Tool Box
Issue No. 18 - August/September 2004
The need for Strategic Planning
key to becoming a Top 100 company
by Peter Balan
With increasing competition and an ever-increasing pace of business, the need for strategic planning is becoming an imperative of business today.
It is the crucial differentiator which investors, staff, customers and all key stakeholders expect in a sustainable and healthy business.
A strategic plan provides members of your company with a clear understanding of direction, allowing actions to be created and implemented at a local level, while maintaining the overall ambition and purpose of the company.
This in turn empowers people within your organisation to drive and be a part of the company‘s success.
A strategic plan needs to be simple, have longevity and address the needs of all stakeholders. It needs to be in synergy with your overall vision and comply with your values.
You may already have an informal vision, but it is necessary to make it visible throughout your organisation.
Above all, the strategic plan must result in the outcomes necessary to achieve key company goals. The people within your organisation put your strategies into action, so utilising your Top Team to create and implement these is the key to a successful plan.
Many organisations are recognising the need for company-wide strategies; many are not only focusing on strategy to drive their business, but are creating a new position within their company, the Strategy Manager.
This is an acknowledgment of the need for an internal advocate to make strategy part of every day — an on-going, living process which provides direction at all levels within the company.
So what is a strategic plan? The best way to appreciate this is to understand the following key elements of the strategic planning process:
- review of the current situation and acknowledge the aspects of your business which can not be easily changed, including any-short term objectives and actions;
- an environmental analysis which considers economic, market, ...
