How to do strategic planning? Tools and step by step

Having a company that operates in an organized and efficient manner is not an easy task. Therefore, to achieve these qualities and achieve exemplary market performance, it will be necessary to invest in efficient management and good strategic planning.

If you, as an entrepreneur, are looking to develop your company in a healthy way and want to stand out in the market, you will need to have a very well-structured strategic plan, and that is what we are going to help you with. Check out our tips for having good planning in the company and with your employees. Enjoy your reading!

The importance of strategic planning

One of the most important work tools for structuring goals, guidelines and a company’s work methodology is strategic planning. It is, in fact, an objective summary of the goals that will be pursued, the identification of the reasons that lead to these goals and the way in which everything will be done.

In addition to systematizing the effort that must be employed and the paths to be followed to achieve the proposed objectives, when strategic planning is well done, it certainly helps to integrate the company by demonstrating to everyone, through clear and direct communication , what stage the business is at, what it believes in and what the future steps will be.

It also helps to unify the communication of all this understanding to employees, therefore making each one understand the reasons why he was assigned to his role.

A step-by-step guide to strategic planning

There is no single way to structure strategic planning, but there are some steps that must be followed in the process of developing this tool so that it is efficient and appropriate for the business. See what these steps are in the following topics.

Establish organizational identity

Organizational identity is the basis for any successful company, as it is from there that decisions will be made, policies and internal regulations will be drawn up, organizational culture and other elements of the company will be defined.

In practice, the mission, vision and values ​​(MVV) must be established . Understand each of these terms better:

  • mission : this is the reason why the company was created;
  • vision : is the situation that the company intends to achieve;
  • values : these are the principles that must be followed by all employees and business managers.

You can look for inspiration from other companies in the market. For example, Tesla Motors’ mission is to “accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.” However, remember that your organizational identity should be unique and tailored specifically to your business.

Define the objective

Here, the path to be followed by the business must be established, that is, its objectives and goals. Objectives are the most comprehensive results that must be achieved in the long term. Goals, on the other hand, are short-term and serve as a path to achieve the objectives. To develop them properly, make them SMART. See what this acronym means:

  • S (specific): must be clear and objective;
  • M (measurable): managers need to be able to measure progress towards the goal;
  • A (attainable): if they are unattainable, employees will not be engaged in planning;
  • R (relevant): they must have a positive impact on the business and help achieve objectives;
  • T (temporal): a deadline is set to achieve it.

Analyze the external market

Managers need to clearly understand the external environment, which consists of the functioning of the market and its characteristics, and monitor its changes. There are two types of forces in the external market, one of which is the macro-environmental , which, above all, involves broad issues that reflect society in general. See examples:

  • demographic;
  • economic;
  • technological;
  • policies;
  • social;
  • cultural.

The other type of environment is called microenvironmental, which, however, are smaller issues and over which the company has greater control, such as:

  • suppliers ;
  • consumers;
  • competitors;
  • partners;
  • distribution channels; among others.

Identify strengths and weaknesses

Before defining your strategies and action plans, you must understand the internal environment of your business — its strengths and weaknesses — which may involve your employees, products or services, and procedures, among other aspects. Then, your strengths must be used intelligently and maximized.

Check out examples that may be present in the company:

  • digital transformation , which is the use of cutting-edge technologies to achieve savings, security and agility in internal procedures;
  • hard-working employees with an ideal profile for the business, who are known as talents;
  • impactful competitive differential ;
  • quality suppliers and partners ;
  • good location or online performance.

Regarding weaknesses, they must receive special attention and, above all, be overcome. Some are:

  • lack of financial resources;
  • financial disorganization;
  • high level of customer dissatisfaction;
  • lack of modernization of processes;
  • lack of talent or qualified personnel.

Structure a strategy

After completing the previous steps, administrators will be able to create the appropriate strategy for their business. Some care must be taken in this process, as the application of the techniques must follow these phases:

  • design: observe whether it matches the organizational identity;
  • scenario analysis: simulate three possible scenarios and results, one optimistic, one pessimistic and one realistic (most likely to occur);
  • elaboration: objectives, goals and the action plan are developed;
  • implementation: the collaborators for each activity are defined and the measures are put into practice;
  • evaluation: key performance indicators (KPIs) are applied to monitor results;
  • reassessment: the strategy is improved.

Implement an action plan

This plan is part of the strategy and is a list of actions that must be taken by employees to achieve the goals. It should also initially include the services that will be contracted, the materials needed, among other measures.

The manager needs to study the goals and identify the factors that led to them being achieved or not. The plan is reviewed once a month; during this process, the manager will evaluate the results and finally improve the old actions.

Points of attention in the construction of strategic planning

When defining the goals to be pursued by the company and the ways in which it intends to do this, some points must be observed very carefully so that your company faces fewer unforeseen events and is more effective in constructing the plan.

Objectives

When setting goals, be careful to do so in a realistic and easily measurable way. Straying from reality can be very bad for your company.

Some companies, when setting their goals , end up getting into arguments and deviating a little from the business. This can sometimes cause them to lose focus and end up setting goals that are far from their reality.

Another problem is leaving your goals aside. The energy invested in this task needs to make some sense, otherwise you wouldn’t need to spend your time on it.

Market context

When structuring an action plan, it is very important to observe and respect the market situation. You need to be realistic and carefully evaluate the context in which you are operating. Therefore, when creating your strategic plan, remember to consider what is happening around you and how the external environment may affect your company.

Expansion plans

Expanding a business is the dream of many managers and a huge responsibility. However, many entrepreneurs invest a lot of time and resources in expanding their company and forget what it’s like to manage the entire company (now bigger), having to deal with old responsibilities and new ones.

In order to grow, you need to have a well-managed and controlled structure — otherwise, the risk is great. When planning to expand your business, make sure that your current operation is running smoothly.

Financial processes

Every leader knows that, regardless of whether you have a quality product, a specific clientele or any other variable that deserves to be highlighted, the heart of the company is its finances and that you only need to look at them to know how things are going. Remember to always consider your financial processes when designing your strategic planning.

Look for ways to reduce costs and maximize profits. Your company’s survival depends on this every day. See what can be automated and streamlined. Reduce the possibility of errors and never neglect your reports.

Clients

Regardless of your type of business, when creating an action plan to guide the future of your company, remember who your target audience is. They need to be one of your concerns when it comes to the future of the company. When setting goals, consider how this target audience might behave.

Try to keep the customers you already have loyal and seek to create opportunities to win new ones.

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