A strategic plan is a collection of an organisation’s medium-to-long-term goals with a lifespan of three to five years that defines the organisation’s future vision and identifies its goals and objectives. The process includes establishing the sequence in which those goals should be realised so that the organisation can achieve its stated vision.
Having a strategic plan in place can make it simpler to monitor your progress toward your goals. Having the team of your organisation be aware of the strategy will guide the team on the path to achieving organisation’s success.
Strategic plan also helps put business challenges into perspective. It gives the organisation the foresight necessary to approach them in a planned manner. You’ll have a clearer understanding of how any given issue affects your company, which in turn makes it simpler for you to take charge of your own future.
A Strategic Plan is a useful tool to advance an organisation toward its objectives. And below is a simplified step of how to develop a strategic plan.
1. Assess
At this stage, try to determine the current position of the organisation. Here, you evaluate the company and its surroundings using the current strategic plan, which includes the mission statement and long-term strategic goals. SWOT analysis, PEST analysis, or needs assessment can be used to understand the current state of the organisation, identify opportunities and threats and understand what might be coming in the future course.
2. Develop
Based on the findings of the assessment stage, identify the tactics required to achieve the organisation’s objectives. Use strategy mapping in order to visualise the strategic plan to make it simple to view organisational processes and identify gaps for improvement. This step will include the preparation of a budget, internal evaluation mechanisms, a detailed action plan, and a timeline for implementation.
3. Execute
After developing the strategic plan, you then move on to execution. First, communicate the plan to the organisation in order to assign responsibilities, make investments, modify policies and processes, and establish measurement and reporting. Key Performance Indicators (KPI) can be used to clearly track communicated responsibilities of each department in the organisation.
4. Monitor
Regular monitoring of the implementation should take place to determine check-in points to ensure the organisation is on track. On a quarterly basis, determine which KPIs your team has met, how you can continue to meet them, and adapt your plan as necessary. It’s also important to reevaluate your plan against the current position of the organisation versus where it was when the plan was prepared.
5. Review and update
As business conditions change and new opportunities emerge, a strategic plan is reviewed and revised on a regular basis to adjust priorities and reevaluate goals. Quick reviews of metrics can be done quarterly and strategic plan adjustments can be made annually.
