Strategic Planning

To create a successful strategic plan, you need to look ahead and forecast where your business is going. However, it's essential to ensure the forecast is realistic and stable. Companies usually prefer a planning horizon of three to five years, allowing them to reflect on and refine their plan regularly. This ensures that your business stays relevant and ahead of the game.

Assembling a successful strategic plan requires an experienced leader at the helm. This individual must have the support of a diverse and multifaceted team of representatives from all pertinent departments, including but not limited to finance, HR, operations, and sales. The result of this collaboration is a powerful roadmap for achieving your organization's goals and objectives.

A successful business strategy requires more than just input from senior management. Engaging everyone in the planning process is critical to success. Involving managers and their teams in the decision-making process can provide valuable insights into the future of the business. This includes taking into account their thoughts on areas where the company excels and areas for improvement. Knowing what projects individuals are working on and how they contribute to the bigger picture is also essential information when deliberating about a strategic plan. By including feedback from across the organization, the plan is more likely to gain buy-in from all stakeholders.

Planning is critical to success and requires regular review to meet goals. To do this, different timelines are set for various objectives: 

• Monthly reviews are completed to check progress on specific themes or goals. 
• Quarterly reviews are done to analyze the advancement of the strategic plan as a whole.
• Annual reviews ensure that the strategic plan is still valid. 

Setting up these meetings at the beginning of the year is essential, with the right people invited to each one. Monthly meetings may require a director from each department, quarterly meetings require a smaller set of leaders, and annual strategic retreats are usually reserved for the highest levels of leadership. Setting these meetings early also means that everyone knows the expectations and sets a standard for preparedness.