How can you be CERTAIN your Strategic Plan is delivering your BEST business outcomes? Please read on..
1) Company Vision, Values, and Aspirations must be clearly stated or restated. If you do not know where you are going as a company and why, how can you expect yourself and others to stay onboard through thick and thin? Best of all, this vision and values help you and your team know who is aligned with the vision for the company and who is not.
EXAMPLE: Vision: To be the first company to provide reliable interstellar travel to Mars for the purpose of colonization. Values: Stop at nothing to advance our company’s superior space-travel technological capabilities, push the envelope every day beyond what is thought to be possible.
2) Definition of the Market, including a Market Size Estimate and Growth Rate, key shifts in the market (customers, competition), a SWOT analysis and a written description of the competitive environment in which the company operates. How can you formulate and effectively plan a business if you are not first able to articulate what is happening within your defined market(s)? It may seem routine or rote to document the market(s) you are highly familiar with, but not every company leader and partner is going to understand the key market drivers that must be understood for the company’s success. Almost every market changes, at least slightly, each year.
3) Statement of Strategies, SMART Objectives and Tactics: Strategies are plans toward achieving overarching goals. SMART Objectives are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound. Each must be clearly spelled out. Tactics are specific actions that support objectives which in-turn support strategies. Throughout this process, it must be clear as to why each tactic, objective and strategy is being pursued, and each should support the vision and/or aspirations identified in Step 1.
4) System of Measuring the Implementation of Strategies, Goals and Objectives and Communicating Status: Clearly define a mechanism for regular evaluation and reporting on the successful implementation of the defined strategies, goals and objectives. There are many mechanisms that work well (such as Rolling Action Item Lists (RAIL), Gantt charts and Meeting Note formats that include Notes, Actions and Next Steps. Choose those methods that work best for you.
5) A 5-year backward looking P&L along with a 5 year forward looking P&L & headcount forecast.
6) Owner/officer Signature Page: a guiding document of this importance to the business should require the signatures of all key stakeholders in the company. If you do not agree, ask yourself why?
7) Checkbox to Verify that the Plan has been Distributed to the Board of Directors: the board should be given an opportunity to evaluate and challenge the business plan each year. This is a big part of any board’s role, and their value to the company should be clear in their feedback each year.
Not sure where to start with Strategic Planning? Need a second look at your strategic plan? Need a new plan? Clarion Consulting can help: 513.846.0566 or sam.rayburn@clarionconsultingllc.com