A strong strategic plan is critical to your organization’s success. It helps guide management through decision making and creates clarity for the broader group. Here are a couple things to consider when building your plan.
First, begin by studying the market and competition and identify any trends. Next, perform a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis. Once you’ve established these baselines, you can start into truly defining your mission and vision.
Your mission statement is the answer to “why do we exist?” while your vision statement speaks to “what do we offer and where are we heading?” From this point, you can define your corporate goals, the specific outcomes you’re trying to achieve. Drill down to the department-level. Create a purpose for each level that allows their contribution to be measured. Finally, determine staffing, budget and financing needs.
Strategic plans take time and, most importantly, require everyone’s buy-in. Having employees actively participate in the plan will likely make their buy-in easier, since they’ll be in tune with the thought process. And don’t rule out third-party help. Frequently, an outside facilitator can be brought in to build the plan, keep the process on track and effectively ensure everyone is focused.
At Schneider Downs, we’re in the mist of executing our own strategic plan. Ask us about what we’re doing so we can share our experience with you as you think about your plan.
