acronym for Political, Economic, Social and Technological factors, which are used to assess the market for a business or organizational unit. Sometimes it's expanded to include legal and environmental factors and called a PESTLE analysis.

PEST Analysis example

A PEST analysis guides us to identify effective strategies for setting priority, allocating resources, planning for time and development roadmap and formulating control mechanisms. With this analysis, you can identify potential opportunities and threats associated with your strategy and figure out ways to take advantage of them and avoid them.

Value Chain Analysis

Value chain analysis is a way to visually analyze a company's business activities to see how the company can create a competitive advantage for itself. Value chain analysis helps a company understands how it adds value to something and subsequently how it can sell its product or service for more than the cost of adding the value, thereby generating a profit margin. In other words, if they are run efficiently the value obtained should exceed the costs of running them i.e. customers should return to the organization and transact freely and willingly.

Originated in the 1980s by Michael Porter , value chain analysis is the conceptual notion of value-added in the form of a value chain. He suggested that an organization is split into 'primary activities' and 'support activities'. The figure below divides activities into primary and support activities as suggested by Porter's Value Chain Analysis model.

Value Chain Diagram eaxample

Five Forces Analysis

Michael Porter developed the Five Forces Model in 1980. Michael Porter's Five Forces is a powerful competitive analysis tool to determine the principal competitive influence in a market. It is a broadly used model in business that refers to the five important factors that drive a firm's competitive position within an industry. By thinking through how each force affects you, and by identifying the strength and direction of each force, you can quickly assess the strength of the position and your ability to make a sustained profit in the industry. Thus Five Forces analysis helps you stay competitive by:

Five Forces Analysis example

Four Corners Analysis

The Four Corners Analysis, developed Michael Porter, is a model well designed to help company strategists assess a competitor's intent and objectives, and the strengths it is using to achieve them. It is a useful technique to evaluate competitors and generate insights concerning likely competitor strategy changes and determine competitor reaction to environmental changes and industry shifts. By examining a competitor's current strategy, future goals, assumptions about the market, and core capabilities, the Four Corners Model helps analysts address four core questions:

  • Motivation - What drives the competitor? Look for drivers at various levels and dimensions so you can gain insights into future goals.
  • Current Strategy - What is the competitor doing and what is the competitor capable of doing?
  • Capabilities - What are the strengths and weaknesses of the competitor?
  • Management Assumptions - What assumptions are made by the competitor's management team?

Four Corner Analysis example

Business Motivation Model (BMM)

If an enterprise prescribes a certain approach for its business activity, it ought to be able to say why and what result(s) is the approach meant to achieve. The Business Motivation Model (BMM) is an OMG modeling notation for support of business decisions about how to react to a changing world. An enterprise would use it by acquiring a BMM modeling tool and then creating its own BMM - populating the model with business information specific to the enterprise. There are two broad purposes:

  • To capture decisions about reaction to change and the rationale for making them, with the intent of making them shareable, increasing clarity and improving decision-making by learning from experience.
  • To reference the outcomes of the decisions to their effect on the operational business (e.g. changes made to business processes and organization responsibilities), providing traceability from influencer to operational change.

The BMM provides support in four areas, as illustrated in the diagram below:

Business Motivation Model (BMM)

The scope of an enterprise BMM may be the entire enterprise, or an organization unit within it. Higher-level organization units may appear to lower level units as influencing organizations, outside the 'enterprise' boundary, and their directives may have the status of regulations. An enterprise BMM does not have to represent the entire enterprise. A stakeholder can create a BMM of a partial view, referencing only those parts of the business that are relevant to his/her responsibilities and decision-making authority.

Ends define what an enterprise wants to be - the states it desires to be in. There are three levels:

BMM End

Means define what an enterprise has decided it needs to do to achieve its ends. There are three kinds:

BMM Means

Influencers

An influencer is something that an enterprise decides might affect it. There are two broad types:

BMM Influencer

Assessments

When an influencer causes a significant change, the enterprise makes an assessment of its impact, identifying risks and potential rewards. There may be multiple assessments, perhaps from different stakeholders.

BMM Assessment

Strategic Planning In-Action with BMM

The OMG Business Motivation Model (BMM) provides an excellent framework for developing, communicating and managing strategic plans. This framework reflects widely accepted strategic planning techniques, helping you identify strategic drivers and strategic goals in strategic planning.

A Guided Process for Strategic Planning with BMM

The learning curve of performing BMM could be somehow steep for beginner. The interconnection among elements are hard to maintain and visualize and that's why the Guide-Through Process for BMM come about.

BMM Guide-Through features a generic process that assists you in developing a Business Motivation Model. By following the process step-by-step, the core components of strategic planning will be identified. The resulting information will be archived in document form automatically.

BMM Guide-through

Benefits of the BMM Guide-through Process:

  • Structure into activities and steps, and embedded with instructions, and samples
  • Progress Indicator that shows you where you are and the status of completion for activities and steps
  • Query and visualize complex elements structure and information in ArchiMate diagrams
  • Perform work and generate deliverable and report automatically
  • Automatically transcribe data from one step to another for further actions or perform different forms of analysis to ensure the consistency among elements.

Related Links

  • What is SWOT?
  • What is PEST Analysis?
  • What is Value Chain Analysis?
  • What is Five Forces Analysis?
  • What is Four Corners Analysis?
  • Software tools for creating SWOT and other strategic analysis models

* SWOT, PEST, Value Chain, Five Forces Analysis are powered by Visual Paradigm's web technology. You can create it in both Visual Paradigm Desktop and Visual Paradigm Online .

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Internal & external analysis, what is an internal and external analysis.

An internal and external strategic analysis refers to reviewing your organization’s current state from an internal and external perspective. The output of completing an internal and external analysis – also known as a strategic analysis – is to have a clear picture of your organization’s current state.

How does a strategic analysis fit into strategic planning?

Before any organization jumps into the core of strategic planning process, it’s vital to clearly understand where your organization is today . Without clearly defining where you are today (your current state), you can’t define your bold destination of the future (vision) or create the roadmap to get there (your annual strategic plan).

Completing an internal and external analysis lays the groundwork and foundation for the bones of your strategic plan, influencing everything from your competitive advantages, growth strategy, and major themes that influence your entire strategic plan’s framework.It also helps you better understand the gaps you need to overcome to reach your future goals.

Pro Tip: DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP IN PLANNING! It may seem tempting to skip things like your SWOT, completive analysis, and strategic market analysis, but don’t do it! Build a plan that helps you go from where you are today to a bold place in the future.

What is the output of an internal and external analysis?

The result or output from this work should be a fully fleshed-out current state analysis for your organization’s growth. This should include:

  • What you’re best at, and what you need to improve upon.
  • Your clearly defined competitive advantages.
  • Areas of market opportunity or growth opportunity to pursue.
  • A clear understanding of your competitors and what they’re best at.
  • Strategic themes to use as the framework for your plan.

What is an internal analysis?

Analyzing Your Internal Factors

What is an internal analysis.

An internal analysis examines your organization’s core competencies today that are influenced by internal factors – factors that are not driven by external market dynamics. This analysis would look at the organization’s strengths and weaknesses in meeting the needs of your customers or stakeholders

As you dive deeper into an internal analysis process, you will examine internal factors that give an organization advantages and disadvantages in meeting the needs of its market, customers, partners, and even employees. Any analysis of company strengths should be market-oriented/customer-focused because strengths are only meaningful when they assist the firm in meeting customer needs.

Internal Factors to Consider

An internal analysis can look at all internal factors affecting a company’s business performance. Here are the three most common factors to consider as you conduct your internal analysis:

Your Organization’s Resources

A good starting point to identify resources is to look at tangible and intangible resources available to your organization.

Tangible resources are the easiest to identify and evaluate financial resources, and physical assets are identified and valued in the firm’s financial statements.

Intangible resources are largely invisible, but over time become more important to the firm than tangible assets because they can be a main source of competitive advantage. Such intangible resources include reputational assets (brands, images, etc.) and technological assets (proprietary technology and know-how).

Your Organization’s Capabilities

Organizational capabilities are used to refer to a firm’s capacity for undertaking a particular productive activity. Our interest is not in capabilities per se but in capabilities relative to other firms. We will use the functional classification approach to identify the firm’s capabilities. A functional classification identifies the organizational capabilities of each of the principal functional areas.

Your Human Resources (Employees)

Technically, this could fall underneath your organization’s resources, but it’s worth separating human resources into its own category. After all, without your organization’s human capital, you wouldn’t exist!

Internal Forces

Data to Use in an Internal Analysis

Before you conduct your internal analysis, we recommend collecting the following as references:

Employee Surveys

What do your employees say your organization does well, and where must you improve? Surveys need to be from within the previous 12 months!

Customer Surveys

What do customers love most about your organization, product, or service? How do you best meet their needs? Again, these surveys must be from within at least the previous 12 months.

Business Strategy of Record + Current Performance

Having your previous strategic plan and performance data to reference is always helpful as you complete your strategic internal analysis process.

List of Resources

Your tangible and intangible resources may directly influence your internal strategic strengths, weaknesses, problems, constraints, and uncertainties.

A List of Capabilities

Capabilities [or lack of capabilities] are helpful to reference and identify internal strategic strengths, weaknesses, problems, constraints, and uncertainties.

Questions to Consider for Your Internal Analysis

  • What do you do best?
  • What do we do best?
  • What do our customers value most from our organization?
  • How do we uniquely serve our customers?
  • What are our company resources – assets, intellectual property, and people?
  • How are we using our resources well?
  • Where do we need to be more efficient?
  • How do our employees or shareholders perceive us?
  • How are we meeting our employees’ needs?
  • What are our organization’s core capabilities?
  • What do we need to improve upon?

Internal analysis data

Tools to Conduct Your Internal Analysis

Swot analysis.

Conducting a SWOT analysis is easily the most common approach to completing an internal analysis. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The internal component of a SWOT analysis specifically looks at your organization’s core strengths (S) and weaknesses (W).

Pro Tip: A SWOT’s S and W portion is directly influenced by your organization’s internal factors – meaning factors you can directly influence. You can check out our full post on SWOT analysis here and download the free SWOT analysis guide here .

VRIO Framework

The VRIO framework is an internal analysis tool designed to help you identify your organization’s competitive advantages.

The VRIO analysis too helps you evaluate if a core strength, capability, or resource is a competitive advantage by assessing if that strength is valuable to your market, rare in competition, hard to copy, and organized to act upon.

Pro Tip: The VRIO framework evaluates internal strengths but needs external strategic analysis of your competition. So, it uses internal and external factors to help you identify your competitive advantages.

Download our Free VRIO Template and Examples!

What is the Output of an Internal Analysis?

There are a few important outputs from an internal analysis that help create the foundation of your business strategy formulation and direction:

  • Output #1: A clear list of internal strengths and internal weaknesses of an organization.
  • Output #2: Strategic issues to address (from an internal perspective).
  • Output #3: A list of strengths to use as fodder for your competitive advantages (you’ll need to use these paired with a competitive analysis to identify competitive advantages).
  • Output #4: Themes to use in your strategic framework and strategic planning objectives.

What is an external analysis?

Analyzing Your External Factors

An external analysis examines the external factors and forces that impact your organization’s operating environment. External factors, by nature, exist beyond the walls of your organization and internal environment. They are forces and dynamics beyond your control, but still, impact your organization level and position in the marketplace.

Pro Tip: A helpful way to think about external forces is to ask, “would this be an issue or opportunity even if our organization did not exist?” If yes, it is an issue that is an external force.

The goal of these exercises is to identify external opportunities, threats, trends, and strategic uncertainties.

External Factors to Consider

An external analysis can be used to look at all external factors affecting a company. Here are the three most common factors to consider as you conduct your external analysis:

Market Trends

Market-level data, including overall size, projected growth, profitability, entry barriers, cost structure, distribution system, trends, and key success factors in your competitive market.

Industry Data and Trends

This data looks at what’s happening in your industry, including factors like vendors, suppliers, competitors, and buyers’ power.

Operating Environment Trends

This looks at global forces, demographic changes, political winds, ecological and natural issues, technological trends, economic factors, and social/cultural shifts. This is most often completed using a PESTLE analysis.

External forces

Data to Use in External Analysis

Industry and market reports.

What are important and potentially important markets? What are their size and growth characteristics? What markets are declining? What are the driving forces behind sales trends? Who competes in your market, and what is their market share?

Market Profitability Projections

For a holistic strategic analysis of your major market, consider the following factors: Is this a business where the average firm will make money? How intense is the competition among existing firms? Evaluate the threats from potential entrants and substitute products. What is the bargaining power of suppliers and customers? How attractive/profitable is the market now and in the future?

Cost Structure

What are the major cost and value-added components for various types of competitors?

Supplier and Distribution Data

What’s happening in your supply chain market? What are the alternative channels of distribution? How are they changing?

Operating Environment Factors

The interest is in environmental analysis and events that have the potential to affect strategy. This analysis should identify such trends and events and estimate their likelihood and impact. When conducting these types of strategic analysis, it is easy to get bogged down in an extensive, broad survey of trends. It is necessary to restrict the analysis to areas relevant enough to impact strategy significantly.

  • Economic: What economic trends might have an impact on business activity? (Interest rates, inflation, unemployment levels, energy availability, disposable income, etc)
  • Technological: To what extent are existing technologies maturing? What technological developments or trends are affecting or could affect our industry?
  • Legal Forces: What changes in regulation are possible? What will their impact be on our industry? What tax or other incentives are being developed that might affect strategy development? Are there political or governmental stability risks?
  • Sociocultural: What are the current or emerging lifestyle, fashion, and culture trends? What are their implications? What demographic trends will affect the market size of the industry? (i.e. growth rate, income, population shifts) Do these trends represent an opportunity or a threat?

Questions to Consider for Your External Analysis

Assessing Your Marketing (External Factors):

  • What is happening externally and internally that will affect our company?
  • Who are our customers?
  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor?
  • What are the driving forces behind sales trends?
  • What are important and potentially important markets?
  • What is happening in the world that might affect our company?

Assess Your Competition (External Factors):

  • How are we different from the competition?
  • How are our competitors winning?
  • How are our competitors losing?
  • What does our competition do better than us?
  • How do we best serve our market/customers?
  • What competitive moves can we make against our competitors?

External analysis data

Tools to Conduct Your External Analysis

Pestle analysis.

A PESTLE analysis is an external analysis tool that helps you determine how your business or organization stands up against external, macro-level external environment factors that could impact your business. It is an acronym for Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, and Environmental factors. These are the core areas in the operating environment that could affect the success of an organization the most.

However, it is not enough to just name the external factors that could impact your organization. You must determine whether these factors will primarily pose an opportunity or a threat to your organization’s growth.

Download our Free PESTLE Template and Examples!

As we said earlier, a SWOT analysis is the most common approach to finishing your external analysis. To complete the external analysis portion of the SWOT, you’ll examine Opportunities (O) and Threats (T).

Pro Tip: A SWOT’s O and T portion is directly influenced by your organization’s external factors – meaning factors you can’t directly influence. You can check out our full post on SWOT analysis here and download the free SWOT analysis guide here .

Competitor Analysis-

Your competitor analysis will look at three different types of competitors:

  • Direct competitors (those in your direct market space and always listed with you in a customer shortlist).
  • Indirect competitors (those who aren’t quite in your same market sphere, but who you should still watch out for as indirect competitors could become direct).
  • Substitutes or new entrants (those who may have alternative products or who are not quite at your level as to be considered direct competition).

Identify Competitors

  • Against whom do we compete?
  • Who are our most intense competitors? Less intense?
  • Makers of substitute products?
  • Can these competitors be grouped into strategic groups based on assets, competencies, or strategies?
  • Who are potential competitive entrants?
  • What are their barriers to entry?

Evaluate Your Competitors

  • What are their objectives and strategies?
  • What is their cost structure? Do they have a cost advantage or disadvantage?
  • What is their image and positioning strategy?
  • Which are the most successful/unsuccessful competitors over time? Why?

What is the Output of an External Analysis? Why is it Important in Strategic Planning?

Completing an external analysis helps your organization identify opportunities, headwinds, and tailwinds as you build your organization’s core strategy, approach to growth, and moves you can make against your competitors.

Here are the four common outputs from completing an external analysis.

  • Output #1: Clear market opportunities to use as part of your growth strategy.
  • Output #2: Identify areas of headwinds that will work against your organization.
  • Output #3: Your competitive advantages.
  • Output #4: Competitive moves you could make against your competition.

Strategic Analysis Process: Pulling Together Your Internal and External Analysis

After you finished analyzing your internal and external environments, it’s important to pull it all together as a final product for your strategic plan.

A complete strategic analysis looks like this:

  • Synthesized internal strengths and weaknesses.
  • Identified competitive advantages.
  • Competitive moves you can make against your competition.
  • Headwinds and tailwinds for your market.
  • External forces that might impact your organization.
  • A clear set of opportunities to use in your growth strategy.

Pulling together a Current State Summary

Once you’ve completed your internal and external analysis, pulling together a current state summary is helpful. This summary captures your current state of the organization and is usually about 3-4 sentences long.

It’s designed to create an objective summary of your organization – where you are today – to include external environment and internal forces impacting your performance.

Quality Check – How You Know You Got it Right

A complete strategic analysis should meet the following requirements:

  • Are there clear key components or themes from the SWOT that capture where we are today?
  • What are the key shifts we have seen over the past few years (internally or externally) that define our current state?
  • What have we learned from the internal and external analysis that is critical to address in the strategic plan?

How to perform a SWOT

SWOT – The Most Common Internal and External Analysis Tool

We’ve already mentioned this, but completing a SWOT is the most common exercise to complete both an internal and external analysis. Check out the video, SWOT analysis post, and the free downloadable guide .

An internal analysis looks at the factors that are happening internally in your organization. They evaluate your company’s strengths and weaknesses, taking into account things like resource management and employee performance.

An external analysis would look at the things surrounding your macro- and micro-operating environment such as a competitor analysis and a PESTLE analysis.

You could use one or the other, but it won’t give you the full picture of what your organization is up against or the moves you need to make to ensure you’re shoring up your strengths and fixing your weaknesses. Doing both an internal and external analysis, even in the form of a SWOT matrix, will help you get a full picture of your position in your market. It is highly recommended you do both by utilizing at least one internal analysis tool and one external analysis tool.

Conducting an internal and external analysis is important to conduct and organize before you begin your strategy planning as it allows you to identify and assess your own strengths, weaknesses, and competitive advantages, as well as identify the external factors that may become obstacles in your strategic growth or opportunities for strategic growth.

16 Comments

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Hello, your article is very helpful but will you please tell me the reference list of the references you quoted inside so it makes the work easy, thanks

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SOAR Analysis: What It Is & Step-By-Step Guide (2024)

Download our free SOAR Analysis Template Download this template

An organization needs strategy tools that focus on more than just repairing weaknesses. The company-wide vision must also amplify internal strengths—both current successes and aspirational opportunities. 

A SOAR analysis can be the perfect strategic tool for future-focused goal creation. You can use this framework to align present market opportunities with desired outcomes and growth targets. 

This guide will help you understand the concept of the SOAR framework and how to use SOAR analysis in the strategic planning process. 

  • A SOAR analysis is a strategic planning tool organizations can leverage to create a shared vision of the future that aligns with the current organization’s strengths.
  • Organizations can use a SOAR analysis to visually depict on a 2x2 grid the core attributes of a company and how to execute upon those strengths.
  • Pros: A SOAR analysis is easy to use and ideal for cross-discipline, multi-department strategic planning.
  • Cons: Since a SOAR analysis offers a forward-looking perspective of an organization's aspirations, it lacks competitive threat assessment.

Free Template Download our free SOAR Analysis Template Download this template

What Is a SOAR Analysis?

A Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, Results (Acronym: SOAR) Analysis is a strategic planning framework . Visually presented in a 2x2 grid, this strategy tool helps organizations depict and contrast current organization abilities with future potential. 

When outlined, you create a shared vision of the company, one that best represents the unique values of the organization. A SOAR analysis helps your organization to draw connections between present business conditions and desired achievements. 

A forward-focused and strength-based outlook can help refine the core vision and action-oriented strategy for your business.

soar-analysis-matrix

The top row of the SOAR matrix outlines the current reality of the business, while the bottom row emphasizes what you want to achieve. The left column focuses on internal situations, while the right column showcases external factors.   

Let's get into each one of the matrix quadrants:

When you state what works – right here, right now – you can ensure all outcomes connect to your future ambitions. It is the SOAR analysis quadrant that focuses on what you excel at, rather than on your weaknesses (save those insights for your SWOT analysis ). 

Possible questions to ask your team members: 

  • What does our organization do well?
  • What are our current strengths?
  • What is our organization's greatest achievement?
  • What is our Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?
  • What does our organization currently do better than all competitors?

TIP: Include your customers in the process and ask them what they love most about your products or service. You might discover factors you weren’t aware of before. This will help your business to double down on strengths, and influence sales and profits. 

Opportunities

When you clarify the available opportunities in the marketplace, you can determine which methods can leverage the current conditions for a wider market share. It is the strategy quadrant that focuses on the tangible external advantages you can achieve, rather than listing unknown and untested goals as a hail mary. 

  • What current trends can our organization capitalize on?
  • What partnerships or collaborations can our organization pursue?
  • Is there a market gap that we might be able to fill?
  • Do our customers have unfulfilled wants or needs?

Aspirations

When you describe the future objectives and intentions of your company, you can determine what goals are possible and where to invest your energy. It is the section of the SOAR designed to challenge the status quo and innovate towards new ideas, rather than settle with the same old boring routine.

  • What inspires our organization?
  • What do we hope to achieve?
  • What does our organization care about?
  • What is our desired vision of the future?

When you define measurable results, you can determine tangible ways to improve your performance. It is the SOAR model quadrant that helps you set your target goals to confirm progress in your business model, rather than rely on guesswork and assumptions of success. This could include your KPIs , OKRs , or any other performance management system your organization is using.

  • How does the organization track its performance?
  • How do we convert our future aspirations into measurable data?
  • How does the organization define its success?
  • Do we have the right tools in place? 

TIP: Make sure you have the right tools in place so you can track progress, provide accurate data and make informed decisions. You can use a balanced scorecard , strategy dashboards , or strategy execution software like Cascade.

How To Do a SOAR Analysis And Turn Insights Into Results (In 5 steps)

Plans often die in the boardroom. It is one thing to understand the benefits of a SOAR analysis and fill in the matrix, but it is an entirely different task to execute the strategy . 

To get the most out of your SOAR analysis, use the following steps to influence the actual change within your organization. 

1. Analyze your current state and desired future performance

First, schedule a brainstorming workshop with your colleagues and relevant stakeholders. Perform a detailed examination of your organization. Using the top row of the SOAR matrix (Strengths and Opportunities) , list the raw data that depicts or showcases the current state of your organization. 

The next step is to identify your desired future state. This means filling out the bottom row of the SOAR matrix (Aspirations and Results) . 

For example, the brainstorming session could list out key success factors (Results quadrant) such as: 

  • Current client relationships
  • Growth trends in new markets
  • Positive feedback from stakeholders
  • The return on investment timelines for company assets

The more information you and your strategy team can clearly label on the SOAR matrix, the more effective your SOAR analysis will be—and the better your decision-making. 

Tip: Run workshops with all key stakeholders, and include a cross-discipline group of employees and customers in the strategy session when possible. Collaboration from internal and external stakeholders is a critical element of co-creation and empowering your entire organization—use it while building your SOAR analysis.

2. Prepare a strategic plan with defined focus areas

Strategy brainstorming, by nature, is informal. Open problem-solving allows you to combine and test ideas from many different perspectives and viewpoints. 

But to turn the creative thoughts and themes that spill out into action , you need to filter and narrow down the wild variety of ideas. That's why in stage two of your SOAR analysis, you must define your priorities and prepare an action plan to close the gap between your current and future state. 

You can’t tackle everything all at once. You might have listed several different company-wide aspirations in your SOAR framework—now trim the fat and select the key goals that are attainable, relevant, and impactful. That's the very reason Cascade offers a strategic planning tool , a platform that helps you develop unified paths to action. Use the software to streamline how your company acts upon the ideas discovered through the SOAR strategy session.

3. Execute your strategy

With the plan set: execute. And that means more than just sharing a company memo. Employees who feel excluded from the overall company vision (or even worse, don’t even know about the organization’s new strategy) will simply fall back to the status quo of daily work. That can lead to a split between C-suite in their ivory tower and the actual performance by the boots on the ground. 

Disconnection can lead to confusion, low motivation levels, and a lack of engagement from disenfranchised company members, all of which will hurt business outcomes. 

The answer: communication. Management needs to invest in tools that foster understanding and buy-in from all stakeholders. Be sure to:  

  • Set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and assign ownership
  • List desired strategic objectives and outcomes 
  • Invest in education and review meetings 
  • Showcase transparency from all organizational levels 
  • Utilize software that promotes inter-department connection

Side benefit: when you take the time to execute your strategy, you build a culture of accountabilit y, which further improves engagement metrics and overall business performance.

4. Measure and review your performance

Once you set it, do not forget it. A SOAR analysis is not a one-off event—it should help transform the entire direction of the company, over time. It is all too easy to enjoy a honeymoon phase and then fall back into old, ineffective patterns.

To prevent strategic drift , invest in continuous review. You need to measure your progress against set targets. And wherever you see the inevitable slide back into habits or outdated thinking, take steps to rectify the issue. 

No one wants to report back to the board missed performance goals and failed strategic action, all because of a lack of evaluation or oversight.  

We know the importance of monitoring your strategy execution, which is why we created Cascade strategy dashboards . Consider it a one-stop home for your strategy. If you have the right strategy execution tool to track and review your organizational progress, you can discover data insights to act upon before it’s too late.

5. Adapt and adjust to capture new market opportunities

Lastly, adapt to a shifting industry—your SOAR analysis will need to evolve as internal and external market conditions change. What may work now will need reevaluation later. Opportunities that you can capitalize on now may disappear as the trends of the industry shift. 

Plus, your organization will develop as it scales, and that will require new assessments. Reframe your perspective, adapt your strategy and revisit your SOAR analysis as required.

Soar Analysis Pros

The main pros of SOAR analysis are: 

  • Easy to use and create
  • Sets action and outcome-oriented strategic objectives
  • Functions as a cross-discipline, multi-department strategic framework
  • Creates a positive and realistic organizational forecast 
  • Builds a flexible and scalable collaborative approach to strategic planning

Soar Analysis Cons

The main cons of SOAR Analysis are: 

  • Does not explore organizational weaknesses or threats
  • Can lack granularity and detail
  • Can overlap and repeat elements found in other strategy frameworks (e.g. aspirations are often listed in your organization's vision ) 
  • Bottom-row quadrants (Aspirations and Results) may offer limited analysis and data grounded in the current marketplace

Where and When Should You Choose SOAR Analysis?

Your unique strategy needs and business environment determine if you should use a SOAR analysis. 

For example, a SWOT Analysis is far more applicable for a business about to engage in risky company initiatives , as it better assesses threats. And since a SOAR analysis provides more internal investigations and forecasting, it is not ideal for an organization that wants to test detailed components against market competitors.

SOAR analysis focuses on an appreciative inquiry as its strategic basis, so it is best suited for company discovery, learning, organization, and innovation. 

A SOAR should be used by those who benefit from a general and future-focused summary of the organization's strategic initiatives, rather than detailed threat assessments or investigative frameworks that uncover company weaknesses in need of correction.  

SOAR Analysis isn't what you're after? Check out this article with 23 best strategy tools for your organization in 2022 .

FAQs about SOAR Analysis

How often should i update my soar framework.

You should evaluate and update your SOAR Analysis on annual basis.

How Long Does A SOAR Analysis Take?

SOAR analysis shouldn’t take more than an hour. But it depends on the size of your organization, the complexity of your business, and how well-prepared your team is for the brainstorming session.

Who Should Be Present In A Brainstorming Session?

You need a mix of employees from all organizational levels to better capture the current reality of your business and its future desires.

Can I use a SOAR Analysis Individually?

You can use SOAR Analysis individually, but it’s best suited for cross-department planning.

Who Created The SOAR Analysis?

Jacqueline Stavros, David Cooperrider & D. Lynn Kelley created the SOAR Analysis in their paper SOAR: A new approach to strategic planning.

What Is The Difference Between A SOAR Analysis And A SWOT Analysis?

The difference between A SOAR Analysis and a SWOT analysis is that the first one focuses on current strategic goals and how they relate to future desired outcomes, while a SWOT Analysis focuses more on identifying organizational weaknesses and ways to improve them.

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The Best Strategy Tools to Analyze Your Market & Business

Our definitive list of the best strategy tools, models and frameworks to help you kick-start your strategic planning. Find out what they all do and when to use them 🛠

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Table of Contents

When developing, refining or reviewing a business strategy there are a huge range of tools, models and frameworks that can help you organize your thinking and give you a process by which to conduct analysis and get the necessary insight to make the right strategic decisions for your business.

Knowing what to do to grow your business and drive your success is difficult and you’re unlikely to simply be struck with a brainwave and suddenly have all the answers. But don’t panic, hundreds of academics and business theorists, as well as leading practitioners and business thinkers have devised numerous frameworks to help leaders ask the right questions, to get the right insight and uncover the best course of action for their business.

Want to grow?

So, it’s just a case of working through all these strategy tools and coming out with a plan. Right?

Well…the trouble is, there are quite literally loads of possible tools to choose from. You can’t use them all or you would be analysing and strategizing for all of time, rather than getting on with the execution and achieving your goals.

So, which tools should you pick? And in what order should you work through them? With so many strategy tools and frameworks in existence it’s hard to know what tool does what or when you should use them. That’s why we’ve pulled together this initial list of our favourite tools to get you started.

All of these tools will help you with the first three stages of your strategic analysis – namely, understanding your market, external environment, competitors and your own business.

Keep an eye out for our forthcoming strategy tool lists covering the rest of the strategic planning process!

The stages of strategic analysis

If you use the right strategy tools, then devising a strategic plan can be a process. We certainly believe that here at Lucidity, after all, that’s what our strategy software does! We guide our customers through the process of conducting analysis and making strategic decisions to build a solid plan to drive their growth. It can be a simple, step-by-step process if you have the right tools.

Here are the stages of analyse you need to do in order to build an informed and effective strategy.

  • Understand your market and the external environment you are operating in
  • Understand your competitors
  • Analyse your own business
  • Understand the different strategic options you have
  • Evaluate the different strategic options and make the right decisions to set your strategy
  • Structure your strategy plan so it’s easy to understand
  • Test that strategy and refine accordingly

Today we’re going to focus on the first three stages and take you through our favourite strategy tools to get the job done, with links to find out exactly how to use each tool once you’re ready to get started.

How to use these tools

We would always recommend you use these strategy tools as the basis for workshops with a diverse range of people from across the business. Although you can work through these tools on your own, working and collaborating with your teams will nearly always produce a better result. Different people will have different perspectives and that will lead to different ideas and observations.

Since this early part of your strategic planning efforts are all about information gathering and knowledge building, the more experience you have in the room and the greater the spread of departments and roles, the more insight you will be able to capture when it comes to both your external and internal analysis.

You should also try and bring this process to life as much as you can. If you can effectively get everyone engaged in the process early on, you’ll ultimately have a more successful strategy and better execution success.

So, don’t just think about which tools you’ll use, but also consider how you will complete them. You’ll find a lot of these tools and frameworks within Lucidity meaning you can work through them together on-screen (remotely or in-person), filling them out step-by-step and have all your work saved together in one place and looking great.

Want to grow?

Tools for external analysis and understanding the market

PESTLE Analysis PESTLE is both simple to use and understand, and comprehensive. It’s a tool that gets you to list out all the external factors that could impact your business. The sections of the model are Political, Economic, Societal, Legal and Environment.

LoNGPESTLE This is an extension of PESTLE which overlays location as a consideration across all of the PESTLE categories. You’re asked to consider how the impacts differ when you look at the Local, National and Global contexts.

DESTEP This is an alternative to PESTLE which has more emphasis on demographics. Here you will consider the profile of the population and think about how that will impact your business – age, education, gender, geographies, family statuses etc. The categories in DESTEP are Demographics, Economic, Sociocultural, Technological, Ecological and Political/Legal.

Porter’s Five Forces The Five Forces strategic tool will help you analyse your industry (or, indeed any industry or market, say if you’re considering a new venture or a move into a new space). The tool helps you consider all the forces at play in a competitive market and see what things will impact growth potential. It’s a great tool for determining the potential profitability of a market.

Tools to understand your competitors

Four Corner Analysis Four Corners is a great tool for analysing a chosen competitor company and provides you with a succinct, single diagram of information and insight on that business. As the name suggests, there are four sections to the tool that ask you to document the business’ motivations and drivers, their current strategy, the management assumptions (how the leadership team perceive their position in the market) and their capabilities.

Perceptual Map This is a great tool for mapping out where all of your competitors sit in the market. Although this won’t help you capture lots of information on each company, it will give you an easily understandable and digestible visual representation of the whole competitive landscape. The diagram has two axis, typically (but not exclusively) price and quality, and the task is to position all of your competitors along those axis in relation to how consumers perceive them. You will also place your own brand on the graph and have a clear view of where you sit in relation to the rest of the players in your market.

Tools for analysis of your own business

SWOT Analysis Possibly the most famous of all strategic planning tools, SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. There is no better place to start when it comes to examining your business and starting to think about the future of your company.

SOAR Analysis SOAR is another 2 x 2 matrix tool, and while it shares the Strengths and Opportunities quadrants of a SWOT Analysis, it shies away from the negative Threats and Weaknesses and instead opts for focusing on Aspirations and Results. So, on one side are the positives about your business that can be exploited, and the other side has the vision of what you want to achieve if you exploit those factors well. If you’re running workshops with different groups in the business at different times, you may find the SOAR exercise would be better suited to some groups rather than SWOT.

Porter’s Value Chain This is an extremely valuable framework that can help you understand the value you create for your customers and therefore determine your competitive edge. It asks you to capture all the activities within the business that go into creating and delivering your product or service, and comparing the cost of those activities to the value you create. This leads you to your margin – and the higher the value of your product/service, or the lower your costs of creating that value, the better your margin.

VRIO Framework This is another strategy tool which will aid your understanding of how your business works and the strengths that can be exploited for growth. Here you are mapping out the aspects of your business that give you a competitive advantage. You’re asked to list what resources, capabilities, products, partnerships – anything really – that are Valuable, Rare, Inimitable and Organized. Thing of this as a list of your best of the best – all the great stuff you have going for you.

BCG Growth-Share Matrix This strategic tool, developed by the Boston Consulting Group, will help if you have a number of different products or services. The 2 x 2 matrix has four boxes that describe different statuses based on market share compared to potential market growth. The quadrants are Stars (where you have high market share in a market with high growth potential), Cash Cows (where you have high market share but it’s not a growing market), Pets (low market share in a market that’s not got a lot of growth potential) and finally Question Marks (where you have low market share in a market with high growth potential). By understanding the profile of your products/services in this way you’ll start to get a good idea of what to do with each in order to drive the overall growth of your business.

ADL Matrix Like the BCG Growth-Share Matrix, the ADL Matrix is a tool to help you map out a portfolio of products or services and truly understand each of them and their value to your business. With this matrix you position each of your products or services in relation to their competitive position (from weak compared to the competition all the way to dominant) and the industry lifecycle stage (from an embryonic market to an ageing industry). The model has different advice and suggested actions based on each possible position on the grid. It helps you see how much time and attention to spend on which products or services – from big pushes to gain market share, to completely abandoning, and everything in between.

Perceptual Map…. again We’ve already talked about the perceptual map tool when looking at your competitors. Now you’re focused on analysing your own business it’s time to pull it out again and add yourself to the map. Where do you sit in relation to the rest of the market? This tool is great for giving a fast and easy to understand visual representation of your competitive positioning – very handy when you’re explaining your offering to people, be in new recruits or even potential customers.

Whether you’ve chosen to work through all of those tools, or picked from the bunch, you’ll end up with a solid grounding of analysis to help you build the right strategy for your business.

Now you fully understand what’s going on externally and what’s happening internally, you’re ready to consider the different strategic options available to you and start to assess each to determine the strategy that’ll drive your success. Check out our list of recommended tools to evaluate different strategic options .

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strategic planning analysis tools

Mastering strategic analysis of scenarios + 3 essential tools

strategic planning analysis tools

Utilizing strategic analysis and scenario building in planning

Strategic scenario analysis is a straightforward process , making it accessible to companies of all sizes and industries as a key component of their strategic planning.

Developing strategic scenarios encompasses shared factors that apply generally, while individual companies analyze their internal and external environment, including competitors.

Organizational scenario analysis enhances the accuracy of strategic planning by deeply examining the corporate landscape.

This leads to the creation or adaptation of new strategies or action plans, minimizing risks and maximizing opportunities for the company’s success.

You may also be interested:

Strategic planning examples for use in business for each step of the process

Main tools for scenario analysis in strategic planning

To conduct a scenario study, various factors must be taken into account, including the concept of economic landscapes, competitive environment, and the use of tools for internal and external scenario assessment. Without these, creating a comprehensive strategic and critical analysis of a company becomes challenging.

In this context, we have selected some tools that will greatly assist in organizational scenario planning:

  • competitive analysis;
  • internal and external environment analysis.

Let’s explore these strategic planning tools for projecting organizational scenarios.

Porter: Competitive Analysis

Studying competitors during strategic planning is essential.

This tool, devised by professor Michael Porter from Harvard, is one of the most renowned when conducting a company’s strategic analysis.

It encompasses the renown 5 competitive forces:

1- Rivalry among competitors

Understanding other companies in your segment is crucial. Rivalry among competitors tends to be higher when more companies are present in the market and when the differentiation of their offerings is lower.

Uncover the strengths and weaknesses, positive and negative aspects of each company, understand the target audience and discover how to meet their needs better than competitors.

2- Supplier bargaining power

The more suppliers you have, the lower the possibility of them dictating prices and delivery times. Remember, they also supply your competitors, who may try to dominate some of them with exclusive contracts.

3- Threat of substitute products

These are products that do not belong to the same category as yours but meet the same needs as your customers. A famous example is the case of butter and margarine. Discover the characteristics and benefits of your products that differentiate them positively from substitutes.

4- Threat of new entrants

What are the entry barriers that can prevent the emergence of new competitors in your market? High installation investments, patents, government regulations, established brands and complex technologies usually inhibit new competitors’ entry.

5- Customer bargaining power

Ultimately, customers define the characteristics, positioning and price of your products. The more competitors and product similarity, the greater their bargaining power. Differentiation is the way to try to control this scenario.

Read also: Understand your market by doing Porter’s Five Forces analysis!

PESTEL risk analysis

PESTEL analysis is used for scenario study and focuses entirely on the external environment.

PESTEL’s name comes from the initials of different types of scenarios that strategic planning requires to be analyzed.

Strategic scenarios in PESTEL analysis:

  • Technological
  • Environmental

For each of these points, a scenario analysis must be conducted for the business plan, defining opportunities and threats (which are also used in SWOT analysis ).

For example, when examining economic scenarios, could list factors such as:

  • Opportunity: Lower interest rates and a decrease in the dollar will ease financing and importing production inputs.
  • Threat: An increase in a specific tax rate will lead to a significant rise in production expenses.

Check out an example of scenario analysis for a company, based on the PESTEL model:

Topics for studying organizational scenarios

  • Strong changes: in government or ministerial resignations, wars, reforms and new laws.
  • Greater uncertainties: inflation, deflation, higher unemployment, decrease or increase in consumption, rise or fall in interest rates, strikes, exchange rate fluctuations.
  • Major ambiguities: high unemployment and increased consumption due to low savings interest rates or stockpiling.
  • Optimal statistical data: considered optimal because of the credibility of the information source.
  • Questionable statistical data: not suitable for strategic planning decisions due to the low credibility of the source.
  • Serious cost increase: import or export fees, scarcity because of high demand, challenging labor market.
  • Severe raw material shortages: crop failure, scarcity caused by ecological or production reasons, restricted imports due to regulations.
  • Strong state interventions: new fiscal or tax laws, bans on sales or production.
  • Strong social interventions: strikes, pressures from ethical, religious, labor, and environmental protection groups.
  • Serious technological deficiencies: technology still unknown, very expensive or not available in the country. Need to hire foreigners.
  • Significant changes in consumption levels: as a result of trends, consumption will decrease or increase.

One fundamental point that cannot be overlooked in scenario building for strategic planning is the social and behavioral impacts that the advent of new technologies , such as the internet and cloud computing is causing.

The study of the so-called generations X, Y ( Millennials ), and Z is a mandatory part of any scenario analysis and risk identification.

SWOT: Internal and External Scenario Analysis Tool

Analyzing the internal and external environment of organizations is commonly done using the SWOT matrix. In fact, this is the most renowned and also one of the most fundamental tools for strategic evaluation of a company.

The use of SWOT in strategic planning aims to identify a company’s strengths and weaknesses (internal environment) and opportunities and threats (external environment).

Let’s dive deeper into the purpose of SWOT analysis when defining these two environments

Internal environment: strengths and weaknesses

Everything you can control within your company makes up the strengths and weaknesses of your internal environment.

For instance, a company with a strong market reputation, innovation, state-of-the-art facilities and highly engaged employees can list these characteristics as strengths.

Conversely, a company facing distribution challenges, low market share, high financial resource costs and limited economies of scale would identify these points as weaknesses that need to be addressed.

External environment: opportunities and threats

Natural forces, economic policies, social and behavioral changes are among some of the external factors your company has no control over. These factors can represent opportunities or threats to your business and serve as an excellent starting point for your scenario analysis.

As we previously discussed, one of the most comprehensive and systematic ways to conduct an external scenario planning is by using the PESTEL analysis, which can be expanded with other specific factors relevant to your industry.

Integrating Strengths and Weaknesses with Opportunities and Threats:

This is where the SWOT analysis in strategic planning comes into play.

Using it, you must determine:

  • Which strengths can leverage opportunities?
  • Which strengths can defend you from threats?
  • Which weaknesses can exacerbate threats?
  • Which weaknesses can hinder opportunities?

Based on these strategic scenarios, you should define action plans to strengthen your weaknesses or use your strengths effectively to make the most of opportunities and defend against threats adequately.

Learn more: Strategic Management in companies and its relevance

After considering all these explanations, strategic planning tools, and scenario construction definitions, you may find this activity clearer now.

If you want to make this task even easier and more efficient, use a strategic planning software like STRATWs One , and do all of this with the help of technology, based on real data and with ease of collaboration among teams.

This system transforms your management methodology into processes. This way, it becomes easier to establish and monitor KPIs to analyze the performance of your strategy, ensuring better results for your company .

Another advantage of this software is the simplicity it brings to management. Instead of having a bunch of spreadsheets and charts, you can concentrate everything in one place, making it easier to access and gain insights to improve your strategy.

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25 Tools For Strategic Analysis

Table of Contents

Cynefin Framework

cynefin-framework

SWOT Analysis

swot-analysis

Personal SWOT Analysis

personal-swot-analysis

Pareto Analysis

pareto-principle-pareto-analysis

Failure Mode And Effects Analysis

failure-mode-and-effects-analysis

Blindspot Analysis

blindspot-analysis

Comparable Company Analysis

comparable-company-analysis

Cost-Benefit Analysis

cost-benefit-analysis

Agile Business Analysis

agile-business-analysis

SOAR Analysis

soar-analysis

STEEPLE Analysis

steeple-analysis

Pestel Analysis

pestel-analysis

DESTEP Analysis

destep-analysis

Paired Comparison Analysis

paired-comparison-analysis

Ansoff Matrix

ansoff-matrix

Porter’s Five Forces

porter-five-forces

Balanced Scorecard

balanced-scorecard

Blue Ocean Strategy

blue-ocean-strategy

Scenario Planning

scenario-planning

Business Analysis Framework

business-analysis

Gap Analysis

gap-analysis

Business Model Canvas

business-model-canvas

Lean Startup Canvas

lean-startup-canvas

Digital Marketing Circle

digital-marketing-channels

Key Highlights

  • Contextualizes decision making and problem-solving.
  • Comprises five domains: obvious, complicated, complex, chaotic, and disorder.
  • Evaluates Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
  • Identifies areas for improvement and potential challenges.
  • Applies SWOT analysis to individuals’ personal goals or challenges.
  • Identifies personal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
  • Focuses on input factors with the greatest impact using the 80/20 rule.
  • Identifies key drivers for desired outcomes.
  • Anticipates potential design failures in products or processes.
  • Identifies failure modes and their potential effects.
  • Uncovers outdated assumptions that hinder decision making.
  • Addresses factors not properly considered in decision-making processes.
  • Identifies similar companies for benchmarking financial performance.
  • Offers insights into competitive landscape.
  • Evaluates decisions based on costs and benefits.
  • Weighs alternatives and potential project benefits.
  • Provides guidance for business analysts working in agile environments.
  • Aligns agile projects with organizational goals.
  • Focuses on strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results.
  • Promotes positive and growth -oriented thinking.
  • Extends the STEEP analysis with legal and ethical factors.
  • Explores socio-cultural, technological, economic, environmental, political, legal, and ethical aspects.
  • Assesses macro-economic factors affecting an organization.
  • Helps identify potential threats and weaknesses.
  • Evaluates external factors: demographic, economic, socio-cultural, technological, ecological, and political.
  • Provides a comprehensive view of external influences.
  • Ranks options with subjective evaluation criteria.
  • Useful for decision making when clear priorities are lacking.
  • Guides growth strategy based on market and product characteristics.
  • Determines whether to penetrate, develop, diversify, or maintain.
  • Analyzes industry competition through five forces: rivalry, supplier power, buyer power, threat of substitutes, and threat of new entrants.
  • Divides products into categories based on market growth and share.
  • Helps manage and prioritize product portfolio.
  • Focuses on financial, customer, process, and organizational perspectives.
  • Offers a balanced view of organizational performance.
  • Seeks to create new, uncontested markets.
  • Emphasizes value innovation and breaking cost-value trade-offs.
  • Envisions possible future scenarios and their impact.
  • Aids strategic decision-making by addressing uncertainties.
  • Identifies key elements and processes driving value.
  • Useful for driving change and identifying business opportunities.
  • Measures alignment with strategic objectives.
  • Improves resource utilization and performance.
  • Designs business models using nine building blocks.
  • Helps visualize and plan business structures.
  • Focuses on problems, solutions, metrics, advantage, and value proposition .
  • Prioritizes understanding the problem before developing solutions.
  • Utilizes digital channels for reaching customers.
  • Includes both organic (SEO, SMO, email) and paid (SEM, SMM) options.

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PESTLE Analysis

SWOT and Business Analysis Tools

Strategic Planning Tools For Better Results

May 25, 2016 by Thomas Bush

Strategic planning is the process through which many successful companies and individuals make decisions about future goals and the path to achieving them. If you are at all uncertain about what strategic planning is, be sure to read this article on that matter before proceeding any further with this one.

Strategic planning tools are the techniques commonly used to help you and your organization set the clearest goals, choose the most effective means to achieving them, and, in general, ensure substantial progress. These various tools should help with all stages of the strategic planning process.

If you were to place all of these tools in the same order that they are used in, visioning would be the first. This tool is the group effort of deciding on a clear vision for your organization, including its mission and values. This should be done with all individuals who will play any role at all in the success of your organization, to ensure a common understanding among them. Be sure to choose specific goals so that progress can be measured along the way. The simplest way to ‘vision’ is with a large informal meeting where members from all areas of your organization can share suggestions and brainstorm.

SWOT Analysis

When deciding on how it is that you will achieve your organization’s goals, it is essential to take into account both internal and external factors which will affect your course. A well-executed SWOT analysis is, in its own nature, perfect for this. Through looking at the S trengths, W eaknesses, O pportunities, and T hreats, you can grasp an understanding of the positive and negative factors which should be accounted for in your plan. For more information about this too, check out our article “What is a SWOT Analysis?”

PEST Analysis

On a website called PESTLEAnalysis.com , you’re bound to find plenty of information which links back to a good old PEST analysis . PEST analyses , which are also sometimes referred to as PESTLE, STEP , or STEEPLE analyses (depending on how many factors are taken into account) look at various different aspects of the present or future environments of your organization or venture. From the Political factors to the Technological ones, including everything in between, a good PESTLE analysis will reveal everything you need to know about your organization’s circumstances.

Scenario Planning

If you have identified (or perhaps predicted) any favourable or unfavourable scenarios you might find your organization in, it’s good to have a plan ready for them. This tool will help you to analyse the damage or opportunity that a certain situation may present, and will reveal ways to adjust it as much to your benefit as possible. Thankfully, too, scenario planning is a very simple tool — just ask “what if?”

Competitor Analysis

As a strong external force, competitors in any market can be detrimental to your organization’s own success. If you find yourself coming up against plenty of other similar companies, be sure to carry out some specific competitor analysis, as detailed in our article on the topic .

Which tools you choose to use in your strategic planning is entirely up to you, but will very much depend on what sort of a strategic planning model you have opted for.

These are some of the most effective strategic planning tools you can apply on your own, without requiring too much time or effort. Visioning, various analyses, and a few different sub-plans can go a long way if used properly. Let us know if you’ve tried any of these tools to great success, or if they’ve proved ineffective for you — we’d love to hear!

Image: Rawpixel.com/ Shutterstock.com

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Ways AI Can Revolutionize Your Business Strategy

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As AI gets more deeply integrated into every aspect of business, one of the most unique and exciting opportunities is to use AI as your strategic thinking coach. AI is revolutionizing the way we access and process information and is helping us enhance human intelligence, through learning, decision-making, and problem-solving. Its relevance to strategic planning lies in its ability to process vast amounts of data, uncover patterns, and provide actionable insights that can drive a company’s strategic direction.

The transformative impact of AI on business models is profound. Companies that integrate AI into their operations can expect to see a multitude of benefits, including:

  • Improved efficiency : AI can automate routine tasks, freeing up human resources for more complex strategic initiatives.
  • Seamless communication : Advanced AI algorithms can enhance interactions within and between organizations, streamlining collaboration.
  • Empowered decision-making : With AI’s data analysis capabilities, businesses can make more informed decisions, reducing the risk of costly mistakes.
  • Enhanced creativity : AI can assist in generating innovative ideas by analyzing trends and suggesting novel approaches.

At the intersection of AI and strategic decision-making, leaders are equipped with a powerful tool for navigating the complexities of today’s business environment. AI’s role in business strategy is not just about automation; it’s about augmenting human capabilities and providing a level of insight that was previously unattainable. For instance, with Creately’s Visual Canvas, product managers can leverage AI functionality as a strategic thinking coach, utilizing various strategic thinking frameworks to visualize information in multiple ways, thereby discovering new insights and unlocking different perspectives.

Incorporating AI into business strategy requires a thoughtful approach, but the potential for transformative change is immense. As businesses continue to evolve, AI stands as a cornerstone technology that can redefine how strategies are developed and executed.

Crafting Business Strategies with AI Insights

AI’s ability to process vast amounts of data and identify patterns can provide businesses with a competitive edge by forecasting future trends and customer behaviors. Here’s how to leverage AI for these critical aspects of business strategy:

Predictive Analytics : AI algorithms can analyze historical data and current market conditions to predict future outcomes. This can range from customer purchasing habits to inventory needs. By using AI for predictive analytics, businesses can make informed decisions about product development, marketing strategies, and resource allocation.

Market Insights : AI tools can sift through social media, news trends, and other online content to gauge public sentiment and emerging trends. This real-time analysis allows companies to adapt their strategies quickly to meet changing consumer demands or to capitalize on new market opportunities.

Strategic Planning Tools : There are AI-powered tools designed specifically for strategic planning. These tools can help in scenario planning, risk assessment, and decision-making processes by providing simulations and models based on data-driven insights.

Incorporating AI into your business strategy isn’t just about the technology; it’s about fostering a culture that values data-driven decision-making. It requires a shift in mindset to trust in the predictive power of AI and to be willing to act on the insights it provides. For instance, with Creately’s Visual Canvas, teams can use its AI functionality to visualize different strategic scenarios and outcomes, enhancing the decision-making process with a blend of creativity and data analysis.

By embracing AI for predictive analytics and market insights, businesses can anticipate the future and shape it. The key is to integrate AI thoughtfully, ensuring it complements human expertise and creativity, rather than replacing it. As AI continues to evolve, its role in business strategy will only become more integral, offering unprecedented levels of efficiency and insight.

Using Creately VIZ to Develop Business Strategies

Artificial intelligence (AI) is at the forefront of this adaptive capability, offering businesses the tools to respond to market changes with unprecedented speed and accuracy. AI business strategy is not just about automation; it’s about the intelligent analysis and application of data to make informed decisions.

With tools like Creately VIZ , which offers AI functionality within its Visual Canvas, businesses can use strategic thinking frameworks to visualize information in multiple ways, unlocking different perspectives and insights. This empowers decision-making and enhances creativity, ensuring that strategies are not only data-driven but also innovative and effective.

Here are some ways you can use Creately ways to adapt to strategies in real-time:

  • Visualizsing Business Models : AI can analyze market demand, inventory levels, and competitor pricing to adjust prices in real-time, maximizing revenue and ensuring competitiveness.

Business Model Canvas Explained

  • Optimizing Processes : By predicting demand fluctuations and identifying potential disruptions, Creately VIZ helps businesses optimize their supply chains, reducing costs and improving efficiency. With VIZ you can map out processes, visualize flows and much more using the power of AI. Learn more: add AI Flowcharts LP
  • Customer Experience Personalization : AI’s ability to understand customer preferences and behaviors enables businesses to tailor experiences, increasing satisfaction and loyalty.
  • Risk Management : AI can identify potential risks by analyzing market trends and internal data, allowing businesses to mitigate them before they impact operations.

AI systems can process vast amounts of data in real-time, identifying patterns and trends that might be invisible to the human eye. This allows businesses to pivot their strategies quickly, ensuring they remain competitive in a constantly evolving market. For instance, AI can monitor social media sentiment, track competitor activity, and analyze customer behavior, providing a comprehensive view of the market landscape.

Things to Consider When Developing an AI Business Strategy

A cultural shift is essential for businesses to remain agile and competitive in a market where artificial intelligence in business is becoming increasingly prevalent. Here are key strategies to cultivate this environment:

Encourage Curiosity and Experimentation : Promote an organizational mindset that values curiosity and the willingness to experiment with new AI-driven approaches. This can lead to innovative applications of AI that drive your business forward.

Invest in Training and Development : Ensure your team has access to the latest AI education and resources. This investment empowers your employees and keeps your business at the forefront of AI advancements.

Celebrate AI Wins and Learn from Setbacks : Recognize both the successes and the learning opportunities that come with integrating AI into your business strategy. This reinforces a growth mindset and the role of AI in business success.

Iterate and Evolve AI Strategies : AI is not a set-it-and-forget-it solution. Regularly review and adjust your AI initiatives to ensure they align with changing business goals and market conditions.

Promote Cross-Functional Collaboration : AI often impacts multiple areas of a business. Encourage collaboration between departments to ensure AI initiatives are well-rounded and effectively implemented.

By embedding these practices into your company’s DNA, you’ll not only enhance creativity and empower decision-making but also ensure that your AI business strategy remains dynamic and effective. Remember, the level AI can take your business to is directly proportional to the level of commitment you have toward nurturing an AI-savvy culture.

Transform the way You Work with Creately VIZ

Strategic Frameworks at Your Fingertips : With Creately’s AI, you gain instant access to a multitude of strategic thinking frameworks. Whether you’re a seasoned strategist or new to the role of AI in business, Creately simplifies the process, enabling you to apply expert-level strategies without the steep learning curve.

Diverse Data Visualization : Creately allows you to visualize the same information in multiple ways, which is crucial for unlocking different perspectives and discovering deeper insights. This aligns with the level AI should be utilized within organizations – not just for efficiency, but for fostering enhanced creativity in strategy formulation.

By integrating Creately into your AI business strategy, you leverage improved efficiency and empowered decision-making. The platform’s ability to facilitate seamless communication among team members further amplifies its role in developing robust business strategies powered by AI.

Join over thousands of organizations that use Creately to brainstorm, plan, analyze, and execute their projects successfully.

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Chiraag George is a communication specialist here at Creately. He is a marketing junkie that is fascinated by how brands occupy consumer mind space. A lover of all things tech, he writes a lot about the intersection of technology, branding and culture at large.

The Strategy Story

Wells Fargo SWOT Analysis

strategic planning analysis tools

Before we dive deep into the SWOT analysis, let’s get the business overview of Wells Fargo. Wells Fargo & Company is a multinational financial services company with significant global operations, serving over 70 million customers across 35 countries.

As one of the “Big Four Banks” in the United States, alongside JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup, Wells Fargo holds a prominent position in the financial industry. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, California. It operates through its primary subsidiary, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., a national bank with its main office in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

The company’s vast array of services includes banking, investment, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance products, distributed through various segments such as Consumer Banking and Lending, Commercial Banking, Corporate and Investment Banking, and Wealth and Investment Management.

Wells Fargo is recognized for its extensive network, comprising 8,050 branches and 13,000 automated teller machines, and 2,000 standalone mortgage branches. It is notable for being the second-largest retail mortgage originator in the U.S., originating one out of every four home loans and managing a $1.8 trillion home mortgage servicing portfolio.

Internationally, Wells Fargo maintains offices in major cities such as London, Dublin, Paris, Dubai, Singapore, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, and Toronto, with significant back-office operations in India and the Philippines employing over 20,000 staff. The company’s history dates back to 1852, when it was founded by Henry Wells and William G. Fargo to provide express and banking services to California during the Gold Rush era. Wells Fargo’s current form resulted from a merger with Minneapolis-based Norwest Corporation in 1998, which expanded its reach to become a coast-to-coast bank, further solidified by the acquisition of Wachovia in 2008.

Financial Performance 2023 : Wells Fargo generated a revenue of $82.6 billion and a net income of $19.1 billion.

Here is the SWOT analysis for Wells Fargo

A SWOT analysis is a strategic planning tool used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of a business, project, or individual. It involves identifying the internal and external factors that can affect a venture’s success or failure and analyzing them to develop a strategic plan. In this article, we do a SWOT Analysis of Wells Fargo.

SWOT Analysis: Meaning, Importance, and Examples

  • Global Operations : Wells Fargo has significantly expanded its reach beyond the United States, operating in over 35 countries and serving more than 75 million customers globally, which enhances its strength as an international bank​​.
  • Inclusion Among the Big Four : Wells Fargo is one of the “Big Four” banks in the United States, holding a substantial portion of the country’s deposits and significantly influencing policymaking. This positioning gives Wells Fargo a competitive edge and a strong influence in the financial industry​​​​.
  • Leadership in the Middle Market Segment : Wells Fargo has established itself as the leading bank for middle market companies in the U.S., enjoying the financial benefits of serving this vital segment of the economy​​.
  • Brand Value : The bank is recognized for its precious global banking brand, ranking 8th in the Brand Finance 2022 report with a brand value of  $30.1 billion . This reflects the bank’s strong reputation and the trust it has built over the years​​.
  • Diverse Services : Wells Fargo offers services tailored to different market segments, including consumer banking and lending, commercial banking, corporate and investment banking, and wealth and investment management. This diversity allows Wells Fargo to cater to a broad customer base and generate multiple revenue streams​​.
  • Strong Financial Performance : The bank has consistently shown robust financial performance, which enables it to invest in technology, infrastructure, and customer service, maintaining its competitive position​​.
  • Commitment to Sustainability and Social Responsibility : Wells Fargo has been recognized for its environment-friendly policies, providing over $10 billion to environmentally beneficial businesses and actively participating in efforts to mitigate carbon emissions​​.
  • Reputational Challenges : Wells Fargo has faced significant reputational damage due to various scandals, including creating millions of unauthorized accounts by employees to meet sales targets. This has eroded customer trust and attracted negative publicity and regulatory scrutiny​​​​.
  • Technological Limitations : The bank has struggled to update its antiquated banking systems, leading to increased operational breakdowns and customer inconvenience. This has made it difficult for Wells Fargo to satisfy regulatory requirements and remain competitive in a rapidly evolving digital banking landscape​​​​.
  • High Operational Costs : Wells Fargo has incurred high operational costs due to fines from lawsuits and the maintenance of outdated machinery. These costs have undermined profitability and challenged the bank’s long-term sustainability​​​​.
  • Limited International Presence : Compared to some of its competitors, Wells Fargo has a relatively limited international presence, which could restrict its growth opportunities and increase its exposure to domestic market fluctuations​​.
  • Overreliance on Traditional Banking : The bank’s heavy reliance on traditional banking services, such as lending and deposits, may hinder its ability to quickly adapt to changing customer preferences and the rise of fintech innovations​​.
  • Regulatory Limitations : Following the scandal involving unauthorized accounts, the Federal Reserve imposed a cap on the bank’s asset growth, limiting its ability to issue new loans and expand its business operations​​.

Opportunities

  • Digital Transformation : The rise of digital banking presents an opportunity for Wells Fargo to upgrade its technological capabilities and introduce innovative digital products and services. By investing in digital transformation, the bank can improve the customer experience, increase operational efficiency, and maintain competitiveness in the evolving financial landscape​​.
  • Expansion into New Markets : Wells Fargo can explore opportunities for expansion into new geographic markets, both domestically and internationally. Diversifying its presence can help the bank tap into new customer segments and reduce its dependence on the U.S. market​​.
  • Investment Banking Expansion : Wells Fargo plans to grow its corporate and investment banking business, seeing a $1 billion opportunity to offer more investment banking, advisory, and underwriting services to its existing customer base. This expansion into Wall Street activities represents a significant opportunity for growth​​.
  • Strengthening Commercial & Industrial Lending : Despite being a leader in SME lending, Wells Fargo has the potential to regain its leadership in commercial and industrial (C&I) lending. Strengthening its position in this segment can open up new revenue streams and enhance its market share​​.
  • Digital Infrastructure Strategy : The bank’s partnership with major cloud providers like Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud to adopt multi-cloud technologies can accelerate its digital transformation. This shift can lead to improved product offerings, enhanced customer experience, and increased employee collaboration​​.
  • Diversification of Portfolio : The volatile nature of the banking sector makes diversification a prudent strategy. Wells Fargo can diversify its portfolio by venturing into more stable and growing industries to balance out the risks associated with the banking sector​​.
  • Focusing on Smaller Towns : After establishing a strong presence in major cities worldwide, Wells Fargo has an opportunity to expand its services to smaller towns, potentially tapping into untapped markets and customer bases​​.
  • Expanding Operations in Emerging Economies : With most of its assets in the U.S., Wells Fargo can expand its operations in emerging economies such as Africa and Asia, exploiting growth opportunities in these regions​​.
  • Intense Competition : The banking sector is highly competitive, with numerous traditional banks, financial institutions, and emerging fintech companies offering similar products and services. This fierce competition can erode Wells Fargo’s market share, exert pressure on pricing, and challenge its growth​​​​.
  • Regulatory Environment : The financial industry is subject to stringent regulations and oversight, which can change and become more complex. Wells Fargo operates in a complex regulatory environment, and any changes in laws or compliance requirements can significantly impact the company’s operations, profitability, and ability to grow​​.
  • Economic Downturns : Wells Fargo’s performance is closely tied to the economy’s overall health. Economic downturns can lead to increased loan defaults, reduced demand for financial services, and decreased profitability. Economic uncertainties and market volatility threaten the company’s financial stability​​.
  • Global Recession : A severe global recession, evidenced by job losses and economic downturns in many countries, can adversely affect Wells Fargo. Customers defaulting on loans and mortgages during such times can lead to significant financial losses for the bank​​.
  • Public Perception and Trust : Regaining public trust after scandals is challenging. Negative public perception, mainly if fueled by ongoing investigations or new allegations, can lead to customer attrition and impact Wells Fargo’s ability to attract new business​​.
  • Pandemic-Related Impacts : The stability and success of the banking sector rely heavily on the broader economy. Wells Fargo’s profits were significantly affected by the pandemic, which led to job losses and the collapse of small businesses, resulting in the accumulation of unpaid loans​​.
  • Loan Caps Imposed by Regulators : Following the fake account scandal, the Federal Reserve imposed a cap on Wells Fargo’s asset growth, limiting its ability to issue new loans and expand its business operations. This restriction is a significant threat to the bank’s growth prospects​​.
  • Technological Disruptions : The rapid pace of technological innovation in the financial sector, particularly by fintech companies, threatens traditional banks like Wells Fargo. Staying competitive requires continuous investment in technology, which can be challenging given the bank’s other priorities and constraints.

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  1. The 3 best strategic planning tools for business [+ results]

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  4. Strategic Planning Process in 5 Simple Steps

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  6. Strategic Planning Process: Mission, Priorities, Goals, KPIs

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  1. Introduction to Strategic Planning

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  8. 26 Best Strategy Tools For Your Organization in 2024

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  10. 20 Strategic Planning Frameworks for Business Success

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  18. The Best Strategy Tools to Analyze Your Market & Business

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  20. 25 Tools For Strategic Analysis

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