MP Consulting Services explains how to develop a successful Strategic Plan for a growing business and to make sure all the stakeholders have an input, do their homework and help formulate the outcome.
In this blog, I am excited to provide a failsafe strategic planning process to create a successful, competitive, strategic plan for your growing business. First off, it?s advisable to use a third party, unbiased, moderator that knows what needs to be done. I say this because an outside moderator can provide a degree of objectivity to the proceedings, which will help analyze and consolidate a strategic plan that all stakeholders can buy into without the perceived, or real, bias associated with an internal moderator. However, if you do not have an objective moderator available, then play the role yourself, and follow the procedure below.
Key Steps in the Failsafe Strategic Planning Process
1. Gather input on strategic issues from all key stakeholders.
2. Define SWOT Analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats), and any Strategic Questions and Issues.
3. Review and adjust inputs as part of a stakeholder review and create a strategic matrix.
4. The Strategic Matrix: defines the strategic imperatives required to address each of the SWOT combinations.
5. With the key strategies in place, then define goals and objectives and prepare operational action plans.
6. Review and adjust the final strategies, goals and objectives, and implement.
STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS DETAIL
1. Gather Inputs
Identify all key stakeholders, which must include the CEO and President, Vice Presidents of all key functions, and may include certain specialist in market research, or strategic functions. You may also want to include a few ?outside experts? such as some of your best customers, experts in your field of endeavor or in strategic planning. After identifying all stakeholders ask them for input on the following parameters:
External strategic influences and determinants:
? Customers: customer segments, motivations, their unmet needs, trends, best in class service and products, customer lists and potential customers;
? Competition: competitive companies, products, market share, strengths and weaknesses, strategies, positioning, pricing and advertising, perceptions and new trends;
? Industry: industry size, growth, structure, entry barriers, distribution, trends, key success factors.
? Environmental: technology changes, existing and pending government regulations, economic factors, cultural factors, changes in demographics, and new information needs.
Internal strategic influences and determinants:
? Performance: sales and market share history and projections, Return on Assets, product performance, relative cost, new product development, employee assessment.
? Strategic Determinants: past and current strategy, organization capabilities, constraints, financial resources, flexibility. What marketing strategies and tactics have worked, and which have failed?
2. Define your SWOT
From the long list of data and comments, it is important to now distill this down into several key points as follows:
? External: Define the key opportunities and threats facing your business.
? Internal: Define the key strengths and weaknesses of your business currently.
? Define key strategic questions and issues that need to be addressed.
3. Review Inputs and SWOT Analysis
? Review inputs and SWOT analysis with all stakeholders and adjust inputs.
? Boil down SWOT to 3 or 4 key statements for each component.
4. Create SWOT Matrix
With the key stakeholders, develop a SWOT Matrix by determining strategies required to address each SWOT combination: Opportunities v Strength; Opportunities v Weaknesses; Threat v Strength; and Threat v Weakness.
5. Define Key Strategies
From the SWOT Matrix choose the Strategic Imperatives that will enable you to achieve your business objectives. From this, refine and specify short and long term goals, and prepare operational action plans
6. Final Review
Arrange a final review with all stakeholders to ensure the strategy makes sense and that nothing critical was missed.
A free detailed guide on this process can be obtained from MP Consulting Services. Send me your request for the free Strategic Plan Guide along with your email address to mpconsultingservice@yahoo.com.
Hopefully this has given you something to think about. My goal is to make your life easier and to ensure you are as productive as possible. I hope you enjoyed this and that you will send me your comments, subscribe and link to my blog at http://mpconsulting.worpress.com , and if you need help, or need to ask me a question, click on this.
Free Guides are available from my blog site on a number of business subjects including: Strategic Planning, Business Plans, Marketing Plans, Social Media Planning, Public Relations Planning, Time Management, Negotiating Strategies, Effective Business Meetings, Due Diligence, and many others. To visit my blog, go to
http://bit.ly/ikBWe5
MP Consulting Services specializes in the areas of strategic planning, leadership, marketing and social media. Mark Philip, principal at MPCS, has over 20 years experience in managing businesses, both small and large, has orchestrated multiple turnarounds, built product pipelines, launched new products, sold companies and created significant shareholder value. Let me know how I can help you with your business challenge.
For More Information: visit my blog at http://mpconsulting.wordpress.com or visit my LinkedIn account at http://www.linkedin.com/in/markpconsulting
Copyright ? 2012 Mark Philip
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