Strategic Planning FAQs Milwaukee WI

Strategic planning is necessary when running a company or organization; however, it also can be confusing. Here are the most commonly asked question and answers about strategic planning.

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Strategic planning can create a ton of questions. You’re not alone if you have a long list. The following sections cover the answers to the most commonly asked questions.

Who uses strategic plans?
Everyone — or at least every company and organization that wants to be successful. Companies in every industry, in every part of the country, and in most of the Fortune 500 use strategic plans. Organizations within the nonprofit, government, and small to big business sectors also have strategic plans.
Does every strategic plan include the same elements?
A strategic plan should include many elements:

A mission statement and vision statement

A description of the company’s long-term goals and objectives

Strategies the company plans to use to achieve general goals and
objectives

Action plans to implement the goals and objectives The strategic plan may also identify external factors that can affect achievement of long-term goals. Plans may vary in detail and scope (depending on how big the organization is), but for the most part, a strategic plan includes the basic elements listed above.

Just exactly what is strategic planning?
The term strategic planning refers to a coordinated and systematic process for developing a plan for the overall direction of your endeavor for the purpose of optimizing future potential. For a profit-making business, this process involves many questions:

What is the mission and purpose of the business?

Where do we want to take the business?

What do we sell currently? What could we sell in the future?

To whom shall we sell it?

What do we do that is unique?

How shall we beat or avoid competition? The central purpose of this process is to ensure that the course and direction is well thought out, sound, and appropriate. In addition, the process provides reassurance that the limited resources of the enterprise (time and capital) are sharply focused in support of that course and direction. The process encompasses both strategy formulation and implementation.

What is the difference between strategic planning and long-range planning?
The major difference between strategic planning and long-range planning is in emphasis. Long-range planning is generally considered to mean the development of a plan of action to accomplish a goal or set of goals over a period of several years. The major assumption in long range planning is that current knowledge about future conditions is sufficiently reliable to enable the development of these plans. Because the environment is assumed to be predictable, the emphasis is on the articulation of internally focused plans to accomplish agreed-on goals. The major assumption in strategic planning, however, is that an organization must be responsive to a dynamic, changing environment. Therefore, the emphasis in strategic planning is on understanding how the environment is changing and will change and on developing organizational decisions that are responsive to these changes.

Does every company need a strategic plan?
Every endeavor or enterprise already has a strategy. These range from some vague sense of the desires of the owner to massive, overly sophisticated master plans. So the question shouldn’t be whether every company needs a strategy but instead whether the company’s strategy needs to be well thought out, sound, appropriate, and do-able. The answer is yes.

We are highly successful already, so why should we plan?
Success is strong evidence that a company has had a sound and appropriate
strategy. Note the past tense. There’s absolutely no guarantee that yesterday’s sound and appropriate strategy will continue to be successful in the future. Indeed, there’s great danger in assuming so without adequate study.

Can a smaller company afford the time for strategic planning?
Experience shows that the top management team devotes approximately 2 to 4 percent of its time to practical strategic planning. In reality, structured strategic planning isn’t something more to do; it’s a better way of doing something already being done. Indeed, in the long run, you save time. But understand, strategic planning can become a time trap. You can become caught in a long slog of planning if you get too mired down in the details. From the outset, you need to establish that the plan is a living document and that it is not written in stone. By doing that, you can avoid strategic planning becoming a time trap.

Why plan in a world that’s highly uncertain?
Your efforts in forward planning can become pointless if you fear that the plan may be overwhelmed by unanticipated events and developments. Uncertainty is, indeed, a major problem in forward planning. However, the greater the uncertainty, the greater the need for good strategic planning because you want to try to be ready for the unknown.

How can we be confident that our planning will be successful?
Even in the presence of a structured strategic planning process, it’s quite possible to formulate unsound, inappropriate strategies and/or to fail at implementation. But this book helps you avoid these many pitfalls. Strategic planning is worth the effort because it helps you run your organization better. You can be confident that the information and best practices outlined in this book result in a successful strategic planning process. I promise!

What is strategic thinking?
Strategic thinking means asking yourself, “Are we doing the right thing?” It requires three major components:

Purpose or end vision

Understanding the environment, particularly of the competition affecting and/or blocking achievement of these ends

Creativity in developing effective responses to the competitive forces

provided by:

For Dummies is a registered trademark of Wiley Publishing, Inc. in the United States and other countries. Used here by license.

Featured Local Company

Joan Lloyd & Associates, Inc.

414-476-8853
10701 W. North Avenue, Suite 203
Milwaukee, WI
http://www.JoanLloyd.com

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