Currently, nearly 63% of entrepreneurs only use a plan during the first year. Indeed, strategic planning remains very underestimated by companies. However, it plays an essential role in their growth.
Although it seems intimidating, strategic planning is a great way to ensure a successful business. This is a plan based on research and documentation, not assumptions. The objective is to define the development direction of your company in the long term. Therefore, your strategic planning must be able to evolve over time . Although the process can take time, the perceived benefits are well worth it.
What is strategic planning?
Strategic planning is a process by which companies establish their orientation. It must contain the objectives to determine the path that your company will follow. It is a powerful strategic development that allows you to anticipate any brakes and identify the opportunities that will arise.
In order to guarantee the success of your plan, it is necessary to integrate each member of your box and to ensure that it takes part in your vision. In addition, the success of a strategic planning is based on teamwork between you, your employees and other external partners
Indeed, frozen planning can lead to its failure. Therefore, it must be flexible. Since your company has changed over the years, your strategy is required to follow the movement. Moreover, the needs of the market also often renew themselves after a certain time, it is possible that your product is lost in efficiency for your customers.
Therefore, to avoid being exceeded by competition , you must regularly improve your sales strategy . In addition, strategic planning can serve as a benchmark for your business to help you achieve the set objectives.
Why do strategic planning?
A priori, strategic planning may seem complex, but profits largely prevail over the drawbacks. Not only does it offer a better vision of your goals, but also allows your business to identify the way to reach them. Thanks to this process, you will have the opportunity to determine how to grow in the coming years and face new opportunities as well as market challenges. In addition, when you communicate your plan properly to your team, they will feel more involved in your projects. Consequently, this process can allow an increase in productivity , thus contributing to the success of your box.
Strategic planning prevents your business from collapsing after a few years by minimizing risks . Indeed, within the framework of the process, you will have to deeply examine your project . This analysis will then allow you to determine the capacities of your business and optimize them. You will also have the possibility of dissecting your forces in order to exploit them as well as your weaknesses in order to improve them.
As it is generally an anticipation work, you will be able to prevent now the possible brakes on your development for the first 5 years. However, when an objective takes more time to be accomplished, so it is sometimes necessary to review the plan and adjust it .
Steps in the strategic planning process
1. Strategic position
This part is to identify internal and external sources by bringing together various data on your sector of activity. customers ' opinions in order to obtain a clear image of your brand as well as your position within the market. In addition, it is also necessary to review the fundamental values of your business to determine how you have to do it to achieve your goals.
Thanks to the contribution of executives, customers and data on the external market, you can classify your results in a SWOT diagram (FFOM - Force, weakness, opportunity, threat). This tool makes it possible to document the means by which your organization can develop in order to meet needs that the market does not currently meet.
2. Objectives
First of all, you should know that it is imperative that your objectives are in line with the mission and vision of your business. They must be distinct and measurable to help you reach your long -term as well as your initiatives. To do this, you can use the Smart mnemonic . This technique is useful for determining and identifying the resources necessary to achieve it.
It also makes it possible to identify the key performance indicators (ICP) capable of making your success measurable. Once the objectives and initiatives have been detected, you must classify them in order of priority. In particular, it will be a question of determining who will have the greatest impact on the realization of your vision and on the improvement of your position on the market.
3. Make a plan
This step is to create a strategic plan to achieve your goals. Thus, you must determine the necessary tactics to achieve your objectives , establish a calendar and clearly communicate responsibilities. To achieve this, strategic cartography remains the best way. Indeed, it makes it easy to visualize operational processes and identify the gaps to be filled.
In addition, truly strategic choices generally involve a compromise in terms of opportunity cost. So be ready to use your values, mission statements and established priorities. So know how to say "no" to initiatives that do not strengthen your long -term strategic position.
4. Execute and manage the plan
Now that you have the plan, it's time to implement it. First, you need to communicate the plan to the organization by sharing relevant documentation . And only then can the actual work begin. In order to achieve optimal results, it is necessary to organize regular examinations. This helps determine checkpoints that tell you if you are on the right track. Additionally, use KPI dashboards to clearly communicate the responsibilities of each team member.
5. Review and revise the plan
This last step gives you the opportunity to reassess your priorities and rectify the shot according to the success or past failures. On a quarterly basis, you are required to determine which key performance indicators your team has managed to accomplish and how you can continue to reach them, by adapting your plan if necessary. On an annual basis, it is important to reassess your priorities and your strategic position to ensure that you remain on the path of long -term success. You can, for example, follow your progress using balanced dashboards that allow you to have a global vision of your business performance.
Even today, many boxes decide not to set up strategic planning. It is therefore not surprising that many of them collapse before their third years which are the most decisive. Therefore, it is fundamental for the prosperity of your business to develop strategic planning .
