Steps followed in strategic planning

Strategic planning is the process by which a company sets what it wants to look like in the coming years and the means of reaching there. An organization comes up with a vision and checks out what is important, the methods, and tasks that can be attained. It mostly concentrates on long-term targets and objectives. Planning as a whole makes the company remain focused and therefore contributes to its progress and stability. Hence it must be carried out in an organized way by following some steps. (Steps followed in strategic planning)

One of the measures is to agree on the strategic planning process. This is done by a meeting of the board with key members present including staff and some external stakeholders. It falls under the formulation stage as it involves determining how the strategic planning will be done, its importance, the cost of carrying out the planning and considering whether the organization is ready to take a plan that takes a longer period or a plan that takes a shorter time. This step is important as it gives the company a chance to determine if it’s ready for the plan regarding financial resources, staff involvement and decide on whether to take long-term or short-term project. To make the step successful, the participants of the planning should be chosen carefully by determining their commitment. For the staff involved, ensure that much staff time is devoted to the planning and reduce the workloads and responsibilities of the staff.

Another step is to agree on the main strategies to meet the targets and the key issues that have been identified by carrying out an environmental scan. The scan involves the SWOT analysis and also the external factors that affect the company. There should be a relation between the strategies and specific goals. It includes prioritizing the strategies to ensure the key strategies like the new programs are carried out first. Identifying viable strategies is also important, and for the non-potential strategies, the board may suggest changes be done. Choosing among the strategies follows a criterion which involves determining the value, appropriateness, feasibility, acceptability, cost-benefit and the timing of the strategy. The step falls under the implementation stage. The importance of this stage is that it allows the planning board to precisely evaluate the responsibilities for their implementation. For the establishment of this process to be successful, selection, evaluation and prioritizing the strategies should be carried out carefully based on any agreed criteria. (Steps followed in strategic planning)

Building in a method for supervising, and for changing plans about variations in the external components of the environment or the company is also another step. It falls under the review stage as it involves monitoring the planning. Strategies are discussed and annual goals developed by checking the progress made, difficulties encountered and environmental changes. The plan should be used to give direction and therefore should be flexible. Both the board and the staff play key role in revising progress and modification of the strategies where necessary. This stage is of benefit as it allows the organization to monitor progress to see if the targets are met and evaluate reasons for some difficulties in the accomplishment. For the process to be successful, the planning and evaluation sectors should work hand in hand. The planning unit may carry out documentation of data which is used by the evaluation unit to review the progress of the organization.

The steps above are necessary for any organization, and they can be broken further to sub-steps that will clearly define every vital issue to be addressed. Through the steps above, strategic planning becomes that relies on the board and the staff working together. The planning also may involve knowledgeable outsiders consultation who may give precise information about the external environment and the community .(Steps followed in strategic planning)

REFERENCES

Buchanan, S., & Gibb, F. (1998). The information audit: an integrated strategic approach. International journal of information management, 18(1), 29-47. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0268401297000388

Hofer, C. W. (1975). Toward a contingency theory of business strategy. Academy of Management journal, 18(4), 784-810.

Steps followed in strategic planning