How To Implement Strategic Planning (With Examples)

1. Study the overall market.
2. Complete a SWOT analysis.
3. Define your business goals.
4. Develop departmental goals.
5. Set short-term objectives.
6. Identify staffing, budgeting and financing needs.
7. Identify which KPIs you will track.
8. Identify the needs of your customers.

Gaining early full commitment from employees, especially key personnel, is crucial to the success of the plan. Getting the plan out to the organization is the first step in implementation. It is important to stress that the plan has broad support from the board of directors to department managers and that it is consistent with the organization’s vision and overall business strategy.

Strategic plan implementations are frequently problematic because middle managers frequently believe senior management no longer cares about carrying out the plan unless they receive clear and prompt confirmation to the contrary. Another problem is that only about 25% of businesses offer substantial rewards for achieving the benchmarks and objectives of their strategic plans.

Every strategic plan responds, either directly or indirectly, to external conditions. The implementation of the plan may become unnecessary, no longer strategic, or impossible due to changes in the economy, supply costs, labor, or other factors. In order for everyone to understand that the plan includes responses to external conditions, acknowledgement of these parameters should be incorporated into the plan’s rollout.

The steps of the strategic planning process in under 15 minutes

What is strategic planning?

Strategic planning is the process by which management establishes priorities, commits time and resources to a task, enhances operations, and ensures that all stakeholders share a common interest in the success of the company.

Strategic goals and any other important elements of the plan that have been developed in meetings for strategic planning are communicated within an organization through the strategic plan.

Strategy reflects the rationale behind certain actions. Planning is what determines how to execute the desired actions. This could also be called strategic management. Feedback is essential to the organization’s action because it enables the plan to change as conditions do. Implementation of the strategic plan is strategic execution.

Benefits of strategic planning

There are a few benefits to using strategic planning to assist your business in achieving a goal. For instance, a strategic plan can assist in defining the direction that your company must take as well as in setting attainable goals that are related to the organization’s mission. Additionally, it enables a company to assess its progress through the stages of strategic planning and can offer guidelines for making decisions that are effective.

By creating a strategic plan, management can more effectively coordinate the functional activities of the company to meet goal-oriented objectives. These plans can also be used to outline management meetings and decision-making to determine the resources and spending limits needed to meet objectives, which will ultimately increase operational effectiveness.

The stages of strategic planning

An organization will use a variety of execution strategies as it begins to develop a strategic plan. Managers, executives, and other business stakeholders participate in various planning stages or phases. The following stages are commonly addressed during strategic planning:

How to implement an effective strategic plan

Your company will take steps to create the plan as it moves through the stages of strategic planning. An effective strategic plan can be created by using the steps below:

1. Study the overall market

Research your competitors and how they are funded. Determine what tactics they are using in their approach. Determine the average cost of goods and services as well as the average prices charged by your competitors. In addition to researching your competitors, research your customer base. Determine the goods and services that your clientele wants. Think about researching broader economic trends and how they impact the market.

2. Complete a SWOT analysis

A SWOT analysis looks at your customer base, staff, profitability, market position, and products to identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You can use the following as some indicative factors to finish your SWOT analysis:

3. Define your business goals

Determine what actions or alterations your company needs to make to achieve your mission and vision statements. Examine the corporate culture, any product changes, sales and marketing tactics, financial resources, and financial targets. You can then use your evaluations to determine the most appropriate goals to further the expansion and improvement of your business.

4. Develop departmental goals

Project teams, sales and marketing teams, finance and operations teams, and human resources and technology teams may each have their own set of objectives. Consider establishing smaller goals to help you achieve bigger ones, such as focusing on communication techniques or team-building activities to boost employee morale for your human resources team.

5. Set short-term objectives

Determine the ultimate objective that your strategic plan will help you achieve. Next, work backward from that goal to determine the important goals or benchmarks your plan will need to aim for in order to achieve the desired outcomes. Then, as you create your strategic plan, you can use these key objectives as smaller goals. For instance, a short-term objective of increasing social media lead conversion can help to further the long-term objective of raising the overall volume of online sales.

6. Identify staffing, budgeting and financing needs

Establish a budget, organizational structure, and centralized corporate plan. You could determine if you have the funding necessary to introduce new products and meet your overall sales objectives. Consider how you will raise money or change the goals to be more achievable for your current business development if an analysis of your current finances reveals that you will need additional funding.

7. Identify which KPIs you will track

Choose any key performance indicators (KPIs) that you can monitor to help you assess whether the target objectives in your strategic plan are being met. For instance, you might monitor overall sales along with supporting KPIs like the number of website visitors who fill out the contact form, the number of proposals issued, leads, and proposal closing ratios.

8. Identify the needs of your customers

Think about looking at your market sector to see if it is growing or contracting, what needs your competitors are filling, or if there is a new market need that your company’s product or service can fill. You could also assess your marketing tactics to see which ones are working, and then make any necessary adjustments.

9. Identify and evaluate your competitors

Identify your competitors and evaluate their strategies for success. You could also conduct market research to find trends that affect a competitor’s success. Afterward, you can make use of this information to implement and create strategies for outperforming your rivals.

If your rival provides consulting services, you might take into account how much they charge for their consulting packages and whether they provide special offers or customer referrals. This data can be crucial for creating your company’s strategic plan because it can provide insight into how to position your business to achieve its objectives more effectively.

10. Address the individuals needed to achieve goals

Determine every single person who might be involved in your project plan to achieve your objectives. You should evaluate and put together the teams you’ll need to work through the process’s stages. You can decide whether you will need any new hires or specialized professionals to complete your project, such as whether you will need a larger sales and marketing team, a project management team, or a finance team.

11. Assess the financial results

Consider and evaluate each initiative you are pursuing. Determine how many customers and at what price points you need to target to meet your sales goals by placing individual projects within the overall objectives.

FAQ

What are the steps of strategic implementation?

The process of putting strategies and plans into practice in order to achieve strategic objectives and goals is known as implementation. As important as, if not more so than, your strategy is the implementation of your strategic plan.

What are the 5 steps in strategic planning?

1. Step 1: Set and communicate clear, strategic goals. …
2. Step 2: Engage your team. …
3. Step 3: Execute the strategic plan. …
4. Step 4: Stay agile. …
5. Step 5: Get closure. …
6. Step 6: Reflect.

What are the 7 steps of strategic planning?

1. Determine your strategic position.
2. Prioritize your objectives.
3. Develop a strategic plan.
4. Execute and manage your plan.
5. Review and revise the plan.