Definition of Strategic Planning Clear definition of strategic planning avoids the common confusion with business planning, budgeting,

and marketing strategies. What is Strategic Planning? Every organisation or major part of a complex organisation occasionally has to make some momentous decisions- the sort of decisions that affect the entire destiny of the organisation for years into the future. These decisions are designed to address the really biggest and most important issues facing an organisation issues so significant we might call them 'strategic elephants'. So our definition of strategic planning must have something about big decisions. Such decisions are not simply about small adjustments to activity levels, but are the kind of decisions that may lead to a substantially different organisational structure, or major changes in the relationships among key stakeholders, competitive position, or strategic partners of the organization. Sometimes the outside world forces such decisions on the organisation. Such forces may include major shifts in the market, big changes in government policy, and radical moves by competing organisations. Sometimes, it is something inside the organisation that demands a major reappraisal. Technological change driving new methods of carrying out its work, or weakening of its financial structure, or a change in the senior management of the organisation requiring a large reorganisation are examples of such internal forces. Organisations have always faced such pressures to make huge decisions. In recent years, the pressure has risen to the point where a systematic yet flexible process of dealing with such decisions is called for. Such a process is variously and sometimes confusingly described as: corporate planning, strategic planning, business planning, and variations such as corporate strategic planning, or strategic business planning. Other labels make the subject more industry specific such as military strategic planning, hospital strategic planning, and in some jurisdictions what others know as urban and regional planning is sometimes called strategic planning. As its name implies simply-strategic-planning.com will focus primarily on strategic planning. By this we have in mind any plan which looks forward several years and which is concerned with massive factors only. The focus of the decisions in the plan are the organisation as a whole in its environment as a whole. Strategic Planning is Different from Business Planning A definition of strategic planning must be based on understanding that a strategic plan differs from a Business Plan in three ways;

it looks much further ahead; it consists largely of words with just a few figures to indicate the scale of the planners intentions. A Business Plan, on the other hand, consists largely of figures. Because these are often unreliable beyond a few months, managers are reluctant to look ahead as far as they may need to. Strategic plans can look further ahead because so few figures are employed, and also what few figures they do contain are tested by risk analysis techniques.

Definition of Strategic Planning A systematic, formally documented process for deciding what is the handful of key decisions that an organisation, viewed as a corporate whole must get right in order to thrive over the next few years. The process results in the production of a corporate strategic plan. Strategic Plan A set of statements describing the purpose and ethical conduct for an organisation together with the specific strategies designed to achieve the targets set for each of these. So there we have it - strategic planning, and strategic plan defined. This is not the end of the story about a definition of strategic planning. As you work with a strategic planning process you may want to understand more about other aspects of strategic planning. There is much more to know about strategic planning! The following outlines other aspects of a comprehensive definition of strategic planning. The question What is strategic planning? will be answered in many ways by different people. Here at Simply Strategic Planning we see strategic planning as a systematic way to anticipate and respond to the challenge of change. The importance of strategic planning is in the small number and the long term impact of the decisions embodied in the strategic plan. These decisions are those required in facing up to the most important challenges facing an organization. These strategic planning issues are characterized by the size of their possible impact on organizational performance and the time span of the impact. The geographic scope and impact may also set issues apart as strategic. Many more organizations of all types and sizes are having to consider this matter in an international context. Global strategic planning is a process adopted by organizations that operate internationally in order to formulate an effective global strategy.

An effective strategic choice process positions an organization for making sustainable strategic decisions. Learn about the five simple components of strategic planning that reduce risk and dramatically improve long-term performance of your organisation. Use strategic planning principles to keep your corporate strategic planning process on track. Formal strategic planning as a group decision making process benefits greatly from formalizing of the procedures involved. Strategic planning and business planning are separate and related, and the idea of merging them under the umbrella strategic business planning is not useful. A persistent problem for some organizations is the difficulty of getting strategic plans implemented. Applied strategic planning blends strategy formulation with the means of managing strategy implementation. Useful strategic planning models include clear procedures for objective setting, option generation, results monitoring, issue clarification, and participant engagement. Corporate level strategy covers the strategic scope of the organization as a whole, and for most organizations is the only strategic plan required. We have explained in detail what strategic planning is, and that leaves us to clarify what we mean by strategy and strategic. A top manager approved decision that has substantial long term effects, and is accompanied by an integral risk analysis is strategic. The Purpose of Planning Strategic planning is intended to accomplish three important tasks:

to clarify the outcomes that an organization wishes to achieve; to select the broad strategies that will enable the organization to to identify ways to measure progress

achieve those outcomes;

In addition, many organizations use the process to affirm their links to important stakeholders by involving them in the creation of the plan. There are many possible approaches to strategic planning. Our preferred approach takes into account current thinking concerning the importance of outcome-based planning and evaluation. In other words, our starting point is the impact your organization will have on your clients and community. Who will be affected by your programs and services and how will they benefit? In general, we will guide you through a process of asking and answering four sets of questions about your organization:

What do you want your organization to accomplish? What will be the impact of your organization if it is successful? Where is your organization today? What are the characteristics of your organization and the environment in which it operates? On what strategies will you focus your energy and resources?

How will you monitor and evaluate your progress? What do you want to accomplish? Our approach to strategic planning begins with the development of what we call the framework policies of mission, vision, and values and the goals that that will direct all organizational activities during the period covered by the plan. This is usually done in a facilitated retreat, involving the Board of Directors and CEO. Many boards invite selected staff and other stakeholders to participate. It generally takes a full day for the group to create the mission, vision, values and goals statements. top of page Where is your organization today? In order to plan for the future, an organization must know where it currently stands and what factors might influence its future. Early in the planning process, therefore, the organization must consider its current strengths and weaknesses and to examine its environment for potential opportunities and problems. Some planners call this a situation analysis or environmental scan. Nathan Garber & Associates will help you select an approach to appropriate to your organizations specific needs. These might include: Critical Issues Review: an analysis of the issues most important to the future of the organization; SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats): an analysis and evaluation of internal conditions and external factors that affect the organization; Force Field Analysis: an analysis of the forces propelling an organization forward and those holding it back; Customer/Stakeholder/Competitor Analysis: identification of those directly or indirectly affected by the agency's actions.

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What strategies will help you to succeed? The point of strategic planning is to develop long-term strategies that use organizational strengths and take advantage of opportunities so that the organization can achieve its goals. Based upon the strategies, short-term operational plans are developed, consisting of measurable, time-limited objectives and the activities necessary to achieve them. Operational plans are normally developed by agency staff. The budget process allocates resources according to the priorities set by the Board of Directors. Strategies and operational plans are the most flexible element of strategic planning and may be adjusted throughout the period covered by the plan in order to respond to changing conditions. Many organizations are now using the "program logic model" approach to develop their strategies. For information about logic models, see below. Nathan Garber & Associates can provide a structured facilitation process to help with the development of strategies and operational plans. How will you monitor your progress? A key element of outcome-based planning is the identification of performance measures or indicators of success (benchmarks or standards to measure progress). Often, these can be difficult to define, particularly for social service organizations and programs aimed at prevention or social change. It is important, however, that consideration be given to measurement and evaluation throughout the planning process. Monitoring of performance is an important part of the Boards role and funders are increasingly requiring performance measures as a condition of funding. In the strategic planning process, performance measures are normally established by staff, sometimes with the assistance of experts in evaluation. top of page The Role of the Consultant Long experience with strategic planning has taught us that no single model of strategic planning that will work for every organization. Accordingly, our goal as consultants is to assist our clients to determine the shortest, most efficient and most economical approach to producing and implementing a strategic plan: Our assistance may take different forms including: providing guidance and training on the planning process; designing surveys and interviews; gathering background information through surveys, interviews and focus groups; facilitating planning meetings and retreats; preparing and presenting interim reports; drafting the strategic planning document; providing an impartial perspective on the planning process.

Nathan Garber & Associates believes in a flexible approach, enabling the process to be modified at key decision-points as required to produce the most meaningful results.

What is strategic planning? Strategic Planning is a management tool that helps an organization focus its energy, to ensure that members of the organization are working toward the same goals, to assess and adjust the organization's direction in response to a changing environment. In short, strategic planning is a disciplined effort to produce fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization is, what it does, and why it does it, with a focus on the future. (Adapted from Bryson's Strategic Planning in Public and Nonprofit Organizations) The process is strategic because it involves preparing the best way to respond to the circumstances of the organization's environment, whether or not its circumstances are known in advance; nonprofits often must respond to dynamic and even hostile environments. Being strategic, then, means being clear about the organization's objectives, being aware of the organization's resources, and incorporating both into being consciously responsive to a dynamic environment. The process is about planning because it involves intentionally setting goals (i.e., choosing a desired future) and developing an approach to achieving those goals. The process is disciplined in that it calls for a certain order and pattern to keep it focused and productive. The process raises a sequence of questions that helps planners examine experience, test assumptions, gather and incorporate information about the present, and anticipate the environment in which the organization will be working in the future. Finally, the process is about fundamental decisions and actions because choices must be made in order to answer the sequence of questions mentioned above. The plan is ultimately no more, and no less, than a set of decisions about what to do, why to do it, and how to do it. Because it is impossible to do everything that needs to be done in this world, strategic planning implies that some organizational decisions and actions are more important than others - and that much of the strategy lies in making the tough decisions about what is most important to achieving organizational success.

Operations: this involves the actual production and delivery of the product or service. In the primary sector this may mean growing the product (e.g. farming) or extracting it (e.g. oil); in the secondary sector this involves activities such as assembly, manufacture and construction and in the tertiary sector this involves providing a service such as tourism, education and insurance. Operational decisions include deciding where to produce, how to produce (e.g. what combination of resources to use and how much to produce yourself compared to how much to buy in), what volume and range of products to produce and what quality and cost targets to achieve. It also involves research and development into new products and processes.

Marketing: the marketing activities of business begin with identifying customer needs. This may be through primary market research (which involves collecting new data e.g. through surveys) or secondary market research (which uses data that already exists such as government statistics or industry surveys). Having identified customers' requirements marketing activities aim to satisfy these needs through ensuring the firm provides the right products, at the right place and price and at the right time. Firstly, a marketing strategy must be decided: for example, managers must decide on what markets to compete in and what range of products to offer. Secondly, the strategy is implemented via the marketing mix. The marketing mix involves the 4Ps: deciding on the price, the product itself, the promotion (what is communicated about the product and how it is communicated) and the place (i.e. how it is distributed from the firm to the customer). Finance: organisations need to raise finance to get started and to invest into new projects. For example, a company may raise finance by selling shares to investors or by taking out a loan. The former involves a loss of control as the number of owners is increased. The latter will incur interest charges as the loan will have to be repaid. Firms also need to set financial targets and allocate money within the business; this is known as budgeting. Budgets will be set for a given period in the future and then compared with the actual outcomes to examine why differences occurred; this is known as variance analysis. Organisations will also produce financial reports to their investors such as balance sheets (which show what a firm owns and owes on a given day) and the profit and loss account (which shows the income and profit of a company over the last year). Human resource management (HRM): all organisations rely on their employees and HRM refers to the way in which people are managed. HRM involves activities such as the recruitment and selection of staff, the training of people and the development and implementation of appropriate reward systems. The nature of these activities can have a big impact on the way people perform. A payment system based on commission, for example, will inevitably make employees focus on sales; a profit sharing scheme might make them focus on costs as well. The way that people are managed will influence whether they turn up for work, how productive they are and their openness to change.